Hi everyone, as our upcoming indoor soccer season is fast approaching I wanted to touch base and update you on the status of our soccer program during this crazy year. When I took on the Fort Saskatchewan Soccer President’s position last November, I never thought in a million years that we would be making the kind of decisions we’ve had to make thus far in 2020. The Fort Saskatchewan Soccer Executive Board would like to thank everyone for their patience as we learn to adapt our soccer program to the health and safety measures put in place during the Covid-19 Pandemic. In order to deliver the best possible program that will protect and keep everyone safe, while continuing to develop and keep our kids active and engaged, we have and will continue to liaise with our Tri-County Soccer District, the Alberta Soccer Association, Canada Soccer and Alberta Health Services.
The Fort Saskatchewan Soccer Executive board would like to congratulate our 2019/2020 Indoor teams who had made it to Provincials earlier this year. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 outbreak in March, the Alberta Soccer Association was forced to cancel all of the scheduled tournament games. The following teams that had made it to the Provincial tournament were: U13 Girls tier 3 VanDomsaalar, U13 Boys Davis, U15 Boys Hall, and U15 Boys Weise. Great Job on your season! We are proud of all of you!
As Alberta developed strategies to address the pandemic within our communities, we had hoped to put on a regular outdoor season but as time went by, we realized that it was not going to happen and refunded all of our registered players in full. As an unfortunate result Fort Saskatchewan soccer sustained a considerable loss from the cancelled outdoor season, including RAMP fees / Credit Card charges, as well as previous expenses promoting and setting up the outdoor season prior to the pandemic.
A parent survey in May regarding the possibility of a modified outdoor season, resulted in feedback to the Executive Board, that most families did not want a modified program in August. In an effort to continue with the development of our players and keep our kids engaged and active the decision to host a series of outdoor Technical Training Camps, run by our in-house technical team was made.
Thank you to our great coaches who stepped up to be part of our in-house technical team, many of these coaches have been coaching for Fort Saskatchewan Soccer (FSS) for years now and are a great asset to our players. The idea behind the creation of an FSS Technical Team is that they will be working with all our coaches from U5 to U19 to help build age appropriate drills to build essential skills to play soccer. As we continue to develop the Fort Saskatchewan Soccer Program, we are hoping for consistent and unified coaching from team to team and to teach everyone the age appropriate criteria. These coaches will also be putting on drop in and team building technical sessions, and over the course of the year will have opportunity to work towards getting their provincial licencing. Please welcome our Technical Lead: Ryan Weise, and the rest of the Technical Team. Jessy Smith, Brian Yanch, and Mike McCreedy.
Our July technical training camps have focused on ball skills and ball mastery. In alignment with phase 1 of the Provinces sports participation reopening, each player participated in the training camps working within a marked off 6-foot box on an outdoor field. Temperature and wellness checks for each participating player were conducted and hand sanitizer and masks were made available. Soccer balls were sanitized with Lysol between each session and players were encouraged not to touch the soccer ball with their hands and stay within their marked off box.
Our current August technical training camps have moved into phase 2 with the focus on playing small sided games focusing on individual skills in a team environment with situational based drills. Small sided games will consist of mini scrimmages as well as 1v1, 2v2, and 3v2 drills focusing on both offense and defense. The individual skills will revolve around passing, shooting, receiving, dribbling and a continuation of ball mastery with situational based drills. Soccer balls are sanitized with Lysol between each session and players are encouraged not to touch the soccer ball with their hands.
Upcoming Events
September technical training camps will take place at the RCMP and Mowat rinks, during which the technical team will be running drills preparing each player for the Indoor season. The outdoor rinks will be lined similar to our indoor fields. Again temperature and wellness checks on each player will be conducted, with hand sanitizer and masks being available as needed. Soccer balls will continue to be sanitized with Lysol between each session and players will continue to be encouraged not to touch the soccer ball with their hands. Registration for the September training camps are now open.
On September 12, 2020. Fort Saskatchewan Soccer will be running our annual Bottle Drive, we are encouraging all families to come out and participate and wear your Fort Sask Soccer swag. This event will be a lot of fun and a great Volunteer opportunity that your whole family can partake in. We ask that only one vehicle per family be used for bottle pick up, and that rubber gloves be worn when handling bags. At the JRC, where we will be meeting, we are asking people to please mask up. Rubber gloves will be available when you come to sign in, and the Sherwood Park Bottle Depot will be out to haul the collected bottles back to the depot so they can be counted. As the FSS Executive Board has made the decision not to increase soccer fees this year (in comparison to last year’s fees) money collected from this bottle drive will be very important in order to help cover the losses incurred from a cancelled outdoor soccer season. As it is important to maintain the current level of Fort Saskatchewan Soccer programming, if we DO NOT get enough volunteers, then we will likely have no choice but to cancel the bottle drive, and consider raising our fees. Please come out and support the program, if you have time to help volunteer or bottles to donate, or both your anticipated participation is very much appreciated.
Our upcoming Indoor season is going to be slightly different this year, with the greatest impact being on the Arsenal program. For those of you that have registered already or have been looking at registering, you may have noticed the indoor fee is considerably lower this fall, as a result of our modified programming. All age groups from U11 to U17 will get one ½ pitch practice during the week. The teams will then take to the soccer field at the Dow Centennial Centre on the weekend to scrimmage against each other with a referee. As we continue to remain in phase 2 of the Province’s regulated reopening, the Alberta Soccer Association has mandated that we can only scrimmage in cohorts of 50 players, including coaching teams and bench parents. As a result, we will not be placing teams in EMSA or Sherwood Park, this coming indoor season unless the Alberta Soccer Association in conjunction with Alberta Health Service Regulations. Should the transition to Phase 3 occur parents will be notified and the difference in the fees will be added to your account. The Timbit and Mini Arsenals (U9)’s Programs will remain the same, however coaches will be trying to implement games, drills with as much physical distancing as possible.
We will be asking each team to pick a representative to be the SPOC and that person will be responsible at each practice and game to conduct attendance, and wellness checks. These records will then need to be emailed to Carol @ info@fortsasksoccer.ca. Should any players be experiencing any of the following symptoms, please DO Not bring them to soccer: fever, dry cough, tiredness, aches and pains, sore throat, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis, headache, loss of taste or smell, a rash on skin, or discolouration of fingers or toes, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, loss of speech or movement. Should a player get to soccer practice or a game and experience any of the above noted symptoms they will be asked to go home. If a player becomes ill during the practice or game they will be isolated until a parent can come and get them. Please be aware that masks are now mandatory in all City of Fort Saskatchewan run facilities including the Dow Centennial Centre (DCC). While it is NOT mandatory for the player to wear a mask during the practice or game, it is mandatory for them to wear a mask when coming into the DCC, or when in the public common areas, public washrooms etc. It is mandatory for all spectators to wear masks. All Arsenal player parents are asked to please consider dropping off your child and picking them up for practices. Timbit and Mini Arsenal(U9) parents are asked to consider having only one parent per household at these practices. We understand if this is not possible for your family for whatever reason.
If you are a member of a soccer cohort according to Alberta Soccer you cannot be part of another soccer cohort. If a player wants to switch cohorts, they may do so, but they will need to self-isolate for 14 days first. Alberta Health Services does not recommend you being part of any other cohort. So, as an example if you play school basketball, you can only play school basketball, not basketball and soccer. The reason for this is to be able to trace the virus if it becomes an issue. The more cohorts you belong to the harder it becomes to conduct contact tracing.
I would like to take a minute to recognize the members of our current Fort Saskatchewan Soccer Executive Board, who without their time and effort Fort Saskatchewan Soccer would not exist.
Vice President: Rob Hall
Arsenal Program Director / Technical lead: Ryan Weise
Timbit Program Director: Evan March
Registrar: Deidre Craggs
Treasurer: Quintin Stanczak
Equipment Director: Spencer Hall
Sports Coordinator: Carol Stanczak
I would also like to welcome Mike McCreedy to the Executive Board as our new Sponsorship Director / Technical Trainer.
Of Note: Our Sports Coordinator Carol Stanczak will be working from home for the foreseeable future, so if you should need anything please email her at info@fortsasksoccer.ca or call 780-913-4003 and leave a message or text. Business hours for any inquiries to Carol that you may have will remain the same as what is listed on our website.
Thank you again for all of your continued support for the Fort Saskatchewan Soccer Program. Stay Safe and Healthy! Go Arsenal Go !
Kelly Yanch
President
Fort Saskatchewan Soccer
