Spring Soccer JK-4th

Middle School Spring Soccer: GSL Church does not provide Middle School spring soccer. Carol Seamons is the parent liason for the Middle School soccer program. Please contact her at 652-1604 for more information. The Middle School teams will play in the Soccer Ole League. Middle School Soccer.

JK-4th Spring Soccer Information

Dear Parents, Three years ago, GSL School parents Aaron and Theresa Prather took on the enormous task of sponsoring a shortened spring soccer program in the ESCRA league for interested JK through 4th grade children. As you know, while they utilized the GSL uniforms, this program was unaffiliated with the church; the Prathers ran the program and did a fantastic job filling a need for the participants. As a community, we are most grateful for their dedication and countless hours of work on the program.

However, due to other commitments, the Prathers are unable to continue to sponsor the spring soccer program. Given this new reality of an established demand for a program with no sponsor, the church’s Athletic Committee has been hard at work determining the best next steps for the program. After much deliberation, GSL Church has decided to sponsor spring soccer for JK-4th grade, with the conditions listed below. For interested Middle School children, we will provide links on the GSL Church Athletic webpage to several Middle School spring soccer leagues.

For GSL, there are some challenges that come with a spring soccer program, many of which those of you who played for the Prather’s program are aware. For example, we have no GSL field space to use for practices or for games, as it is utilized by the school; therefore, participants have to travel a bit farther for games, and coaches have to get creative finding practice space. Also, we have vibrant Baseball/Softball/T-Ball programs that overlap with this season somewhat, making the administration a challenge.

We want to communicate clearly with you about the environment in which spring soccer will be offered. Therefore, in order to both fulfill a need for a spring soccer program, and to balance the challenges of operating an additional sports program, the Committee has created the following conditions for the spring soccer program:

1. Soccer is being offered through GSL in the spring for a mini-season only for JK-4th grade. Please keep in mind that this is a shortened season designed to keep the children engaged in soccer. Our primary season is in the fall.

2. The spring mini-season is dependent upon an active committee of parents (“Parent Committee”) that will be responsible for supporting the program and the Athletic Director by recruiting coaches (as with our other programs, all coaches will be required to be certified through the diocesan Safeguarding Program); facilitating the division of teams based on coach feedback from prior seasons; helping the Athletic Director with communications; etc. The Parent Committee will report to the Church’s Athletic Committee. If you are interested in helping with the Parent Committee, please contact Allison Cates at apcates [at] comcast [dot] net">apcates [at] comcast [dot] net.

3. The spring mini-season is dependent upon an active group of volunteer coaches:a. The Church will not provide, or be responsible for locating, field space for practice or games; coaches will be responsible for practice space, and the league will be responsible for game field space.b. It will be the responsibility of the coaches, with help from the Parent Committee if necessary, to evenly divide the teams. Where possible, the intent will be to keep teams from the fall season and coaches together for continuity. Therefore, there will be no player assessments conducted by GSL.

4. All games will be played at away sites, as the GSL fields are not available during this season. This will be a condition on participation in any spring soccer league.

5. The offering of spring soccer is being done on the condition it does not interfere with the t-ball, baseball and softball programs currently run by the Church—the impact of soccer on these programs will be regularly reevaluated and will include a review of historic and current participation in those sports; the length of the seasons; the timing of the seasons, and any other pertinent information. Should the dates of the soccer season or t-ball, softball and baseball seasons ever change so that the seasons’ overlap more than they do currently, the strong view of the Athletic Committee is that spring soccer would no longer be offered through the Church.

GSL Spring Soccer Registration will be open from January 1-31 and can be accessed online at www.gracestlukes.org under Youth and Sports. The spring season will be from March 24- May 5 and we will continue to play in the current ESCRA League. As always, thank you for your continued support and I look forward to our new endeavor together!

Sincerely,Christi Authement and the Athletic Committee