Richmond Kickers Youth Soccer Club Newsletter

PRO CLUB UPDATE

RICHMOND, VA - (Friday, July 8, 2005) - The Richmond Kickers (9-5-2, 29 points) suffered a 2-0 loss on the road to the undefeated Montreal Impact (8-0-4, 28 points) earlier in the week and now lead the Impact by only one point in the USL First Division standings.  Looking ahead, the Kickers will travel to take on the Atlanta Silverbacks (5-7-3, 18 points) this Saturday, July 9 at 5:30 p.m. 

The Kickers return to Richmond on Wednesday, July 13th to enter the Third Round of the 2005 U.S. Open Cup, hosting the Ocean City Barons of the Premier Development League at 7:00 p.m. at Sports Backers Stadium.  If the Kickers are able to defeat the Barons, they will host D.C. United of Major League Soccer on Wednesday, August 3rd.  Please call 644-KICK for all ticket information.

Tish
For the Super Y standings go to: http://supery.uslsoccer.com/schedules/index_E.html

Look under “South Atlantic”
Super Y Teams of the Week- No games last week

TRAVEL SOCCER
Player Registration and Uniforms for Fall 2005
For player’s who were unable to attend any of our registration nights. It is very important that you contact the team manager of your child’s team as quickly as possible so that we can complete the registration process. Please understand that we can not roster a team until all the correct information and documents are collected from ALL the players. If you do not know who your team manager is please contact us at 804-644-5425 ext. 310,311, or 313.
If your child is a new player to RKYSC and you have not yet ordered a uniform for the Fall 2005 season. Please contact Tim Krout immediately at tkrout@richmondkickers.com to place an order.

A Few Travel Player Positions Available!
RKYSC has select openings for the 2005/2006 travel season.  New teams to the list are shown in Red. Contact  idotsenko@richmondkickers.com for more information.

Openings exist: 

Central:    U 9 Boys, U15 Boys

South:     U13 Boys, U13 girls, U14/15 Girls,


RECREATIONAL SOCCER
Richmond Kickers/Pocoshock Valley

For information on the upcoming Fall 2005 season contact us at the office at 644-5425 ext. 310, 311, or 313

Register on line at: http://www.bluesombrero.com/Default.aspx?alias=www.bluesombrero.com/richmondkickers

To download a paper application go to:

http://www.richmondkickers.com/docs/youth/recreational/PocoshockRegistrationFormFall2005.pdf

Then send to:

RKYSC

2320 West Main St. Richmond Va. 23220

New uniforms this year!!!  RKYSC/Pocoshock/MYSL has obtained an outstanding agreement with SCORE to provide 2 jerseys, 1 pair of shorts, and 2 pair of socks for a minimal price. This uniform "kit" is for each player to keep and re use as long as he/she is with our club (and it still fits!!).

Amazingly, SCORE will provide each coach with a coaching kit with equipment which will benefit all of our teams!  This equipment must be returned to the club after each season for future use.  For a picture of the new uniform go to: http://richmondkickers.com/youth/recreational/101599.html

Midlothian Youth Soccer League

For Information on the upcoming Fall 2005 season go to www.mysl.com

Ashland Youth Soccer League

Information on the upcoming Fall 2005 season go to www.aysl.org

Player’s

Soccer Dribbling: Moves

http://www.soccer-training-info.com/dribbling.htm

Coaches Corner
Creating Space for a Shot

http://www.finesoccer.com/finesoccer_drill_144.htm


Parent Corner

As Stakes Rise, More Parents Are Directing Rage at Coaches

HAMDEN, Conn. - Religious statues grace the entranceway to Sacred Heart Academy, an all-girls, private Catholic high school in central Connecticut, and along the pristine path to the 127-acre hilltop campus, small sanctuaries serve as havens for students and the nuns in residence to pause in quiet reflection. Down a long walkway from the main grounds is the academy's manicured softball field, set in a bowl surrounded by soaring maple and pine trees, a setting with an almost cathedral-like feel.

It was here, the Hamden police say, that 46-year-old Mark Picard, upset that his daughter, Melanie, had been suspended for missing a softball game to attend a prom, clubbed Coach John Crovo in the back of the head with an aluminum bat on May 17.

"He hit him six times," said Dick Gagliardi, the Sacred Heart athletic director.

"Something like this leaves you numb, because you realize it can really happen anywhere. And worse, you realize it isn't an isolated episode."

For years, there has been a noticeable rise in sideline fights between parents, with the most infamous being the death that occurred when two fathers of hockey players brawled after a pickup game in 2000 in Reading, Mass. But youth sports experts are well aware of the trend toward a new category of confrontations - those between parents and coaches - and they point to one overriding factor as the cause.

With college costs swelling and the competition for admission to the most select institutions escalating, parents have zealously pursued athletic scholarships or the perceived edge that a top athletic résumé can bring. To chase this athletic advantage, parents begin investing in their child's athletic career early, as young as 5 or 6 years old, with private sports tutors, fees for travel teams and annual summer camps, instructional trips abroad and thousands of dollars in equipment. They also devote considerable time, indeed most weekends, to driving their child to and from games and practices.

"It may sound shocking, but I am shocked, frankly, that these things don't happen more often," said Dr. Bruce B. Svare, the director of the National Institute for Sports Reform and a psychologist at the University of Albany in New York. "The emotional and financial investment parents have made in their child's athletics, coupled with the irrational intensification of youth sports, has sent a lot of parents completely over the edge.

"It's a hyper-competitive environment. Parents confront coaches all the time now, something they rarely did. And there's a trigger during these confrontations that take them beyond their original intention."

Daniel E. Doyle Jr., the founder of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island, said he remembered fistfights between parents and coaches, and umpires, as a child growing up in Worcester, Mass.

"So it's not fair to say that these things never happened before," Doyle said. "But there's no question it is far more prevalent now. There's no hard data on the level of violence, but confrontations in general are way up. Parents think it is in their purview to have regular, sometimes inappropriate, contact with coaches."

Doyle, who was the basketball coach at Trinity College in Hartford during the late 1970's and early 1980's, said these incidents were not limited to youth sports.

"In all my time coaching, I had one parent come to me with a complaint about playing time, and he made an appointment and was very respectful," Doyle said. "I give talks to coaches at about 60 Division III colleges every year now. The one thing they all say is this: 'Our problem with parents is overwhelming.' "

A few days before the Connecticut incident, a girls high school rugby coach in Rohnert Park, Calif., was punched and kicked unconscious by a group of parents enraged when the coach tried to break up a fight between a parent and a referee.

In April in Canton, Tex., a 45-year-old father, who had been barred from attending the local high school football games for shoving and verbally abusing his son's coaches, critically wounded the head coach with a gunshot, the police said.

In January in Toronto, a 47-year-old man was charged with assault after he reached over a glass partition to choke the hockey coach of his 8-year-old son, who had been benched for missing practices.

Paul Maskery, the executive secretary of the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors, said the hottest topic of conversation at every recent annual convention held by his group had been parent behavior.

"Everyone says the same thing: 'If the parents would just leave the kids alone,' " Maskery said.

And yet, in the Sacred Heart Academy community, many said the stereotype - overinvolved, out-of-control father - was never a fit for Mark Picard.

"This guy wasn't like that; he didn't fit the prototype," said Richard Dorset of Stratford, Conn., who had two daughters on this year's Sacred Heart softball team. "I never heard Mark Picard say two words at games."

Dorset's daughter Julianne said: "Mr. Picard is the nicest man. He was wonderful to his daughters, to all of us."

The volleyball coach at Sacred Heart, Dave Cypher, who also coached Melanie Picard earlier in the 2004-5 school year, told The Hartford Courant that he had been yelled at and insulted by Picard after a game.

Neither Picard nor Crovo returned telephone messages left at their homes. Besides the criminal charges Picard faces, Crovo is expected to file a civil suit against him.

According to Gagliardi, the Sacred Heart athletic director, when Melanie Picard told Crovo that she planned to miss a Friday night game to attend her boyfriend's prom at a nearby school, Crovo informed Melanie that such an absence would mean a three-game suspension. Picard went to the prom and was suspended. A day before she was to miss the celebrated senior day game on May 18, Mark Picard went to the team's softball field.

"He wanted John to reconsider, and John said, 'No, I'm not going to change my mind,' " Gagliardi said. "John turned his back and walked away, and that's when he was hit in the head."

According to players who witnessed the attack, Melanie Picard's older sister, Michelle, a former Sacred Heart player who had accompanied her father to the field, helped curtail the attack by grabbing at and pleading with their father to stop.

"It was surreal," Rachel Dorset, a Sacred Heart softball player, said of the incident. "We really couldn't believe what had happened. You read about things like this, but here?"

An assistant coach used his cellphone to call 911 for help. Picard also called 911 on his cellphone, asking for help for Crovo. Picard then remained at the field as the police arrived.

Crovo was treated and later released at a nearby hospital for head, neck and chest injuries, though his lawyer, Pat Labbadia, has said that Crovo also sustained an inner-ear injury that has caused equilibrium problems. Crovo recently announced he was not returning to coach at Sacred Heart.

Picard, an art teacher at another nearby Catholic high school, has been arraigned on multiple charges and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Picard's lawyer, Hugh Keefe of New Haven, said his client would plead not guilty to all charges.

"I think the whole incident could have been handled better," said Richard Dorset, who described Crovo as a tough coach. "Melanie was a responsible player and person. It was a pretty significant, strong reaction for going to a prom. Which is not to excuse what Picard did. Jeez, he hit the guy in the head with a bat. That's a terrible thing to do. I think all of us have struggled to understand what would make someone do something like that."

A week after the May 17 confrontation - and after Sacred Heart had forfeited its final two regular-season games - the softball team held its first practice since the incident. Melanie Picard stood and read a letter to the team written by her father.

"It was short, very nice and very supportive," said Julianne Dorset, one of the team members. Many of the players at the practice wiped away tears as Melanie read the letter.

Exactly two weeks after the reported attack, in an event covered by a host of Connecticut television stations and newspapers, the Sacred Heart softball team played a state playoff game, winning in 12 innings. Melanie Picard scored a run and had a triple. Neither her father nor Crovo attended the game.

The next day, in brilliant sunshine at an immaculate field no more than 100 yards from the ocean in Madison, Conn., Sacred Heart was eliminated from the state tournament, losing by one run. About 40 Sacred Heart followers attended the game, a gathering that appeared routine in every way. Successes were cheered, failures digested quietly and most every player received a hug or an embrace afterward.

"It's been a hard couple of weeks, but I don't think we're going to be scarred by this or anything," Rachel Dorset said as she packed and hoisted her bat bag over her shoulder.

The girls were back in class the next day, preparing for final exams and that weekend's end-of-the-year sports banquet. The Sacred Heart campus was quiet. Down the walkway to the softball field, where ambulances, police cars and other emergency vehicles hastily descended on May 17, there was a large white sign.

Erected eight years ago, the sign is titled, "Spectator Expectations," and contains six rules of conduct. It includes prohibitions against verbal abuse and obnoxious behavior.

The last rule reads: "Respect all athletes, coaches, officials and fans."