"Players ** DON'T ** Take A Knee!"

Coaches:

I know you all think you are doing the right thing by telling players to take a knee when a player is injured, but unfortunately some of you are mis-informed.

When a player is injured and it's not apparent, it's that player who should be told to "take a knee" so that the referee can recognize the injury and whistle to stop play. If a player goes down due to injury and the referee blows his whistle, you don't need to (nor should you) tell the other players to take a knee. If it's cold (such as in a Fall/Winter game, especially at night), you should ensure that your players keep moving their limbs to "stay warm". If it's hot, the players may come to the Touchline for water, or just rest (perhaps on a knee if they prefer). It's the referee's responsibility to ensure that the other players give the injured player space.

I was once lambasted by a U10 coach and parent because I didn't enforce as a referee that the other team "take a knee" while their child was down/injured. They thought I was "not teaching the kids good sportsmanship"... A referee should never do that, it is completely ridiculous and if you watch "experienced play", you'll never see this happen.

I've seen it time and again, and I hope we can let coaches know that it's not something the region recommends or encourages... Coaches, if you don't believe me, check into this one and learn from it -- then educate your parents. Let's advance the region's knowledge of the game.

Game Schedules Discussion

Coaches,

This year, the game schedules I've approved does the following:

1. For U8, it provides 10 regular season games (two are the tournament games). It also provides some regular season night games for the teams that have a bye week, that don't end too late for the younger players.
   
2. For U10 and U12, it adds games to ensure 12 regular season games (two are the tournament games). Again there are regular season night games for the teams that have bye's and there is also a regular season double-header added as close tournament time as we were able to schedule it given all the team. The purpose of the double-headers is to prepare the teams for situations that they'll encounter if they advance to post-season play.

Please read through the schedule. If you have questions or concerns about it, let's discuss them here. We can make modifications to the schedule, if necessary.

Player ID Cards for Upper Divisions

Coaches, instructions for getting your ID cards laminated are on our region's homepage.

Ideas for discussion

Please post your ideas for discussion here.

Welcome

Welcome to the AYSO Region 22 coach blog! If you are a coach and want to be able to author new posts, please email rc@ayso22.org so I can invite set that up for you.