Board’s Letter
June 2008
As many of you know, we made material changes to our program over the winter. The board has long recognized that there has been an uneven experience for children in our league. Each team has been an island unto itself, with a lack of consistency in coaching curriculum and no coordination of player development from year to year. Professional coaches' expertise has varied, volunteer coaches' training has been spotty, and there has been no Tiburon Peninsula club identity.
After much investigation, discussion, deliberation and a February "Town Hall" meeting, we took the step of moving from being a league of diverse teams and coaching styles to a club with a consistent training curriculum and coordinated coaching philosophy and methodology throughout our recreational and competitive programs.
This "Club" paradigm is common throughout the world. Rather than a collection of individual competitive and recreational teams doing "their own thing," club teams use common training methods, often train together (across team, age and gender), and identify with the club instead of just with their particular team. Instead of many differently named competitive division teams, all take on the parent club's name. It's common, when appropriate, for club teams to enter the same tournaments and root for their sister teams. The idea is to build a club identity and a club esprit de corps.
In fact, priorities are different in a club culture, with the first priority being “player,” followed by “club” and then by “team.” We believe these are the correct priorities and they form the heart of our program. Reflective of this, we changed our name from "League" to "Club" and created a working set of objectives for the betterment of our program.
The Decision to Affiliate with –and now un-affiliate with—the HSC Bulls
In the Fall of 2007, we were introduced to the well-known and respected Honolulu Bulls Soccer Club, which was coincidentally seeking to export their club culture and soccer expertise to other clubs on the mainland. Although initially skeptical, we came to recognize that the values and philosophy of the Bulls were a good fit with our objectives and that they appeared to have a thought-out plan for implementing their affiliation with other clubs. After a lengthy series of interviews, reference checks and site visits—we decided to affiliate with their club.
We hired two former Bulls coaches to bring the Bulls’ program to our community and started out on this new road in March.
Unfortunately, we ran into problems almost right from the start. While we fully anticipated that any change takes time and determination to see through, we found that the Honolulu club had underestimated their ability to provide support to our program and our coaches due to their responsibilities in Honolulu and another new Bulls' program in Georgia and Carolina. So did we.
After three intensive months providing that support ourselves, we accepted that the changes we want for our club were not going to be workable through the Bulls and that we would need to bring about this change internally. Therefore we regretfully ended our formal relationship with the Bulls at the end of May.
We salute the Bulls for their fine program and their vision for exporting it beyond Honolulu. We wish them the best of luck.
What does this mean?
We are pleased to report that our two former Bulls' coaches, Director of Coaching, Craig Nosse, and Technical Director, Bri O'Dowd, have decided to remain with our club and take a leading role in the development of our program.
We remain firmly committed to accomplishing our objectives for the club. Over the course of the coming year, our board will be working with our Director of Coaching, professional coaching staff, managers, and community to further refine our objectives, goals and concrete plans.
Already we are witnessing this change in action.
Anyone watching our spring "Fast Footwork" or goalkeeper clinics is seeing some of the early differences with the club approach. Players from U-10 through U-16 - boys and girls - are training together. The older players are encouraged to take leadership positions, giving the younger ones older role models to follow.
Our professional coaching staff has been meeting regularly to coordinate the training methods for their competitive teams. During the season, each team will be able to draw on the skills and expertise of other staff coaches-- beyond their own individual team coach.
And as the recreational season approaches, our coaching staff will be working closely with our volunteer parent coaches to offer them the kind of training we've always hoped we could deliver, as well as provide enhanced professional skills training for our Rec players of all ages.
Here is some of what we expect our program to provide:
- a focus on the primary goals of each child’s development as a soccer player while helping to instill in them a lifelong love of the game
- encouragement of a sense of Club spirit among all Tiburon Peninsula teams
- a consistent and thorough training curriculum appropriate to all player ages and levels
- on-field training sessions, clinics and camps designed to teach and enhance individual skills
- the provision of professional mentoring and training for both competitive and volunteer coaches
- opportunities for older players to mentor younger players
- sponsorship of a full range of Division I (Select), Division III (Upperhouse) and Division IV (Recreational) teams
- the requirement and/or facilitation for all of our competitive coaches and trainers to earn a National coaching license
The process of culture change is as complex as one might expect and we are recognizing where we need to improve our communication and where we must find and join the best of our old traditions and new concepts. We view these changes as evolutionary rather than revolutionary and will continue to monitor and evaluate this transition as the season progresses. We appreciate your patience and support.
We ask you to join us as we move through this process; we invite your questions, comments and suggestions, and your active participation.
Read our full set of club Objectives here
Sharks
In June we sent emails to all members of the TPSC community and invited them to help us name our club. Dozens of players, parents, coaches, and fans wrote in and helped us choose the name "Sharks" to represent our club. As many people noted, Sharks is a natural for the "Tiburon Peninsula" as the name has a long local history.
From Wikipedia: “Whether Lt. Juan Manuel de Ayala saw a number of sharks near where he anchored the
San Carlos in August 1775, off what is now Angel Island, or whether the tree covered Tiburon Peninsula
looked like a shark we may never know. In any case he named the land Punta del Tiburon, or Shark Point.”
Read some of the many comments here.
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Fees: In response to recent IRS rulings and actions with regard to the status of paid coaches for non-profit sports leagues/clubs, our competitive division coaches are all now W-2 employees (which, for the same reason, is also now the case in the other CYSA clubs). Because of this, coaching compensation has been standardized and we have moved to standardize the fees that competitive teams pay (as in other businesses, salaries are the largest portion of costs).
We surveyed the other local clubs and found that our fees for Upperhouse and Select are in the range of the market. Because fees were so variable in past years from team to team, parents may find their fees this year to be either a bit lower or higher than last year as they adjust to this average fee. However, with the club approach, they will also find that the training and experience will be more consistent from team to team.
For the competitive divisions, second to the coaching expenses is the registration fee. This fee is the primary fee paid by the recreational division players. Here is what our fees are used for.
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Tryouts which began in late February wound down in May with our older U-16 and U-19 teams. Find out more about Division I and III programs here.
Registration nights for the Fall Club soccer were held on May 21st and 29th. We are always on the lookout for Rec coaches; believe me when we tell you that you will have as much fun as your children and will remember the experience forever! You can still signup as a coach or club volunteer by emailing the appropriate age group coordinator. INFO
Check out our photo album of pix from this year and past seasons!
Tiburon, Mill Valley and other clubs sponsor free referee classes each year. Our course will be held in June this year. INFO We encourage young players (12 and up) to join our corps of experienced USSF-licensed referees by taking one of these courses. Licensed referees, even if you haven’t centered or lined a game for years, please dust off those cleats and give us a call or email – we have games requiring all levels of officiating (and the pay is decent). Referees hold an honored and valued position at our games and will continue to be supported by the Board and our community of soccer players, parents, coaches, and fans.
For the fourth year, we will also be offering a Junior Referee program for 11-year-olds who wish to learn more of the rules of the game, and who wish to 'test drive' life as a referee by officiating our U-8 games. This 3-hour course is held the week before the season opens in September. Information on dates and times will be posted in August.
Learn more about all aspects of the game on our award winning website, www.tiburonsoccer.org, which has everything you could want to know about soccer, including schedules, rules, coaching drills and dozens of photos of our local athletes in action! There are also links to many other soccer sites, and so much more.
In addition to our home website, we have a fully on-line scheduling website, mysoccerleague.com, where players and fans can find their favorite TPSC team's schedule and where referees can sign up on-line for their games. (Casual fans can sign in as "guest" - no password. New referees, please contact us for logon instructions.)
Our goal as a board is to give our children the opportunity to enjoy, develop, and thrive in the sport of soccer. To this end, the TPSC is pleased to be a partner of the Positive Coaching Alliance.
Celebrate the game for the cardiovascular health it promotes, mental and physical toughness it demands, the character it develops in victory and defeat, and the lifelong friends it creates with its unique blending of exertion, grass, mud, and fun.
TPSC Board
June 2008
TPSC Tax Status
The TPSC is a 501(c)3 charitable organization
Our tax ID is available through our
treasurer
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