This story can fit 175-225

words.

The purpose of a newsletter

is to provide specialized

information to a targeted

audience. Newsletters can

be a great way to market

your product or service, and

also create credibility and

build your organization’s

identity among peers, mem-

bers, employees, or ven-

dors.

First, determine the audi-

ence of the newsletter. This

could be anyone who might

benefit from the informa-

tion it contains, for exam-

ple, employees or people

interested in purchasing a

product or requesting your

service.

You can compile a mailing

list from business reply

cards, customer informa-

tion sheets, business cards

collected at trade shows, or

membership lists. You

might consider purchasing

a mailing list from a com-

pany.

If you explore the Publisher

catalog, you will find many

publications that match the

style of your newsletter.

Next, establish how much

time and money you can

spend on your newsletter.

These factors will help de-

termine how frequently you

publish the newsletter and

its length. It’s recom-

mended that you publish

your newsletter at least

quarterly so that it’s consid-

ered a consistent source of

information. Your custom-

ers or employees will look

forward to its arrival.

Page 1

Lead Story Headline

Secondary Story Headline

This story can fit 75-125

words.

Your headline is an impor-

tant part of the newsletter

and should be considered

carefully.

In a few words, it should

accurately represent the

contents of the story and

draw readers into the story.

Develop the headline be-

fore you write the story.

This way, the headline will

help you keep the story

focused.

Examples of possible head-

lines include Product Wins

Industry Award, New Prod-

uct Can Save You Time!,

Membership Drive Exceeds

Goals, and New Office

Opens Near You.

Newsletter Date

Caption describing picture or graphic.

B u s i n e s s N a m e

ENews: The WMYSA Whistle

Special points of interest:

Briefly highlight your point of interest here.

Briefly highlight your point of interest here.

Briefly highlight your point of interest here.

Briefly highlight your point of interest here.

Inside Story 2

Inside Story 2

Inside Story 2

Inside Story 3

Inside Story 4

Inside Story 5

Inside Story 6

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

PAGE 2 E NE WS : T HE W M YS A WH IS T LE

December 10, 2014 MSPSP League Spring registration envelope packets available for pick up—

Kalamazoo area: Dana; St. Joseph area: Gil

December 15, 2014 WMYSA Spring Team Commitments and Blackout Dates due.

December 20, 2014 WMYSA Spring Preliminary Team Division Placements

January 1, 2015 MSYSA/WMYSA Transfer Requests between clubs opens (closes 1/31/15)

January 2, 2015 WMYSA Final division placement

January 5, 2015 MSPSP League Spring registration packet due to WMYSA

January 10, 2015 WMYSA preliminary team schedule released

January 11, 2015 WMYSA Board meeting

January 15, 2015 WMYSA final team schedules

January 15, 2015 WMYSA spring player/coach registration begins.

January 31, 2015 MSYSA/WMYSA Transfer Requests between clubs closes

February 27, 2015 Winter Presidents Meeting—Appreciation Banquet (Holiday Inn, Kalamazoo, MI)

2015 WMYSA Spring Pre-season Calendar

Board Members

President: Ken Pope Term Ends: 2016

Vice President: Open Term Ends: 2016

Treasurer: Bill Rhodes Term Ends: 2015

Secretary: Open Term Ends: 2015

Statistician (Disciplinary Chair): Chad Scheel Term Ends: 2015

Clinic Coordinator: David Rice Term Ends: 2015

Communications Director: David Van Sweden Term Ends: 2016

At-Large: Open Term Ends: 2015

At-Large: Mike Matti Term Ends: 2016

Non-Voting Board Member:

WMYSA Administrator/Registrar: Gil Urban

Non-Board Members

WMYSA Assistant Administrator/Scheduler: Dana Pope

WMYSA Administrative Asst/Asst. Registrar: Ann Michaels

Academy Director: Ron Warners

WMYSA Board

What is E News?

Enews is something new WMYSA plans to use so we can better communicate with clubs

and coaches. This is something I felt is an important evolutionary step needed as WMYSA

continues to expand. Moving forward, my goal is to publish in between seasons with the

following type of information:

Calendar of Events, Board Information, Championship Teams, General Reminders, Articles

of Interest, Rules & Regs. Updates, even information regarding topics being discussed for

WMYSA’s future.

We want your feedback at a club level. We are asking you to give feedback to your club presidents so they can

share your thoughts with us. This will allow us to make decisions which fall within the best interest of all clubs,

small and large, new and old. Over the next month, we will be reaching out to all presidents and asking for

feedback on information being discussed in this ENews. We will then discuss what was brought forward at the

presidents meeting so decisions can be made at the March board meeting.

Ken Pope

Website Update Coming Soon

Let’s just say for those of us who feel the WMYSA website is really outdated and provides very little information,

you are 100% correct. But the reason behind why it does not provide the information you need is not what

many people think. Most think the board is simply not using it to update them with information.

The reality is it is extremely difficult to use. I have used and been working on website designs since 2006. I

have used sites ranging from 100% html like ORGsites.com to sites which combine html with basic word proc-

essing like Weebly, Publisher, Dreamweaver, Ishare and others. However, until I recently looked at the design

mode of our site I didn’t realize what a dinosaur it really was. Difficult is an understatement; however, this is

about to change!

We are in the process of getting back into the modern age and need your help. We are moving into a new plat-

form and into modern times. Let us know what it is you want us to include on the site. For example do you

want us to include training opportunities, camps, clinics, articles, forms, etc. In order for us to build our design

we need to know who our audience is and what they want to see. If you have any thoughts or suggestions

about this program, you are encouraged to please submit them through your club president.

PAGE 3 PAGE 3

WMYSA Fall 2014 Champions

Division Team Coached By:

Boys U9 Red SWM Kickers 06 Blue Coach Aaron Soule

Boys U9 Blue Kingdom Select 06 Silver Coach Steve Branch

Boys U10 A Sting 05 Red Coach Michael Johnson

Boys U10 B Marshall Redhawks Coach James Benson

Boys U11 A SWM Kickers 04 Blue Coach John Scouler

Boys U11 B Portage SC 05 Green Coach Brian Boukalik

Boys U12 A Marshall Redhawks 03 Coach Steven DeLong

Boys U12 B SWM Kickers 03 White Coach Brian Chatot

Boys U13 Elite Marshall Redhawks 02 Coach Charles Selinger

Boys U13 White Force 02 Green Coach Jonathan Bush

Boys U14 White Sturgis 00 Coach Francisco Estrada

Division Team Coached By:

Girls U9 White Kingdom Select 06 Silver Coach Julian Allen

Girls U10 A Sting 05 Coach Stephen Small

Girls U10 B FC Elite 05 Coach Andrew Fern

Girls U11 A SWM Kickers 04 Blue Coach Aaron Soule

Girls U11 B SWM Kickers 04 White Coach Joshua Wetzel

Girls U12 Elite Portage SC 03 Green Coach Vu Le

Girls U12 White Sting 03 Red Coach Michael Johnson

Girls 13 B SWM Kickers 02 Coach Andrew Faust

Girls 13/U14 A BC Fire 01 Red Coach Michael Kunji

Girls U14/U15 White Marshall Redhawks 99 Coach Mark Pratley

Girls U17/U19 White Portage SC 97 White Coach Jerry Orwin

PAGE 4 E NE WS : T HE W M YS A WH IS T LE

PAGE 5 PAGE 5

Foundations of Developmental Coaching: Coaching Through The Lines Making the “Technical & Tactical” Part of Soccer Teachable

What do people look at when trying to decide if a coach is good or not? Most people will say a good coach is

someone who knows how to coach talent. They should have strong technical and tactical knowledge, the ability

to effectively manage practice, game environments and believe in the total development of the person, not just

the player.

So what’s the difference between a good coach and a great one? While a good coach is someone who knows

how to coach talent; a great coach is someone who knows how to develop it. The greatest coaches know how

to navigate through the roadblocks of player development in order to maximize each individual player’s devel-

opment, not just some while building team depth and individual strength of character.

Think about it in terms of education. For the most part there were two types of teachers, the good ones and

the great ones. Good teachers may have worked hard to get us to grasp the subject they taught and while their

intentions were pure, our retention rate was minimal. This is because they encountered roadblocks which made

it difficult to connect with us. Then there were the teachers we considered great. They were the ones who

knew how to reach us as students by navigating the roadblocks and made learning enjoyable. As a result, we

retained more knowledge than we did in many of the other classes. They were able to get us to maximize the

development within that subject. It also made us more confident; building on our character and allowing us to

move forward in a positive way rather than giving up.

While USSF & NSCAA have great programs for teaching the skills and drills needed for coaches, they only briefly

touch on the other aspects of dealing with roadblocks. Great coaches need to be able to recognize, react and

adapt a philosophy for reaching each and every player in order to be able to maximize each individual player’s

developmental ability. To be able to do this they need training. WMYSA strongly believes this should be another

tool all coaches receive: training in order to more effectively build upon the technical and tactical knowledge

they provide their players.

WMYSA is in the process of developing such a training program for coaches which would teach them to navi-

gate the roadblocks making the technical and technical part of soccer more teachable. We are looking for

coach’s, managers and parents who are willing to contribute to this program. We would like to be able to ex-

change ideas during the year in order to discuss best practices and how to capture these positive traits and

package them to share and teach to others.

Information will be exchanged via email, conference calls and in person. If you are interested in being part of

this program please feel free to contact me with your information at wmysa-president@outlook.com

PAGE 6 E NE WS : T HE W M YS A WH IS T LE

Many of you may not know this but Red Arrow Director of Coaching

Ernesto Diaz thinks out of the box when it comes to training and is mak-

ing an impact on players and coaches: both inside and outside of the

club.

In addition to being DOC for Red Arrow, he also coaches the boys U9 and

girls U16 teams. Ernesto is currently Head coach of the Varsity Men’s

Paw Paw High School Soccer Program. Previous coaching experience

consist of being the Varsity Men’s Head coach of Bangor High School

from 2009-2012 and coaching with TKO Crew Jr from 2005 to 2009.

One of the recent ideas he has shared with his club is to introduce the

concept of FUNino. FUNino was conceived by the German youth coach-

ing icon Horst Wein and has many positive aspects which is believed to help the younger children rapidly

improve their level of soccer. FUNiño refers to - soccer at the level of the child. Games are played in which teams

defend and attack two wide goals instead of one central goal. The players may only score within an attacking

scoring zone which encourages the players to build the attack and to create more 2v1 opportunities rather than

just kicking the ball forward.

Another concept he brought to Red Arrow and the soccer community is his Soccer Podcast. He regularly

conducts on air interviews, researches and posts articles on Youth Soccer Player Training and Development.

One of his goals is to combine resources in searching to identify what creates the best players in the world.

Feel free to follow him on his Podcast at http://youthsoccerevolution.com . If you have any information you

would like to share or discuss, please email him Ernesto@YouthSoccerEvolution.com

Developmental Recognition

For future editions, the plan is to include each club an opportunity to provide information they would like to share.

The requirements include: the information cannot contain the name of another club or any information the board

feels is inappropriate. It should highlight ideas like club history, coach or program spotlights, etc. WMYSA re-

serves the right to edit as needed.

PAGE 7 PAGE 7

WMYSA College Scholarship Program

WMYSA College Combine

What do you think about a college scholarship program being offered by WMYSA? The primary concept be-

hind the idea of a WMYSA scholarship program is to provide college scholarships to WMYSA players based

on areas such as merit, sportsmanship and community service. This scholarship program would be man-

aged by WMYSA. Scholarship awards would be decided by an independent panel of judges during the

month of April. The awards would most likely be one year scholarships in the amounts of $500 - $1000.

The actual amount and number to be given out would still need to be determined.

Scholarships would be reserved for high school seniors who play in or are on teams sponsored by WMYSA

and who will be attending U.S. accredited colleges and universities. Scholarships would be awarded to help

defray the costs of tuition, books, room and board, and other college expenses. All scholarship checks

would be mailed directly from WMYSA to the financial aid office of the applicable college or university once

supporting materials recognizing attendance have been received.

WMYSA could also take the top two applications and agree to provide them with a recommendation letter

to be used when applying to the MYSA Scholarship. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about this

program, you are encouraged to please submit them

through your club president.

WMYSA wants to continue to find a way to give back to the clubs and our players. In addition to providing

coaches with ongoing training, we feel offering our own college combine would be a great way to give back to the

players within the club. For those of you who don’t know what a college combine is, it is an event, typically run by

a college where they run a one day training camp for players who have registered. Coach from surrounding ar-

eas then come to watch and evaluate the players. This is a great way to get on a college coaches radar.

WMYSA realizes that not every player who wishes to play in college has the opportunity to play in showcase tour-

naments or have a coach who is well versed in the recruitment process. We also know many people don’t want

to spend $100 or more to attend a college combine if they are unsure of how they fit in with the other talent.

This is what WMYSA would like to offer our own college combine. We would enlist the help of a local college

coach to run the camp and invite coaches from Division II, III and NAIA to come and watch. If a fee was charged

it would only be a minimal one. The combine would only be open to players currently registered on a WMYSA or

WMYSA sponsored team.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about this program, you are encouraged to

please submit them through your club president.

On occasion players or coaches may receive a red card. It is the coaches

responsibility to ensure the name of the individual serving the suspension is

crossed off on the game report by the referee. This also includes coaches

names. This is how the league will verify if the sanction was served.

PAGE 8

Red Card Reminders

E NE WS : T HE W M YS A WH IS T LE

The Player Pass Card System (PCS) was designed to give those players who are demonstrating advanced abilities

an opportunity to occasionally play up and gain comfort and experience at the higher levels. This then gives par-

ents and coaches a better opportunity to properly place those players on future teams. It also gives those teams

who are temporally short players due to injury or school events a chance to supplement their roster for that game

with some additional help.

The complaints we have received so far about this program revolves around clubs who have multiple teams at the

same age group. Some feel they have the ability to create hybrid type teams giving them an unfair advantage

within the age divisions. Some teams have been utilizing the PCS as a way to essentially dual roster 5 players.

For example, a club has two teams at the same age playing in an A and B division. They take their top 3 players

from the A team and dual roster them to the B team. They then take the next top 2 players and put them on the B

team and let them pass up to the A team for every game. This then means the B team is starting 5 players who

also play on the A team in every game. It gives them an unfair advantage over the smaller clubs who only have

one team trying to compete in the B division. The other issue is we tend to have is when teams are relying on

dual rosters to meet minimum roster sizes. As a result, when the B team won’t have those 5 players they are re-

scheduling games.

We are looking to make changes in the system. Here are some of the things we are thinking about:

1) Reducing the number of Dual Rosters

2) Changing Minimum Roster limits

3) Changing Player Pass System—increase the numbers—reduce the number of games you can pass to.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about this program, you are encouraged to please submit them through

your club president.

Player Pass Card System Changes

PAGE 9 P AGE 9

Code of Conduct

WMYSA is one of the few leagues which does not operate with a code of conduct. Why is it important?

WMYSA is one of the largest leagues in the state. Yet since we are located on the West side, we still strive to

get the recognition we deserve. In order to get the recognition, we need to have high standards for our board,

clubs and coaches. With standards come expectations which we as a league feel are important as this will

help define who we are and what we stand for. Below is a sample of what we are looking to include.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about this program, you are encouraged to please submit them

through your club president.

All individuals associated with WMYSA (coaches, managers, players, parents and spectators) have a responsi-

bility to promote high standards of behavior in and around the game. In order to maintain this high standard

WMYSA reserves the right to investigate and hold those individuals found to have violated the WMYSA Code of

Conduct accountable for those violations. Violations may include but are not limited to a warning, required

educational training, forfeits, and suspensions up to and including removal from all league activity for a set

determined time frame.

Always keep the best interest, safety and well being of the children as the highest priority.

In both victory and defeat, the behavior shall model grace, dignity and composure.

Stress fair play and good sportsmanship.

Shall model inclusive behavior, actively supporting cultural diversity while opposing all types of

discrimination, including but not limited to, racism and sexism, at all levels of the game.

Show respect to others involved in the game including match officials, opposition, players, coaches,

managers, officials and spectators.

Adhere to the laws and spirit of the game.

Promote Fair Play and high standards of behavior.

Always respect the match official’s decision.

Consistently display high standards of behavior and appearance.

Not enter the field of play without the referee’s permission.

Not engage in public criticism of the match officials.

Not engage in, or tolerate, offensive, insulting or abusive language or behavior.

Encourage each player to accept responsibility for their own behavior and performance.

Not engage in or tolerate any form of bullying.

Coaches shall not incite players, team officials, or spectators into conduct towards officials that is contrary

to the Laws of the Game.

Coaches shall not encourage, condone, or permit any player, team official, or surrogate to violate any

bylaw, rule, or policy of MSYSA or its Member Organizations.

PAGE 10 E NE WS : T HE W M YS A WH IS T LE

As times move forward, so does the soccer community along with everything else. The latest change, we are be-

ginning to notice is the erosion of the number of teams at ages U12 and above. So why is it occurring? I don’t

think it’s just one factor, rather it’s a combination attributing to the problem. For example, we have teams who

have decided to move from WMYSA to MSDSL; some have taken advantage of the new automatic sponsorship

program and are advancing to MSPSP; and others teams which were not granted sponsorship seek sponsorship

elsewhere.

While these are definitely contributing factors, in my opinion, ultimately one of the top reasons is the expansion

of the premier league and the subliminal push from parents and coaches thinking everyone should be there. I

don’t mean to sound harsh, but let’s look at the particulars. Over the years, the Premier League has continued

to accept more and more teams. As a result they have grown from having two premier divisions to adding classic

divisions with some ages having four or more. Basically, it has become much easier for teams to move into Elite

and advance into the premier league.

As this continues to occur WMYSA has to become flexible and start combining age divisions at the U13 and U14

levels. But this comes at a cost. We frequently have teams made up of 11 and 12 year olds playing at the U12

divisions. If they do well in the fall, then in the spring season they periodically request to play in the U13 division.

The problem is its no longer a U13 division, its considered a U14 division and a U11 player is not eligible to play

up in that division as this would be considered a three year play up. The team is therefore trapped in a division

which no longer challenges them. This is just part of a systemic concern expanding to our older divisions. As a

result, if we don’t find a fix before long we will be looking at a single high school division.

So what’s the answer? Do we look at following the premier leagues system of making every team have at least

51% of their players age appropriate for the division they play in? Do we no longer allow players to play up? Do

we limit the number of teams at U13 and above that we agree to sponsor into premier each year? Do we penal-

ize clubs that chose to seek sponsorship elsewhere? Do we move away from Elite and simply utilize premier as a

place our top team can advance to? If so do we utilize a promotion relegation system for teams we sponsor into

premier? All these things would help strengthen the WMYSA divisions, but it the right thing to do? What do you

recommend?

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about this program, you are encouraged to please submit them through

your club president.

Change is not always Good

PAGE 11 P AGE 1 1

WMYSA Revised Club Billing Approach

WMYSA continues to try to find a better way to invoice our clubs. WMYSA

wants it to be simpler for the clubs and make it easier for timely payments.

So the new method has one preseason payment and one post season

payment.

The preseason payment will be due March 1 for the Spring Season and

August 1 for the Fall Season. The preseason payment will be based on the

number of teams in WMYSA or sponsored by WMYSA for MSPSP. The post

payment will be due June 15 for the Spring Season and November 15 for

the Fall Season. Payments are expected to be paid by the due dates.

Preseason payment amounts:

Fall or Spring New MSPSP Team = $625.00 ($550 for MSPSP and $75 for sponsorship affiliation fee)

Spring Returning MSPSP Team = $200

Fall or Spring New WMYSA Select/ Elite U13 and older =$350

Spring Returning WMYSA Select/Elite U13 and older team = $0

Fall or Spring New WMYSA Academy thru Select/Elite U12 =$300

Spring Returning WMYSA Academy thru Select/Elite U12 = $0

The WMYSA Treasurer will provide a preseason invoice after the team commitments are complete. This amount

should not be a surprise since you can calculate it from the above payment amount before even receiving the

invoice.

The WMYSA Treasurer will provide a post season statement a few days after the season which will include itemi-

zation of all the player registration, duals, releases, transfers, late charges, coach integrations, schedule changes,

and any other charges. It will also show the preseason payment with the net amount due WMYSA.

Note:

Our WMYSA sponsored premier teams do not make earlier payment. They make their payment in the preseason

payment.

Gil Urban

WMYSA Administrator

WMYSA New Billing System