Soccer World - Futsal

A couple key reminders/requests:

1.  BE EXTREMELY NICE TO THE REFEREES

How you treat people in life matters a lot and that's especially important in my futsal league.  I'm hoping parents, coaches, players will treat the referees like you would your kids and friends.  At your job when you make a mistake I'm certain you don't want someone yelling at you.  Here are the rules related to interacting with the referee:

• Unless you are saying something nice, do not say anything at all

• You don't need to "understand" any call.  I've been around enough to know when us coaches/parents ask the referee to help us understand a call we are being rude and essentially asking them to explain/defend themselves because we think they made the wrong call.  Don't do this in my league.

• Your players play worse when you stress them out, so will the referees

• You will disagree with some calls and that's OK, don't mention it to anyone including no one in particular

• If there are some suggestions you have for the referees please email, text, call me, or tell me in person.  They really want to be as good as they can be and I'm happy for you to give ME feedback which I will use to keep coaching them up.  I'll also watch as many games as I can so I can coach and help them too.

• Be the adults so these young referees don't have to

• Defend them - if a parent or other spectator is being rude and making it stressful please handle it.  I can't hear/see everything so I'm relying upon you to ensure things go like they should.

• The results of the game don't matter at all so remember that always.  Many futsal leagues don't record scores and don't have championship games.  I thought this would be fun in the competition but if this causes you to forget why we are doing this (player development and to have fun with soccer) and be rude I'm happy to remove that if we aren't mature enough to handle competition.

• Consequence - if you can't be nice I can't have you in my league - it's too important for me and everyone else whose part of it.  I will refund you the rest of your registration and replace you with a team who is nice so everyone including the referees can have fun.  Sports are meant to be fun and if you are rude that's not fun.  I want this to be a stress free environment for everyone so let's all make this happen.

2.  Be Cool to Everyone

• Be Happy - No yelling or sounding angry - at all to anyone including no one in particular!  Any coach/parent/spectator/player being rude to anybody (including nobody in particular) will be asked by the ref or a coach to leave.  If someone is creating a stressful environment they will need to leave and if they don't your entire team will need to leave so the rest of us can have fun.  Don't ruin it please.  Please help those around you also be nice, especially if you invited them. 

• Be Polite - Coaches, parents, spectators are not allowed to say anything to the other team’s players that would make them feel you are upset in any way.

• Consequence - Any team violating these rules is going to be dropped from the league immediately and I will replace you with a team who is nice.  No warnings, no second chances.  I will refund you the prorated portion of your registration so the rest of us can have fun.  It's too important to me to allow people being rude to play.

• Offensive language - I don't want anybody saying something that might offend people.  Don't swear, be derogatory, or disrespectful in any way.  Parents who bring their kids to the game don't want them hearing rude/foul language.

3.  Time Between Games

I wish I could reserve the courts for longer but I reserved every slot they would allow to not be dedicated to basketball.  In order to let as many teams play as possible I have to be very militant with the schedule.  Games are 41 mins long (20 min halves with 1 min between to switch side).  Games are scheduled every 45 mins.  That leaves 4 mins between games.  I have asked the referees to begin the clock exactly on time whether you are ready or not, to stay on schedule.  Don't complain to them about it - talk to me if you are concerned but I'll likely just say the same thing I'm saying here. No time for warm-ups on the court - do that on the side before your gametime.  If we don't leave the facility immediately upon the last game ending they charge me a big fine which will not be acceptable - and it's 11PM and nobody wants to stay later than that on the last game.  I know you are paying a lot for registration, I'm also paying a lot to reserve the courts and we want to maximize the time/money we have spent on these courts.  So, be prompt.

4.  Waivers

No Waiver No Play - Parents/guardians must fill out the online participation and covid waiver before being allowed to play (link).  I need player name, team name, parent contact info (from a legal perspective to confirm identity) and then they agree to the terms.  Takes about 30 seconds but I'll be checking these before each game the first week or two and if your player's name isn't on the list of those completed then she/he won't be allowed to play. Text them this link right away.

5.  Equipment/surface floor

• It's a basketball court so wear shoes that won't scratch the floor.

• No outside balls - there isn't time to warmup anyway with the ball and they always end up on the court where people are playing and I don't want anyone to get injured by random balls coming into the court

Sessions

Session 1: Nov 1 - Dec 13 (some games Thanksgiving weekend)

Session 2*: Dec 19 - Feb 6 (no games between Christmas and New Years)

Session 3*: Feb 7 - Mar 14 (No games presidents weekend)

*Dates may shift slightly depending on when each previous session ends and if I need to add games to accommodate additional teams

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