MYSA Lunachicks Soccer

Make sure the girls get plenty of rest. Yes, I know getting 11-12 year old girls asleep when they’re staying in a hotel out of town is pretty much impossible. But TRY to get the girls asleep by 10. Thankfully we don’t have a match at 8AM! But we should be at the fields no later than 8:45AM to get ready, do some warmups, etc.

I told the girls last night they need to start preparing for this tournament in how they eat. That means refrain from drinking soda from last night through the weekend (yeah they laughed too). Stick with water, sports drinks, juice, milk, etc. Eat GOOD meals – stay away from junk food. Everyone should eat something Saturday morning and it should be fairly early (7:30-8AM) Cereal, energy bars, fruit, stuff like that. Same holds true for lunch – light energy packed meals are best to prepare for the 1PM match. Bringing some granola bars, etc. can be useful too.

As Leslie noted, not every tournament is going to be during clear and sunny weather. This is one of those weekends. The tournament committee will do everything they can to get the matches played. CUFC just sent out a phone broadcast stating the tournament is ON as of 9:15AM and they will be sending out updates every three hours. We’ll definitely keep you posted.

The fields are going to be muddy and wet and on Sunday it will be quite cold in the morning. So be sure the girls have the following at the fields:

• A warm coat, zip up jacket, heavy sweatshirt. Saturday will be OK (high of 67), but Sunday it will be in the high 40′s when we play our morning match. When players are on the bench, they need to stay warm.
• Rain coats/ponchos – we’ll have a tent, but still good to have on the bench if it’s windy or before/after the match.
• An old blanket if you have for the bench – it WILL get muddy
• A couple of towels to dry off – again – they WILL get dirty
• At LEAST two pairs of game socks. If you have a third (any royal blue soccer socks will do) bring them.
• An extra pair of cleats if they have them. I know the Eurosport sale just passed – if the girls have new cleats, make sure they bring their old ones as well – new cleats take time to break in and having the old ones to change into if their feet get sore/blisters will be ideal. But regardless, having an extra pair of cleats if they still fit can be useful for an emergency (cleat breaks off, gets lost, etc)
• A complete change of clothing – I’m sure girls will want to change in the cars on the way back to the hotel if they’re soaked.
• Lots of plastic grocery bags to put muddy cleats and soaked clothing in.
• Gloves – the best are knit gloves with some type of padding on the fingers to grip a ball when throwing it in. They cannot have zippers or any type of metal or plastic on them. This is mostly for Sunday.
• Knit hats can also be worn at the discretion of the referee.
• Under Armour. if they don’t have any – bring/get some inexpensive long sleeve T-Shirts to wear under their jersey.
• If they have them – Under Armour shorts are also good to wear under soccer shorts to stay warm.
• SOCCER BALL! Every girl has a soccer bag with a ball pocket. Make sure there’s a soccer ball in it! We never have enough soccer balls to warmup with and I don’t bring the big bag of soccer balls to tournaments.
• iPods, video games, portable DVD player, books, etc. in the cars. With the weather the way it is we might be stuck at the fields if we’re delayed.

Other stuff to consider bringing

• Hair dryer – while hotels often have their own – having a hair dryer to dry out soaked cleats will be a BIG help.
• Cat litter sachets if you have them – even overnight they can help dry out cleats and keep the smell from overpowering small hotel rooms

I explained to the girls last night this was not going to be like many of the other tournaments we’d been too. Almost 300 teams, strong competition, and staying overnight in a hotel vs driving to it. But once they stepped on the field, it was 8v8 just like any other soccer match. I explained they had *earned* a spot in the top tournament division with their past performances and that meant they’d be playing teams just as good as they were and to play hard. But I wasn’ tany more specific than that about the teams we’d face – just that they’d be good teams.

We’ll see how it goes! Just remember that regardless of the score we want the girls to play hard and play smart. I told them (yet again ) if they walked off the field having lost 0-10, but playing hard
Lunachick soccer, I’d be ecstatic.

Finally – PLEASE make sure Leslie has all your latest contact information. Email her your latest cell phone numbers and email addresses as we found a couple weren’t working recently. Also login to your MYSA parent account and click Your Profile to update it there (Leslie can print a contact sheet out using that information) The weather is NOT good and it is likely there will be some weather related changes to the schedule if things go as forecast. So we’ll need to make sure we can contact everyone ASAP if changes get announced. Also let Leslie know if you can receive txt messages – we may use that method as well vs making 14 calls.

Despite the weather forecast, I’m excited!

GO LUNACHICKS!