We start spring 2021 practices the week of February 1st!
We have the same practice days / times / fields as in the fall. (Yes!) We start the week of February 1st and continue through the week of May 17th, with a spring break the week of April 5th.
| Day | Location | Field | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mondays | United Quest Park | UQP field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM (see UQP note below) |
| Tuesdays | Metro North Park | MNP "TOPS" field | 4:45 - 6:00 PM (through Mar 9) 5:00 - 6:15 PM (starts Mar 16) 6:25 - 7:00 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins March 16) |
| Wednesdays | United Quest Park | UQP field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM (see UQP note below) 6:55 - 7:30 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins February 24) |
| Thursdays | Metro North Park | MNP "TOPS" field | 4:45 - 6:00 PM (through Mar 11) 5:00 - 6:15 PM (starts Mar 18) |
Pre-season checklist:
- Before we get started, please take 5-10 minutes with your daughter to review our practice session guidelines: what to wear (and what not wear, for example, earrings and jewelry), what to bring, and so forth.
- Please check your daughter’s warm-up gear to make sure her initials and uniform number are marked (and still legible) on internal tags / labels. Warm-up jackets and pants are easily misplaced, but if labeled, they usually find their way back to the owner pretty quickly. Please also make sure her backpack, water bottle and ball have legible IDs.
Which / how many practices to attend?
We ask the girls to attend two sessions each week. For most players, these will be the two sessions at their home park. If a player has a schedule conflict with a session at her home park, she’s welcome to attend a session at the other park, no reservation needed. (We’ll make sure she feels welcome!) If a player wants to attend extra practices, she’s welcome to do so.
Arrival time / early-bird scrimmage:
Girls are welcome to arrive early! We typically have the field setup 15-20 minutes ahead of time, and we often have an informal “early bird” scrimmage before our official practice start time.
Bad weather procedures:
Waterlogged fields, lightning or unsafe driving conditions due to winter storms can cause problems. We generally practice in cold weather as long as the wind chill doesn’t drop below 20 degrees. (Link: tips on cold weather attire). We often practice in the rain when temperatures are in the 50s or higher. We use our Junior Academy Twitter account and phone hot-line for any late-breaking weather-related schedule changes. We usually only post about exceptions to our usual schedule. So if there’s no update, it means practice as usual.
- Junior Academy Girls Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nasajracadg
- Junior Academy Girls phone hot-line: 1-866-206-9066, ext. 8870
For more info about how we deal with bad weather, please check our weather link.
United Quest Park practice field:
Our usual practice field is Quest Park field 7, which is natural grass. When UQP field 7 is closed (not uncommon during wet weather), we usually try to reserve the “puddle jumper court” instead of canceling. (This is the outdoor rink play area on the left as you drive toward the Quest Park clubhouse.)
The puddle jumper court has an asphalt surface covered by re-purposed artificial turf. Turf shoes are the best footwear for this surface, with sneakers the 2nd choice. Soccer cleats aren’t recommended.
Update from Feb. 3: The puddle jumper lights were recently damaged by a tree branch during a windstorm. Replacement parts have been ordered, but a fix date is not yet available. We’re OK if grass fields are open, because field 7 has lights that still work. But we’ll face a daylight issue if we use the puddle jumper court.
The court gets dark around 6:15, so in order to have a full practice, we would need to start at 5:00 PM. NTH usually makes the decision to open / close fields by 3:30 PM. We’ll post our Junior Academy Girls practice status by 4 PM (see “Bad weather” link above). This issue goes away once the lights are fixed, or Daylight Saving Time goes into effect (March 14).
COVID-19 protocols:
COVID-19 fatigue is common, but we ask everyone to stay vigilant to its potential dangers and take these basic precautions:
- If your daughter (or you) feels sick, stay home!
- We ask players to avoid hugs, high-5s or handshakes with teammates.
- Players are not expected to wear masks while practicing and playing.
- Players should not share drinks or snacks with their teammates.
- Coaches are required to mask up while at the park.
- Parents and other family members are expected to wear masks and observe social distancing recommendations.
School winter break (week of Feb. 15):
Cobb and Cherokee schools have a 2021 winter break the week of February 15th. The Junior Academy Girls will practice as usual for the kids who are staying in town. If your daughter will miss any of our sessions due to family travel, just e-mail the coach.
Spring break (week of April 5):
We typically switch from our regular schedule to a reduced “come if you can” schedule during school spring breaks. We’ll poll families about spring break availability in later March.
Other pre-season notes:
Staying current:
Our communication channels are the same as in the fall.
We encourage you to check our web site twice a week now that we’re getting back in season. We’ll use it as our primary communication channel. Tip: Bookmark our News page: https://www.nasaacademygirls.org/nasa-tophat-junior-academy-girls/news/ and you’ll be a click or two away from most information.
We’ll use our Junior Academy Twitter account and phone hot-line for any late-breaking weather-related schedule changes.
- Junior Academy Girls Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nasajracadg
- Junior Academy Girls phone hot-line: 1-866-206-9066, ext. 8870
Quest weather effect:
This note is for players who practice at United Quest Park. During the winter and early spring, temperatures at Quest and Noonday tend to feel 5-10 degrees colder than the true temperature due to the damp chill coming off Noonday Creek. Whatever the weather is at your house, have your daughter dress for 10 degrees colder and she’ll be prepared. Link: tips on cold weather attire
Playing at home:
Starting week 2, we’ll give the girls 1-2 suggested play at home topics. These will cover basic and intermediate skills, starting with dribbling. Our goal is for every Junior Academy player to be a competent (and confident) dribbler: able to use multiple surfaces of both feet, able to change directions and speed while keeping control of the ball, and be able to escape from an opponent. If your daughter wants to get a head start, here are some activity links:
- Basic dribbling skills: www.nasaacademygirls.org/playing-at-home/dribbling/basics/
- Fun 1v1 dribbling games: www.nasaacademygirls.org/playing-at-home/dribbling/games/
Game day schedule:
We typically receive our game day schedule in mid-February. Using prior years as a guideline, we expect game days to start either February 27th or March 6th and run through the weekend of May 15-16.
Schedule conflicts:
Please let us know as early as possible about any game day schedule conflicts. (E-mail to Ward is the preferred method.) We can work around most conflicts as long as we know about them by the weekend ahead of the game day.
Tournaments:
We won’t play any 2-day pre-season tournaments. We currently plan to play in a NTH-sponsored tournament the weekend of May 22-23, 2021. This will likely be a big tournament, hosting 100+ teams from local and other areas, ages U8 up through U19, with each team playing three or four games over the weekend. This will be our final event of the spring season.
Depending on the number of U8 entrants, we may roster all of our girls, or only the girls with 2013 birth years. (We’ve found that few Junior Academy or pre-Academy programs at other clubs include 2014 girls.) Link: about tournaments
Birth Certificate / Medical Consent forms:
We still need to collect birth certificates and medical consent forms for some of our players. If you didn’t submit these during the summer or fall, please do so in February. Link: registration paperwork