Dear Barbarians:
The evidence: asters, foamflowers, and goldenrod, cooler evenings, shorter daylight and longer nights: is all around us, that we will soon begin training for the 2008-2009 season. Most will begin some type of training by mid-October, the weekend of the seventeenth with the remainder beginning by the first or second weekend in November. I will have a more extensive newsletter out before we begin in earnest but the main purpose of this note is to see how many of you are committed to participating this year. I do not have set days for training but I do have some cost information as well as the dates for the Regional and National Tournaments, and locations.
Training for the year will be $350 per participant. It must be paid in 2 installments in the amount of $175 on or before November 1, 2008, and the second installment of $175 on or before, December 6, 2008. If a family would like to pay the full amount at one time, they can receive a $50 deduction by submitting that payment ($300) on or before November 1. For families with more than one child involved we will discount their costs accordingly: First child $350, second child $275, third child, $200, and the fourth child will be $125. We will give serious consideration to an even deeper discount if that fee should be paid in full on or before November 1, 2008 but we cannot offer an initial discount other than what we have purposed here other than allowing payment in equal parts over a 3 month period.
We anticipate that the cost for league play will be $200 for the year. We will not ask for this all at once but we will avoid having people addressing anything as sectional or seasonal play, i.e. as in 2 sessions. If we enter a team into league play and you are a member of that team then we can no longer have you drop out and not have secured the fee necessary to enter the team in the second half of the season. The same holds true for training fees, which has necessitated our no longer allowing anyone to make monthly payments.
As you know the cost for any tournaments we enter are separate from training fees and league play. The Regional Tournament will be held in New York, NY on the weekend of February 14-16, 2009, and the National will be held once again in Baltimore, Maryland, from July 17-20, 2009. It is our goal to have as many teams and players participate in these events as possible. We are uncertain when our State Cup will take place and anticipate having to travel between facilities locally with more age groups than in past years.
This is the information that I have at this time and feel strongly that we will have training days very similar to what we ended up with over the course of last year but are forced to begin differently and then change our days to accommodate the influx of players after we are more aware of the teams or age groups we will be centering on. We are however, going to implement more of a club wide initiative to attempt to have multiple training days for all members with one focus being on conditioning/performance, and the other for game situations. I do not have a crystal ball and ask for everyone’s cooperation and patience as we continue to try to improve what we do. If you know anyone who is interested in participating with the club then you should have them contact me. I am attaching some information for you to read over and fro you to share. Many of you have read this information in the past to become a part of this club. Several of you may never have, and it serves everyone to refresh their memories as to how and why they are here. I am also attaching a survey that has been circulated to several of you already. Even if you have done so, and you feel you were unable to voice everything please submit another. It is your opportunity for each of you to have input as to what we are doing as we move forward. I will attempt to address many issues through the use of the newsletter over the next few weeks and intend to implement a blog on our website for discourse throughout the course of the indoor season.
Our goals and objectives remain as they always have, to improve our organization from year-to-year as well as week-to-week. We understand that some say so while others do so but one thing for certain is that it will be done with or without you, or none of us!
As usual, I will see you on the pitch!