High School Boys
Select Team Tryouts

Boys U15–U18

THURSDAY, FEB. 23^rd 7:30-8:30 PM
SUNDAY, FEB. 26^th 2:00-3:00 PM

At South Sound Stadium
(North Thurston High School Stadium)

600 Sleater-Kinney Rd.  NE.
Lacey WA 98506

PSS Boys U15-U18 Tryout Flier

REGISTER ONLINE:
http://pugetsoundslammers.org/registration/

CONTACTS:
Mike Messenger, Registrar  360-561-6379 or registrar@psspremier.org
Susan Russell, Club Manager  360-269-1527 or pssmanager@psspremier.org

Developing Skills for a Lifetime

Boys & Girls 1st thru 5^th Graders

THURSDAYS
5:30-6:45 PM

BEGINS FEBRUARY 23, 2012
$40 PER MONTH

REGIONAL ATHLETIC COMPLEX
8345 STEILACOOM RD SE, LACEY, WA 98503

PSS Spring Soccer Academy Flier

REGISTER ONLINE:
http://pugetsoundslammers.org/ registration/

CONTACTS:

Mike Messenger, Registrar  360-561-6379 or registrar@psspremier.org
Susan Russell, Club Manager  360-269-1527 or pssmanager@psspremier.org

We hope you and your children have enjoyed our Winter Academy and that your child’s soccer skills have improved, no matter what skill level they started with. I know our coaches, board members and club volunteers have enjoyed putting the Academy on and working with you and your kids and we appreciate you giving us that opportunity.

Many of you have asked us “What’s next?” In order to have that conversation with you, for parents that are new to our Club, we would like to have a parents meeting Monday night about 5:30 – 5:45, right after we get the kids on the field and working on their soccer skills. Our Director of Player Development Jeff Lenherr will visit with you on our upcoming Spring Academy and some team playing opportunities that may be available this spring, depending upon your child’s age. (If you can’t make the 5:30 meeting, don’t worry, come a little early to pick your child up and we will be available to share the information with you then.)

You will also have the opportunity of watching Ziad Khoury, the Puget Sound Slammers Director of Curriculum, co-founder of Slammers FC in Southern California, and one of the premier youth soccer coaches in the nation, having won multiple National Championships as a coach and being named the Nike National Youth Soccer Coach of the Year multiple times. Ziad is absolutely amazing to watch, and we are fortunate to have him advising and training our coaches on his curriculum and coaching techniques.

We look forward to seeing you!

Dave Warren

President

Puget Sound Slammers

We are very excited to announce that Ziad Khoury from the Slammers FC program will be here next week to provide training for our coaches and players. Ziad has been named the Nike National Coach of the year, has coached several National Championship teams and is one of the top youth coaches in the nation – as well as being the Puget Sound Slammers Director of Curriculum.

In order to all the teams the chance to train with Ziad, we have put together a team training schedule for next week, which may vary from your normal training nights. Here is the schedule we have set up for Ziad.

Monday:

5:30 to 6:30 pm Winter Academy

6:30 to 7:45 pm Girls U-12 and U-13

Tuesday:

5:30 to 7:00 pm Girls U-11 and U-12

7:00 to 8:30 pm Girls U-15 and Boys U-15

Wednesday:

5:30 to 7:00 pm Girls U-13

7:00 to 8:30 pm Boys U-15

Thursday:

5:30 to 7:00 pm Girls U-11 and U-12

7:00 to 8:30 pm Girls U-15

We encourage parents to come and watch the training sessions as Ziad does a magnificent job of training and you can see the curriculum is all about.

Club Update:

We have been very busy over the last month working on many of the items we announced in our last newsletter and also items that were communicated to us through recent feedback from club members.

Coaches Manuals:

The coaches manuals have been completed and handed out to most of the coaches. This is something the club and coaches have been asking for and now it is a reality. It has all the information needed for our coaches to continue to improve their coaching abilities and manage their teams in a more productive manner. They will be updated monthly as new information becomes available.

Winter Academy:

The winter academy has been an incredible success with approximately 140 participants.  The turnout was far more than we anticipated, so it was learning experience for our club and coaches to manage this many players.  Next year we will make adjustments, so that we will have a higher coach per player ratio, which will allow us to provide more individual attention to participants..

Teams:

Most teams are just beginning their Spring season and we hope to have all the schedules available on the website this season. It seems the training has been going well for the teams with the conversations we have had with the other coaches in the club.

Looking forward, we are working on the following items:

We are working on finalizing a system in which we are using the curriculum that Walid Khoury, the Puget Sound Slammers Director of Coaching and Ziad can provide us and being able to pass it on to our coaches and players. Getting the coaching manuals was a big first step.  In addition, the arrival of Ziad for 4 days will be great training for our coaches and we will be working on videotaping his Slammers FC sessions, so that our coaches will be able to watch training sessions first hand.

We plan on videotaping many of our games this Spring season, so we can review our teams’ progress with PSS, Walid and Ziad and get input from them as to what should be the focus on the individual players and teams.

We will be looking to have parent meetings again with the individual teams to get your feedback on how we can continue to provide a great soccer experience for our players.

We are hoping to begin goalkeeper training in the next week. Our keeper trainer had surgery and is hoping to be back ready to go in the next week. We will be sending out emails to the coaches when the goalkeeper training will be available as soon as we hear.

Last, we will be working on a tryout schedule, which is anticipated to be towards the end of April, except for boys high school, which will be at the end of February.  We also hope to announce fees for next year, which are anticipated to go DOWN.  We are working really hard to provide a quality premier soccer experience for a reasonable price.

As always we love to hear feedback whether it is positive or negative so please

Do not hesitate to express your concerns or comments to Jeff Lenherr jeff@lenherrsurveying.com or Walker John walker@seabrookwa.com

Thank you for all your support during this time of transition.

This involves the boys and girls high school leagues, which had begun league matches last week.

If conditions are reasonable and safe, and both teams agree to play the game, teams can continue to play their games over this weekend. Teams need to make the decision on a case-by-case basis.

For more information on weather, click TheTimes.

All of the matches cancelled this weekend will be rescheduled over the coming months. We’ll need all teams to be somewhat flexible in the rescheduling.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

With the weather forecast predicting potential snow throughout the day and some coaches/families living a ways out of town, we are going to cancel tonight’s academy session and extend by adding a fourth session on Monday, February 6th.

Drive safe out there, enjoy your evening at home, and we look forward to seeing you next Monday!

Puget Sound Slammers

We just wanted to update you on what we have actively been working on in the past couple weeks. We are confident that in the upcoming weeks you will be noticing many changes within our club that will have a very positive effect on our players. The following are some of the items you can look forward to in the coming months:

The first draft of the Puget Sound Slammers coaches manual has been completed and sent to PSS Director of Coaching Walid Khoury for review. This PSS Coaching manual will be used as template for consistency within our coaching ranks and also will be filled with many of the things that make Walid and Ziad Khoury’s coaching such a success. For example, it has many of the drills they are currently using in their highly successful program and will be constantly updated as new drills are developed. It will also include many of the coaching points and consistent terms that Walid finds so important and that will make us unique. The outcome of this manual should be a consistency of training sessions and development of a curriculum and culture based on the highly successful program developed by Walid and Ziad.

We are currently planning a winter Academy that will be held for 4 consecutive Monday’s in January, starting on January 9th and going through January 30th. This Academy will be free to all PSS  players and will be $20 for non-PSS  players. Non players will also receive a Puget Sound Slammer t-shirt for their participation in our Academy. We would like to strongly encourage our players to get their friends and family out to this Academy and will be rewarding the top 3 players that recruit the most new players to our camp. Top prize will be a new Puget Sound Slammers jacket and second and third will also get nice prizes, so let’s get out and spread the word. Non PSS players will also be receiving a Puget Sound Slammers T-shirt. The Academy will be held at the regional athletic complex field one. Flyers for this event will be available shortly.

Right now, we have tentatively scheduled Ziad Khoury to be training with our Puget Sound Slammers teams the first week of February. We will be making a schedule of training sessions to try to assure that each team will have two training sessions with Ziad while he is here. Ziad is a phenomenal coach. He has won multiple national championships and numerous coaching awards. If you have an opportunity to attend one of his training sessions, we strongly encourage you to do so, as you will see what we are all about. As soon as we have confirmed his schedule, we will be sending out a training schedule for all of our teams

Another new feature to our Club will be the Player of the Month competition.  Each month, our coaches will be nominating a player from their team that they believe has represented the dedication, hard work, attitude, skills and leadership that it takes to be a Puget Sound Slammer. Each coach will send a summary of the why they believe their player is disserving of this award.  The winners will then be voted on by a group of coaches and Board members and two players each month will be recognized as the Players of the Month. We will have a bio and picture of the players posted on the website. They will receive a certificate and small prize for their hard work.

In order to help improve our communication and also keep the PSS  families up to speed on the current events, we will be sending out a monthly news letter to all members of the Club.  If you feel that there is a special story or event that you deem to be interesting or relevant to other teams in the club, then we strongly encourage you to send your ideas to Jeff Lenherr or Walker John for inclusion in the newsletter.

Last, we are looking to add a challenge move to the website. This will be a video of a soccer move that will be posted to the website at the beginning of each month. Our players will then have the opportunity to perfect the move at home or in their free time.  At the end of each month, a competition will be held to see who has best perfected the move.  The winner will then get a move of the month certificate and a small prize.

We are committed to providing every player in this club a great soccer experience. We are going to do everything we can to exceed all Player and Parent expectations as a club. We are committed to building the strongest soccer players in the area, with a Club that is committed to a family atmosphere that we can all be proud to be a part of.

If anyone has any questions or concerns you can contact Jeff Lenherr at (360) 310-0208 or email at jeffl@lenherrsurveying.com or Walker John at (360) 620-6185 or email walker@seabrookwa.com

Thank you

(Winter Soccer Academy Flier)

Puget Sound Slammers January Winter Soccer Academy

Boys & Girls Ages 7-13

Mondays 5:30 – 7:30 pm

January 9, 16, 23 and 30

$20 For All 4 Nights

with free Academy T-shirt

(Free for current club members – registration required)

Regional Athletic Complex
(Lighted Turf Field)

8345 Steilacoom Rd SE, Lacey, WA 98503

Register Online:
www.PugetSoundSlammers.org
Contacts: Diana Rees, Registrar  360-280-7542 or registrar@psspremier.org
Susan Russell, Club Manager  360-269-1527 or pssmanager@pssprernier.org

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We are way overdue to update the Club and communicate some of the changes in the Club that you have no doubt heard bits and pieces.

First, we are sad to report that, after many years in the Club as Coach, Co-Director of Coaching and Board Member, Steve Dobosz has announced that he is leaving the Club effective at the end of December. He truly wants to spend more time with his family – his grandson and granddaughter who are both in their formative soccer years in Tacoma and Gig Harbor. Steve has told me that he wants to focus his time to help coach his grandkids and dedicate time to the Sister Cities Association that he is heavily involved with. We will announce his replacement for the GU12s spring season shortly and we are confident the team will be pleased. We would like to thank Steve for the many years of service and dedication to the club and the positive impact he had on all the kids and coaches that he coached.

Next, we are very pleased to announce our new management team. Walid Khoury, founder of Slammers FC and our Co-Director of Curriculum has agreed to take a more active role in our Club and step up as our Director of Coaching. Although most of you know of Walid and his accomplishments, they are worth repeating here in abbreviated form. Slammers FC has been ranked in the top ten youth soccer clubs in the nation for the last decade. Walid and his brother Ziad have both won the Nike National Coach of the Year Award multiple times and both have multiple national championships to their credit, both boys and girls. All of that is well and good, but what our parents, players, coaches and board members want to see is those results demonstrated in our curriculum to help our kids improve their soccer skills in a measurable way.

To that end, to assist Walid here “on the ground”, we have named Jeff Lenherr, a ten year coach with the Club and current coach of our GU13 team, as our Director of Player Development and Walker John, our VP for Administration and Coach of our GU11 Black team as Director of Operations. Jeff and Walker will be collecting game reports from our coaches on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and observing trainings and games, talking with parents, and communicating with Walid on a weekly or more frequent basis. With Walid’s input and direction, coaches will then be given drills and instructions to target and correct deficiencies and improve on strengths. There will be more on the ground changes than described here, but rather than get into detail, we want you to hold us accountable and to give us feedback, both positive and critical feedback, as we implement them.

Third, we understand that communication from the Club has been deficient in the last few months and we intend to improve that communication as part of our changes. Expect to see Jeff and/or Walker visiting with your team parents (if they haven’t already) and discussing our new direction and getting feedback. These visits will take place on a regular basis. We also intend to send out regular club emails communicating the changes that we are implementing. If at any time you want to communicate a concern or “good job” (we want to hear those too!), please don’t hesitate to call Jeff Lenherr at 360.310.0208 or jeffl@lenherrsurveying.com , Walker John at 360-620-6185 or walker@seabrookwa.com, or Dave Warren, Club President at 360.951.5551 or dp.warren@comcast.net . We want every parent to feel absolutely comfortable communicating with any of these representatives of the Club if you have questions, comments, concerns.

Coaching Change
And as most of the parents of our GU15 team are aware, we were not able to reach agreement with Adam Fenster to continue coaching with the Club. We are very pleased to announce that Kate Green will be taking over the Head Coaching duties for our GU15s.

Looking for Volunteers
We are also losing several board members at the expiration of their terms at the end of December. We are looking for dedicated volunteers for Club Registrar and other board positions in Fundraising and Team Development and possibly Treasurer. Please contact Dave Warren at 360.951.5551 if you have any interest and I will be glad to discuss opportunities on our Board.

Dave Warren
President
Puget Sound Slammers