The Sentinels

As you will notice, we have broken our program down into the following age groupings - Juniors (4,5,6 years old), Academy I (6,7,8,9 years old) and Academy II (9, 10,11 years old).  This roughly equates to Kinergarten, 1-3 grade and 3-5 grade groupings.  Our older players who are in 6th,7th and 8th grade have the following options available to them:

• Tryout for an FC Pittsburgh Premier Program
  Meant for players committed to the game of soccer who are looking to participate  with other players with a similar commitment level and professional coaching.  These programs will pull players from a broader geography than QV and will cost more money per player;
• Form a Sentinels Team
  Players from within the Sentinels family come together to create a commited team that simply wants to get some games in during the season as a group and they are not terribly interested in developmental progression but just want to play together as a group.  This requires that group identify a coach or coaches who will still report to FC Pittsburgh staff but it will be a much more low key experience.  ORVFC will provide the field, uniforms, league registration platform, referees for home fields but the game management process will need to be handled by the parents.  A minimum of 15 players commited to attending all league games is required.  The cost for this program is equivalent to a Sentinels  Academy program;
• Join FC Pittsburgh Academy
  This is a one night a week training session led by FC Pittsburgh coaches for 6-7 week increments.  The cost is less than $100 and is meant to supplement MS or other sporting activities pursued by the player.  Players from all around the valley will attend this academy.

If you are interested in FC Pittsburgh premier or academy progam, you can find out more information on the FC Pittsburgh website.  If you are interested in the Sentinel's option, we ask that you approach the President of the Sentinels (tfelt@orvfc.org) no later than 45 days prior to the start of the season with 15 players willing to participate and two volunteers willing to coach.  We will then work through all the details with you.

All sessions held at Osborne School will now be accessed through the front lobby door - this includes the weekend sessions.  The school has asked that we not use the bathrooms or water fountain through the rear entrances of the gym.  Instead, they would like us to use the facilities accessed through the school lobby.  Therefore, we will no longer access the gym through the side entrance of the school on the weekends.  We felt that was creating too much confusion for the kids.

I have recieved some requests from families that want to switch the nights they attend during the week in the Academy to accomodate schedule conflicts.  Unfortunately, the only players that can potentially do that will be our 3rd grade group.  For example, 1st graders can stay in the Juniors program (Saturday)  or participate in the Academy (Tue/Thu).  3rd, 4th and 5th graders in the Academy will be training on Mon/Wed nights.  So it doesn't make sense for a 1st grader to join that Mon/Wed group.

However, if you know if you a potential conflict - that is OK.  It is not mandatory for a player to attend every session unless s/he is playing on one of the older travel teams.  All other players are expected to attend on a best efforts basis.

We have set the times for two sessions for our Juniors program at the Sportrak.  You can see those on the calendar.  As registrations come in, we will possibly add in additional time slots as numbers warrant.  For now, you should enter in the Notes section of your player profile which time slot you prefer for your child.  As we move into the middle of March, we will start to send out any updates on who is assigned to which time slot, which group and if there are additional time slots, we will allow people the opportunity to change if those times would suit them better.

ABSOLUTELY!  The FC Pittsburgh/Sentinel partnership will not eliminate the need for volunteer coaches.  Having enough Sentinel coaches to oversee training and match sessions each season is still critical to our model.

The difference will be that FC Pittsburgh coaches will be there to provide all the necessary education and support to the Sentinel coaches.  FC Pittsburgh has designed a complete coach training system that will include session plans and activities tailored to each age group, on-the-field support to help answer questions as they come up during the sessions,  specific program design recommendations to help maximize player development for all children regardless of ability, they will oversee team formation to make sure the players are competing at the correct competitive level and they will set guidelines on formations and the commands used by coaches during matches to help create coaching consistency across the entire program.

The Sentinels program still depends mightily on its coaches - but now those coaches will no longer be on their own to execute the program.  There will be staff of FC Pittsburgh professionals there to guide them every step of the way.

3v3 soccer is ORVFC’s effort to use structure to promote unstructured learning environments.  In this case, soccer is the game and there are only a few rules.  The rest is left to the kids.

Each 3v3 session is a 75 minute event once per week where players in an age group show up and play (3) 20 minute games.  There are 3 to 6 players on each team.  Teams are formed on the fly each week.  Sometimes they are randomly selected.  Sometimes they are formed by the playing styles or by gender.  The point is the players never really know week to week what challenges they will need to overcome.

All 3v3 sessions are played locally (no travel) and we try very hard to hold them at the same time each week.  Players are expected to attend but if they can’t make it for some reason it is OK as teams are formed based on whoever shows up for that given week.

There are 3 players on the field for each team at any given moment.  Substitutions can be performed on the “fly”.  Games are broken into two 10 minute halves with running time.  The game is designed to ensure as many touches on the ball for each player.

We strive for limited coaching during the events.  The primary goal is to let the players figure out what they need to do and to communicate with each other on the field.  There will be times where it is OK for coaches to offer ideas to the players and ask questions that might help the players figure out alternative solutions on their own.  This goal of limited coaching means that any parent can serve as a field monitor during the event.  The parent is there to keep track of scores and to remind the players of the basic rules if necessary.  This means any parent that is going to be there anyway can help us manage the event.  It makes it easier for the parents to help without making a full-season coaching commitment.

After each game, the players on the winning team will receive 3 points, and if it is a tie, all players on both teams receive 1 point.  All players receive 6 points for just attending the event for that week.  We believe that if the player simply shows up, the player will improve by the sheer act of playing and this should be heavily rewarded.  Points are tabulated through the season and players can monitor their progression.

The reason we developed this point system is that we are looking for a way to entice the players to join in.  We are trying to challenge that tendency to just stay inside.  The point system is purposely designed to reward the player that consistently shows up and those that figure out how to win the game.  Sometimes it is through an aggressive playing style but many times you see players outsmarting each other to overcome a playing style.

The reward system of the program is designed to acknowledge that winning is a desired end.  That is the objective of the game itself – to win.  However, the large number of opportunities to perform reinforces that intensity of play during the game itself but minimizes its importance immediately afterwards because the players quickly start a new game against different opponents.  Our hope is that players learn how to win, how to lose and when they come to the field they do the best they can.  Most importantly, they become self-motivated to participate because they gain satisfaction from stepping on the field and playing with their peers.

Important Characteristics of 3v3

• High concentration of touches on the ball for all players
• Promotes player decision-making on the fieldIntense cardiovascular effort
• Frequent transitions back and forth between attack and defense
• Communication between players replaces direction by coaches from the sidelines

Organizational Goals for 3v3

• Promotes the multi-sport athlete
• Provides club with multiple levels of competition within and across age groups
• Players nurture technical skills through large amounts of low pressure repetition
• Access to many different opportunities to play

We have launched a 5 question survey to gather some feedback about the spring season.

You can complete an anonymous survey by clicking on this link:
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2izqi25fvig6omz/start

The survey will remain open until June 12th, 2009.

When we changed the program this past season, we promised that we would gather feedback about what was working and what was not working from the perspective of our membership. We intend to do this after each season through the entire 2009‐2010 playing year.

The survey is anonymous. We will report back to the community on the survey results and any proposed modifications we will make to further align the execution of the program with the expectations we have set for the program.

Transitions are never easy. Many of us who work with the program have already suggested ideas on how to improve the implementation of our program changes for the upcoming season based on what we learned from this past spring.

If you loved the program, let us know. If you have reservations or concerns, let us know.

The only way we can improve what we are doing or to make sure we keep doing what works ‐ is if you tell us.

Thanks for your support of ORVFC and QVRA.

‐T

Tim Felt
Division President
ORVFC
P.O. Box 376
Sewickley, PA 15143
412.741.0171 (voice)
412.535.1744 (emergency)
tfelt@orvfc.org