Missed volunteer training or want electronic copies of all the info we handed out? Here's what you need: 1. Read these very important documents |
4. Get pumped for next week by practicing this year's Soccer Nights dance!
5. Equipment Transfer TOMORROW (Sunday) - 1:30pm at the Greater Boston Vineyard!
Each year on the Sunday before Soccer Nights we transport all of the equipment to the field and are graciously allowed by the City of Cambridge to leave it in their facilities all week. If you are around TOMORROW at 1:30pm, we'd love your help to get the transfer done in one big trip! If you have a car, great! If not, we need manpower more! Meet in the Parking lot of the Greater Boston Vineyard, 170 Rindge Ave Cambridge.
WEATHER NOTE: thunderstorms are projected for tomorrow. if we cancel, we will post on the blog by 1pm!
WEATHER NOTE: thunderstorms are projected for tomorrow. if we cancel, we will post on the blog by 1pm!
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Here are the stories from last night, Monday June 23. Thanks to everyone for making it a great night.
One thing that went well in Crew today was..it was FUN. I learned how to do drills. I knew before, but I know better now. It went smooth and it was awesome.
-Aamir, CREW
Crew is the younger former of coaches. We’re assistant coaches and we’re developing skills to be a real coach.
So my story is about a girl on my team. Her name is Hannah. During the game I said, “Hey ‘montanta’ can you go up to the ball. She went up half way and then turned around with a serious look on her face and said, “What did you call me?” I froze and said “Uhh I called you Montana”. She replied, “Don’t you ever call me that”. I learned my lesson the hard way.
-Alex, CREW
I’m on the logistics team and for the first time ever for the logistics team, with the registration team’s help, we got everything cleaned up and put away early enough to have a debrief. What we talked about when we debriefed? Just how smoothly everything went.
-Brian, Logistics
Tonight for the first time ever while volunteering at Soccer Nights, I heard the words “Yes I had a 100% checkout”. It was music to my ears and it’s the goal for Soccer Nights this week. In fact, it wasn’t everyone, BUT a bunch of teams made sure that their kids got checked out. It was really impressive.
-Grant, Registration
I was a parent pal last year and one of our goals was to get the parents to interact. If you look up at the bleachers you will probably notice that the parents are kind of spread out and sit mostly with their friends. Dani had the idea of doing a game with parents. So we did something called Human Bingo where you have to go around, talk to people, find things out about them, and write their name down, and then you win prizes when your sheet is full. First, we handed them out and no one was getting up. They were just asking their friends nearby them. Then this one woman who was sitting by herself got up, came to another group to start playing the game, and then every started playing! Tons of people got to meet new people and they were really excited.
-Katie, Parents Team
We had a great night tonight. We had a lot of kids and a lot of volunteers. I wanted to talk about how awesome the volunteers were this evening. One volunteer noticed that there was no water in our bin. She told me and then went to find someone to fill it. Two other volunteers started cleaning everything up while all the kids were in large group.
-Kai, 3-5 Year Olds
Some of the girls were playing defense and were getting really bored because the ball was at the other side of the field for most of the game. They were getting hungry and really wanted snack, specifically cereal. We got creative and channeled their energy for cereal into a cheer to keep them focused on the game.
-Cara, Blue Division
As usual I always have a hard kid, who doesn’t want to listen, and a shy girl. Before the scrimmage, I was working with the girl telling her to kick the ball and she said, “I cant kick the ball. Whenever I try to it goes to the left or to the right but not the direction that it should go.” I gave her a few pointers and then when she was doing the drill she started nailing it every time.
Then in the scrimmage, I asked her where she wanted to play. She told me she just wanted to stand and play defense. I told her, “But you are a good striker.” She asked me what a striker was and I explained that that was the person who shoots the goals. So she went and during the scrimmage, she got the ball, she stopped it, and then passed it directly to her team so that they could score, which was exactly what one of our goals was.
At the end of the scrimmage during our debrief I asked the team, “who on the team was doing exactly what we were asking for? If I had to give a gold medal who should we give it to?” They all in unison said, “Pheobe!” She smiled and buried her head and said, “no, not me.” She’s coming out of her shell and becoming a great player.
-Manny, Green Division
One of our responsibilities tonight was to decide on a Team Name. So we started just soliciting ideas. The first idea was Argentina. I said “No, that not a team name, it’s a country name. No country names.” Then a kid suggested Pakistan, another South Africa. Then one kid heard another team say that their name should be the cheetahs. Another kid heard another team say that their team should be the lightning bolts. So we eventually became the Orange Lightening Cheetahs.
-Chris, Orange Division
One thing that went well in Crew today was..it was FUN. I learned how to do drills. I knew before, but I know better now. It went smooth and it was awesome.
-Aamir, CREW
Crew is the younger former of coaches. We’re assistant coaches and we’re developing skills to be a real coach.
So my story is about a girl on my team. Her name is Hannah. During the game I said, “Hey ‘montanta’ can you go up to the ball. She went up half way and then turned around with a serious look on her face and said, “What did you call me?” I froze and said “Uhh I called you Montana”. She replied, “Don’t you ever call me that”. I learned my lesson the hard way.
-Alex, CREW
I’m on the logistics team and for the first time ever for the logistics team, with the registration team’s help, we got everything cleaned up and put away early enough to have a debrief. What we talked about when we debriefed? Just how smoothly everything went.
-Brian, Logistics
Tonight for the first time ever while volunteering at Soccer Nights, I heard the words “Yes I had a 100% checkout”. It was music to my ears and it’s the goal for Soccer Nights this week. In fact, it wasn’t everyone, BUT a bunch of teams made sure that their kids got checked out. It was really impressive.
-Grant, Registration
I was a parent pal last year and one of our goals was to get the parents to interact. If you look up at the bleachers you will probably notice that the parents are kind of spread out and sit mostly with their friends. Dani had the idea of doing a game with parents. So we did something called Human Bingo where you have to go around, talk to people, find things out about them, and write their name down, and then you win prizes when your sheet is full. First, we handed them out and no one was getting up. They were just asking their friends nearby them. Then this one woman who was sitting by herself got up, came to another group to start playing the game, and then every started playing! Tons of people got to meet new people and they were really excited.
-Katie, Parents Team
We had a great night tonight. We had a lot of kids and a lot of volunteers. I wanted to talk about how awesome the volunteers were this evening. One volunteer noticed that there was no water in our bin. She told me and then went to find someone to fill it. Two other volunteers started cleaning everything up while all the kids were in large group.
-Kai, 3-5 Year Olds
Some of the girls were playing defense and were getting really bored because the ball was at the other side of the field for most of the game. They were getting hungry and really wanted snack, specifically cereal. We got creative and channeled their energy for cereal into a cheer to keep them focused on the game.
-Cara, Blue Division
As usual I always have a hard kid, who doesn’t want to listen, and a shy girl. Before the scrimmage, I was working with the girl telling her to kick the ball and she said, “I cant kick the ball. Whenever I try to it goes to the left or to the right but not the direction that it should go.” I gave her a few pointers and then when she was doing the drill she started nailing it every time.
Then in the scrimmage, I asked her where she wanted to play. She told me she just wanted to stand and play defense. I told her, “But you are a good striker.” She asked me what a striker was and I explained that that was the person who shoots the goals. So she went and during the scrimmage, she got the ball, she stopped it, and then passed it directly to her team so that they could score, which was exactly what one of our goals was.
At the end of the scrimmage during our debrief I asked the team, “who on the team was doing exactly what we were asking for? If I had to give a gold medal who should we give it to?” They all in unison said, “Pheobe!” She smiled and buried her head and said, “no, not me.” She’s coming out of her shell and becoming a great player.
-Manny, Green Division
One of our responsibilities tonight was to decide on a Team Name. So we started just soliciting ideas. The first idea was Argentina. I said “No, that not a team name, it’s a country name. No country names.” Then a kid suggested Pakistan, another South Africa. Then one kid heard another team say that their name should be the cheetahs. Another kid heard another team say that their team should be the lightning bolts. So we eventually became the Orange Lightening Cheetahs.
-Chris, Orange Division
Hey all! Thanks for sharing your stories during debrief time. It really was inspiring to hear how the kids are learning the names of their teammates, and getting excited about playing soccer.
In case you missed it, here are the stories that were shared at the end of the night:
Max – Team Coach, Orange Division
"I had one student who was incredibly shy, and didn’t want to speak up. It was actually incredibly difficult because I couldn’t catch her name right away. And she has an awesome name. During the warm-ups & drills, she was very shy, and didn’t want to get involved. But the second we got to the scrimmage, she was all over the pitch. She was all over the ball, and as a defender, she defended half the shots on goal, and almost made a couple! It was the biggest transformation I saw tonight, and it was really inspiring."
Alex – Assistant Coach, Red Division
"My story is about a girl. When we were doing the scrimmage everyone wanted to be goalie. So I told them to either go to offense or defense. I told them to pick two people on the defense side, and three people on the offense side (because there were more people on the offense side) who wanted to be goalie. Each day, I was going to have one of those kids be goalie. Bella looked really sad, and it looked like she wouldn’t even play if she wasn’t goalie. So I put her in as goalie, and she looked excited. At one point she said to her teammates, ‘I need some defense!’ She was really good at goalie. I asked her how her day was, and she said, ‘At the beginning it was boring, but once I became goalie I had fun!’"
Petre – Team Coach, Green Division
"In our team, we had a kid that actually learned the name of everybody on the team after the first 10 minutes, plus the three values! And just taught everyone else. I thought, ‘Okay, kid! You can take it from here!’"
Matt – Team Coach, Blue Division
"We were just scrimmaging, and I was just playing with this little boy and his father. We were just passing the ball back and forth, and a little girl—yea high (lifting his hand not much past his knee)—came running along ready to kick the ball. It was just encouraging to have the parents there, saying thanks, and ready to have some fun. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!"
Claudyne – 3-5 year olds
"There was this little girl who didn’t know how to hula-hoop, so I taught her. She’s actually better than me now!"
Grant – Lead Volunteer, Registration & Snacks
"Registration is kind of crazy on the first night – we have walk-ons, we have people who thought they signed up, but really didn’t sign up, we have--unfortunately--some disappointed kids, and some disappointed parents as well if the kids couldn’t play. But we had some awesome volunteers tonight. Evadne and I really wanted to make sure that we gave some shout-outs to some people, specifically Sarah, Taylor, and Nicholas. They went back to the Vineyard and transferred all the paper forms, all 78 of them, onto the database. Now I don’t have to go back and do that late tonight! I'm so thankful for their work!"
Brian – Coaching Director
"There was a kid who arrived late named Henry* on Daniele’s team. I was watching when Henry came on over to his team, and Daniele said to the kids, ‘Alright guys! We have a new player who got here late. I just want to introduce him to the team!’ All the kids smiled and shouted, ‘Hi Henry!’ There was one kid who even before Daniele did that said, ‘Oh Henry! I remember you from last year! Hey!’ Henry just smiled and looked happy that someone remembered him from last year. Those little connections mean a lot. They are connections between youth that might not happen otherwise. They are really powerful. It was super great!"
Susanna – Lead Volunteer, Parents Team
"The night was chock-full of fun moments. Well, there was one particular pair of parents that were really passionate and said that Soccer Nights was great and should happen year-round. Optimally, twice a day. We’ll just leave it as a cliff hanger, and see how that story unfolds…But it was a great connection to make!"
*Names of children in stories have been changed.
If you have an awesome story that wasn't shared during debrief time, be sure to post a comment below with your story by 3pm today! Everyone who shared a story will enter the chance to win a gift certificate to JP Licks (yum!).
In case you missed it, here are the stories that were shared at the end of the night:
Max – Team Coach, Orange Division
"I had one student who was incredibly shy, and didn’t want to speak up. It was actually incredibly difficult because I couldn’t catch her name right away. And she has an awesome name. During the warm-ups & drills, she was very shy, and didn’t want to get involved. But the second we got to the scrimmage, she was all over the pitch. She was all over the ball, and as a defender, she defended half the shots on goal, and almost made a couple! It was the biggest transformation I saw tonight, and it was really inspiring."
Alex – Assistant Coach, Red Division
"My story is about a girl. When we were doing the scrimmage everyone wanted to be goalie. So I told them to either go to offense or defense. I told them to pick two people on the defense side, and three people on the offense side (because there were more people on the offense side) who wanted to be goalie. Each day, I was going to have one of those kids be goalie. Bella looked really sad, and it looked like she wouldn’t even play if she wasn’t goalie. So I put her in as goalie, and she looked excited. At one point she said to her teammates, ‘I need some defense!’ She was really good at goalie. I asked her how her day was, and she said, ‘At the beginning it was boring, but once I became goalie I had fun!’"
Petre – Team Coach, Green Division
"In our team, we had a kid that actually learned the name of everybody on the team after the first 10 minutes, plus the three values! And just taught everyone else. I thought, ‘Okay, kid! You can take it from here!’"
Matt – Team Coach, Blue Division
"We were just scrimmaging, and I was just playing with this little boy and his father. We were just passing the ball back and forth, and a little girl—yea high (lifting his hand not much past his knee)—came running along ready to kick the ball. It was just encouraging to have the parents there, saying thanks, and ready to have some fun. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!"
Claudyne – 3-5 year olds
"There was this little girl who didn’t know how to hula-hoop, so I taught her. She’s actually better than me now!"
Grant – Lead Volunteer, Registration & Snacks
"Registration is kind of crazy on the first night – we have walk-ons, we have people who thought they signed up, but really didn’t sign up, we have--unfortunately--some disappointed kids, and some disappointed parents as well if the kids couldn’t play. But we had some awesome volunteers tonight. Evadne and I really wanted to make sure that we gave some shout-outs to some people, specifically Sarah, Taylor, and Nicholas. They went back to the Vineyard and transferred all the paper forms, all 78 of them, onto the database. Now I don’t have to go back and do that late tonight! I'm so thankful for their work!"
Brian – Coaching Director
"There was a kid who arrived late named Henry* on Daniele’s team. I was watching when Henry came on over to his team, and Daniele said to the kids, ‘Alright guys! We have a new player who got here late. I just want to introduce him to the team!’ All the kids smiled and shouted, ‘Hi Henry!’ There was one kid who even before Daniele did that said, ‘Oh Henry! I remember you from last year! Hey!’ Henry just smiled and looked happy that someone remembered him from last year. Those little connections mean a lot. They are connections between youth that might not happen otherwise. They are really powerful. It was super great!"
Susanna – Lead Volunteer, Parents Team
"The night was chock-full of fun moments. Well, there was one particular pair of parents that were really passionate and said that Soccer Nights was great and should happen year-round. Optimally, twice a day. We’ll just leave it as a cliff hanger, and see how that story unfolds…But it was a great connection to make!"
*Names of children in stories have been changed.
If you have an awesome story that wasn't shared during debrief time, be sure to post a comment below with your story by 3pm today! Everyone who shared a story will enter the chance to win a gift certificate to JP Licks (yum!).
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