Important Note:  NWUnited is looking to fill the position of Parent Liaison.  If you are interested in the discussing this opportunity to help the Club, please contact Secretary KellyMiddleton:  email

The Garrett Chase Scholarship is awarded to a male athlete.  The Mike Judd Scholarship is awarded to a female athlete.  Scholarship applications and information are available here:

• Garrett Chase
• Mike Judd

Applications should be submitted to:  NWUnited FC; P.O. Box 577; Mt. Vernon, WA 98273.  They should include a current resumé and a letter describing how the candidate’s qualifications and perspectives on club development address the requirements and objectives set out in the two documents cited above.

The NWUnited Executive Board will meet with qualified candidates to explain further our objectives and discuss candidate qualifications and perspectives.  Candidates are encouraged in the application and in subsequent interviews to propose alternative ways of achieving club objectives.

Click here for a good example of an ACL Injury Prevention Program.  This one is courtesy of the Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Group.

We also have official Northwest United fleece blankets with nylon backing.  For a limited time only these items will be available, arriving before Christmas!

Your order will help support the NWU FC U14 team members who are going to play in the Donasti Cup in Spain this summer.
See attached order form.

Any questions, please email  Heather Swenson.   Please mail orders to:

Heather Swenson
501 Talcott St.
Sedro Woolley, WA 98284

Notes from the Board meeting of November 23.

Parent Liaison Report: Bob reminds coaches and managers that when players are invited to play for other teams, the coach needs to discuss the invitation with the player’s current coach. This is both a matter or courtesy and of avoiding compromising the future of the other team. Also, coaches should not discuss with any player transfer to his or her team without first discussing the possibility with the player’s coach. This is a Club expectation of treatment of players and communication with other coaches.

Communications: The online evaluation forms are almost ready for distribution to parents.

Treasurer: The Club’s financial books are being transitioned to Marlene Whisonant. Everything is set up on Quicken.

Field Use: The contract with the high school for lights is still being worked out. Teams will not have to pay for lights for State Cup. In order for this to work effectively, teams will have to practice when it is optimal for the Club. So, you may not always get your preferred day/time. Contact Sarah Minton for practice times for State Cup. sminton@fidalgo.net

If anyone would like to schedule games at the high school, it is about $30 per hour, or $50 per hour with lights. Contact Duane Henson for scheduling games at the high school. duanehenson@yahoo.com Skagit River Park (SRP) remains as a free venue through State Cup for NWU teams.

On December 5^th and 6^th, President’s Cup will be held at SRP in Burlington. NWU teams will not be able to use the fields at all during this weekend. Mount Vernon High School fields will be utilized as the home fields for that weekend. If you have a game on this weekend and have not already contacted/been contacted Duane, please email Duane (see address above) to set that up. Teams will not have to pay to play at the high school during that weekend.

Referee Assignor: Due to a spate of recent red cards, we would like to remind coaches that a coach’s behavior dictates parent and player behavior. Coaches are reminded to keep themselves under control. Also, if your sideline is out of control, get them to behave. Bernd had the suggestion that each coach should have a helper to give a signal that things are getting out of hand. A pat on the shoulder, a word, or other signal may be useful to a coach to get him/her to bring their emotions in check. Monico reminded everyone that yelling at a ref really won’t work. He/she won’t be approachable if they have been yelled at during the game, and calls are usually not overturned, plus it sets a bad example as outlined above.

Coaching Committee: Christian Warman will take over Bear Ibarra’s team, with Gary Warman’s help. Parents are encouraged to put names in for future coaches. We are starting to set up for next year and contact info for potential coaching candidates would be very useful.

Tryouts: We are looking at doing tryouts for BU16-BU19 sometime during the beginning of March. All other age groups will occur the first or second week in May.

Contract Committee: We would like to hire a Director to aid in the development of players and coaches. A Director would help with coaching, player movement, and aid in providing continuity between teams and within the club. Finances for this proposal come from the PSSA contract modification. We have taken out position specific trainings, reduced trainings, and changed the tournament contract to a 75/25 split. We would not have to raise fees very much. Duane thought that it would be around $50 per player. It was asked if the Director would coach and no decision was made. A lot will depend on the individual hired. Pros and cons for each side were discussed. The general feeling was that this is a good idea. A Director works great for teams in other clubs and examples were given. The benefit would be a better club feel and coaches working in the same direction. Darren Bell suggested that the Director be required to make a monthly report at board meetings. A motion was made by Jame to allow the Executive Committee to proceed in posting the job description and move forward in looking at candidates. The motion was seconded by Carolyn Casey. The motion passed unanimously.

PSSA Contract: Last year, PSSA did: pretryout clinics, tryouts, trainings, and position specific trainings. This year, the proposal is for: tryouts, and trainings, but not as many.

Tournament Report: After negotiations with Todd are completed, the tournament director will be submitting applications to the State. The schedule is looking like:

Late May – Skagit River Cup (PSSA, pending contract discussion)
Late June – Firecracker (PSSA, pending contract discussion)

July – Garrett Chase Memorial Tournament (Duane)Sept. – Labor Day Kick (Chuck)

County Rep Report: Rec games are done. The President’s Cup (a recreational tournament) will be held at SRP on Dec. 5 and 6, as mentioned previously.

Burlington is undergoing a major financial crisis and as part of that crisis, watering of SRP fields has been severely curtailed. Darren mentioned the sorry state of the fields last summer and Chuck agreed it is a problem. A solution is difficult as they must use PUD water to do the watering and it is an expensive endeavor. ($30-$50,000)

Oak Harbor may be joining SkVYSA.

New Business: Jame mentioned that the Spain trip teams are selling $5 cards for Papa Murphy’s. If anyone is interested, contact Jame at witzels@netzero.net.

Jackets and polos have been ordered, and Drew is working with the rep to get delivery. Once the items are delivered to Drew, he has promised a one-day turnaround and will get them to us quickly. Extras have been ordered.

U9/U10: The program being discussed is a working model only. We are still in the working phases and welcome comments and ideas. This program is being developed to bring in more players to NWU, to provide player and coach development, and to address the needs of the soccer community. One issue we had with last year’s program was cost. With only 14 kids on a roster, splitting the cost ended up with kids paying a lot. With our proposed system, the cost would be split among more players. By bringing kids in early, we are building a stronger club.

Monico talked about a “triple whammy”:

• Every kid gets the benefit of a good trainer

• Each assistant gets the benefit of working under the trainer

• The cost is broken down among more kids to make the transition from rec to select less stressful financially.

There was lots of discussion. Some questions that arose:

• Possible problems with sending kids back to rec

  • Stacking of teams – how to regulate (U10)

  • Hurt feelings about not staying with the select group (U11)

• By not assigning players to teams right away, there may be uncertainty and unease among parents and players. Families don’t like to feel like they are in limbo.

• Cost is still a question – a lot depends on who we get for a trainer for each group, and of course numbers of players.

• Uniforms were an issue. Some people didn’t like the idea of only having t-shirts. (Refer to discussion of cost.)

No decisions were made, but a conversation has begun to figure out the logistics of this very important program. The Executive Committee will be discussing this issue further and interested parties may come to these discussions. Stay tuned for more info.

]]> http://www.nwunited.org/archives/1325/feed 0 http://www.nwunited.org/archives/1289 http://www.nwunited.org/archives/1289#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:23:26 +0000 admin http://www.nwunited.org/?p=1289 Click here for NWUnited team standings in State and District Leagues

Mmanagers should carry signed copies of the Concussion Information Sheet, along with their signed “consent to treat” forms, to every game and practice.

Thanks