Attendance: James Colgan, Kristy Nowak-Lovato, Susie Schillaci, Sharon Seitz, Danielle Zollinger, Rosa Moreno, Tom Roelfs, Lydell Brown, Mike Tamashiro, Mike Brown
Sharon will be stepping down as referee coordinator. James Colgan nominated Mike Tamashiro to be the new referee coordinator. Susie Schillaci seconds the motion. All board members are in favor of the motion.
Last year LAYSL sent out the first annual newsletter. We would like to do this again for this coming year. Requesting pictures of players in action during the season and/or from tournaments.
Lydell discussed the Trace cameras that were purchased for recording games. In the fall a total of 19 games were recorded during the season. With the subscription, you are allowed to have four family members. For the LAYSL subscription, two boys coaches and two girls coaches were added as the family members. There is the option to purchase a family subscription and split between multiple players where four family members are included. This could enable families to go in on a subscription. The game film is recorded by the camera and then downloaded afterwards. The download takes quite a few hours to be completed. The AI program identifies players based on their jersey number. It does well, but doesn’t always identify the correct player. Cost is $1,000 for two cameras per year to lease $500 per camera. The subscription is $300 per year for four coaches to gain access and download highlights.
In the spring there will be 8 boys teams and possibly 4-5 girls teams. Lydell proposes to roll out a schedule in the spring to coordinate game taping. We will propose to set up a training session to ensure all coaches are trained and are able to setup the system.
Equipment: Goals have arrived. One set is at overlook and one is at Pueblo The Overlook goals will eventually be setup on the Dara Jones field. We still need an additional crossbar as they shipped out more ground bars than crossbars. Discussion on if the county has approved the location of placement of the shed at North Mesa field. We would like to have something in writing from the county approving the location of the shed. The cost of the shed will be approximately $4,000 from Home Depot at 10’x12’ size. The proposed placement of the shed will be next to the restrooms at North Mesa field. All recreational gear has been returned. No coaches have stated that they would like to return their gear. Locker is quite full and the shed will help unload a lot of the gear. The plan is to put shelving into the shed to provide organization and separation between the gear.
Recreational program. Fall party was canceled due to the snow. Coaches were able to have individual parties to hand out medals from the season. Parent issue came up again with a special needs player. The parent did not make the program or coaches aware of their need for special needs accommodations. Could we add something at the end of the registration form to ask if there is any additional information that could be provided about your children. The ask would be, “is there anything you want to let us know about your child”?
Director of Recreational Coaching was proposed. About 10 years ago, there was a paid position for a Director of Coaching. The board believes this position was held by Jiri Kubicek. The board has had Rick Flores come up from NMYSA to provide training clinics to coaches. In discussion of what requirements would be needed to be the LAYSL DOC position. Would a C license be needed or would a D license be accepted? D license is typically three months and the C license is about six months. LAYSL fully reimburses D licenses and will cover $500 for C license reimbursement. Coaches would go to the DOC for additional training and the DOC would be a person they can go to for additional help. Provide additional training for all of the coaches. It was also brought up that a DOC position would be best if the individual was focused just on the position and not on additional board positions or coaching individual teams. The comp coordinators should have already passed out information regarding the ODP program and upcoming opportunities for players and the DOC would not need to do this. The discussion was moved towards a Director of Recreational Coaching position and would be a trial run position working with only the recreational teams and their coaches. DORC will connect with the recreational team to help transition players to the pre-competitive team. Mike Tamashiro would like to understand at what ages are appropriate for specific skill levels and what training exercises should be taking place. James Colgan is proposing that Lydell be the DORC for the spring trial period. This is not a board position and is a volunteer position. The board will discuss if this position is working after the spring season is completed. The DORC will help setup training programs for the recreational team alongside the recreational coordinators. Mike Brown seconded the motion and much of the board approved the motion.
Competitive program. Boys competitive program. Parent wrote in that one of the coaches was not aware of how to coach. Another family has voiced issues that the coaching is a bit too serious. Multiple players from the same team have voiced complaints that the coaches are not playing competitively and are making it more fun and less competitive. Mike Brown will reach out to the coaches and discussing the best path forward. The U9/U10 program has a large amount of players. Mike would like to see if they could create a second team. Could we have spring tryouts to establish new teams in the spring? Would like to open a spring only option as well for younger age groups aside from just high school players.
Girls competitive program. Article in the Daily Post regarding U11 and U9/U10 participation in the Socctoberfest tournament. The tournament was highly successful and both teams did very well. The U11 team went to Gaylord Sheppard and were highly successful and ended up winning the tournament. U13/U14 girls team did well in the fall and will continue to play as a U13/U14 team in the spring. For the spring, the girls program will not have an older team due to lack of numbers and players with other commitments. Coach Drew and Coach Susie have been working to see if the older girls could join with other programs and would be leaving LAYSL. The plan is to have the older girls tryout for an NMSA team in Santa Fe that will pull from Pojoaque, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, and possibly Taos. There currently is a Taos Rush team, so that town may not join into this program. There are only about four players from LAYSL that are not planning to do a second sport in the spring. The Santa Fe team is okay with taking on players that are part of multiple sports. These kids would leave LAYSL and would register with Santa Fe in the Northern League. There is the potential for players to play down if they are not at the level to go play in Santa Fe.
Indoor schedule. Three gyms on Friday nights 6-8. Pinon school has a monitor. Aspen and Barranca are also on the schedule for indoor gyms available. Indoor will start right after the winter break.
Field coordinator. Pueblo field with new goals and a massive hole in the center. It is suggested that Pueblo be used east/west to keep players off the center of the field. Volunteer hours, since there are less girls in the league, will volunteer hours required be decreased. Volunteer hours are not based on players and are based on field usage. LAYSL typically submits a factor of two more volunteer hours than required. Did the recreational Allstar game happen? No it did not. For indoor, please emphasize that people take separate shoes to change into so the floor is not wet and there is less chance for slipping and injuries.