We have the same practice days / times / fields as in the fall. (Yes!) We start the week of February 7th and continue through the week of May 16th, with a spring break the week of April 4th.
| Day | Location | Field | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mondays | United Quest Park | UQP field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM |
| Tuesdays | Metro North Park | MNP "TOPS" field | 4:45 - 6:00 PM (through March 8) 5:00 - 6:15 PM (starts March 15) 6:25 - 7:00 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins March 15) |
| Wednesdays | United Quest Park | UQP field 7 | 5:30 - 6:45 PM 6:55 - 7:30 PM optional goalkeeper training (begins February 16) |
| Thursdays | Metro North Park | MNP "TOPS" field | 4:45 - 6:00 PM (through March 10) 5:00 - 6:15 PM (starts March 17) |
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 mid-50s or higher.
We use our Junior Academy Girls Twitter account (https://twitter.com/nasajracadg) to post any late-breaking weather-related schedule changes. We usually only post about exceptions to our standard schedule. So if there’s no update, it means practice as usual. 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.
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.
School winter break (week of Feb. 21):
Cobb and Cherokee schools have a 2022 winter break the week of February 21st. 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 4):
We typically switch from our regular schedule to a reduced “come if you can” schedule during school spring break. 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 for any late-breaking weather-related schedule changes: https://twitter.com/nasajracadg. You don’t need a Twitter account of your own to check our Twitter feed.
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 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 26th or March 5th and run through the weekend of May 14-16.
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 21-22, 2022. 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 2014 birth years. (We’ve found that few Junior Academy or pre-Academy programs at other clubs include 2015 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