Please read the general information at Palo Alto AYSO Winter/Spring Select Teams
Coach
Coach: Dejan Milojicic Phone:
650 424-8691 (home) 650 468-3929 (cell)
Please email dejan@hpl.hp.com if you have any questions about the U19G Select
Team.
Assistant
Coaches
Suzanne Gueydan, Eric Steppling,
and TBD.
Team Objective
The objective of the U19G Spring Select Team is to increase individual and team
skills, to have fun playing soccer at a level of competition higher than the
fall season, and to play at a competitive level in the spring league and
tournaments. I am a strong supporter of positive coaching encompassing coaches,
players, and parents.
Tryouts
Players are strongly encouraged to attend 2 or more tryouts.
If your daughter is interested in trying out for the
team, please email dejan@hpl.hp.com
as soon as possible, indicating: (1) your
daughter's name and (2) which tryout sessions she plans to attend.
Tryouts are scheduled for:
Thursday, September 27 at Cubberly
Football Field. 5:30pm-7:30pm.
Tuesday, October 2 at
Cubberly Football Field. 5:30pm-7:30pm.
Based on subsequent interest
and needs we can accommodate individual tryouts as a part of the regular U19
Fall season practices.
Tryouts are open to all girls
who (will have) played in at least 50% of their Palo Alto AYSO Fall 2007 U16G
or U19G team's regular season games. There will be no preference or
discrimination against players’ age. It is coaches’ intention to select the
best and most needed players for the team independently of their age. Last
season a number of U15 players (not even U16) have successfully played on the
first team.
Player checklist for each
tryout:
Player Selection
Players will be chosen for the team based on their play in the fall season and
their performance at the tryouts. Factors that will be considered include:
skill, speed, conditioning, effort, motivation, enthusiasm, understanding of
the game, practice habits, team work, sportsmanship, the team's positional
needs, and team chemistry. Other factors that play a role in selection are
availability for practices, family volunteer commitment, and availability to
participate in the Concord and Davis tournaments in May. Players selected to
the team will be notified by email within a few days after the last tryout
session. While some players from the previous Select season may be chosen for
the team, participation on a Select team in a previous year is no guarantee
of selection this year.
It is expected that 16 will
be selected to the regular team and small alternate squad of 2-4 players will
be selected as well. Members of
the alternate squad will practice with the team and be eligible to join the
team if there is a dropped player.
Team Practices
The team will have informal practices starting in January. Regular, twice a
week, 90-minute practices will begin in February and continue through end of
May. Practices are expected to take precedence over team members' other
non-academic activities. Except for brief periods and exceptional circumstances
agreed upon ahead of time with the head coach, a player must be able to
attend both weekly practices on a regular basis in order to be
eligible for the team.
Spring League and Tournaments
All games are played in the 11v11 format. The team will play in the Pacific
Coast Spring Soccer League, one
Sunday game per week from early March through May. The team may stay overnight
(Friday and Saturday nights) in Concord during the Concord Cup tournament due to the early game start times on
Saturday and Sunday. The Davis World Cup tournament will require overnight stays over Memorial Day
weekend (Friday evening through Sunday or Monday).
These tournaments feature top-flight
competition in a fun, exciting environment. Most players and parents remember
the tournaments as major highlights of the Select season.
Playing Other Sports
A player participating concurrently in another sport may be selected for the
team if there is agreement that the player will choose the U19G Select Team
activity (practice or game) if a scheduling conflict with the other sport
occurs.
Cost
The cost per player, which includes uniforms (in the past years we managed to
use the Fall uniforms and we expect the same this year, cutting the cost for at
least $100) and Spring League and
tournament registration fees, is estimated to be about $250-$300 plus
transportation costs and the cost of meals and accommodations at the
tournaments. The major additional
cost will be travel, accommodation and meals to the tournaments. Scholarships are possible but very
difficult since the spring program is not subsidized by the region and any
scholarships will need to be funded by the team. Please let me know early if you will need a
scholarship.
Parent
Volunteers
Providing a parent volunteer is a factor in player selection. A parent from
each team member's family will be expected to perform some significant team support
activity during the season. The most important volunteer positions are listed
near the bottom of this page. Although each family will be asked to perform
only one volunteer function, when filling out the form below, please indicate all
the positions for which a parent would be prepared to volunteer.
Read this entire document, print out,
complete below, and bring to first tryout attended
We have read the information provided above
and understand the commitment that is required to participate on the spring 2007
U19 Girls Select Team. We understand that there is no guarantee of selection to
the team.
Player name (please print): _____________________________
Player Fall team name, color and jersey
number: ____________________________
Player signature: __________________________
Date: ________________
Parent name (please print):
_____________________________
Parent signature: __________________________
Date: ________________
Parent email address (essential):
_____________________________ (All communication will be via email except in
unusual circumstances.)
Telephone number:
____________________________
Please answer all of the
following:
Check the box next to each of tryout session you plan to attend:
Thu., September 27: [ ] 5:30pm-7:30pm
Tues, October 2: [ ]
5:30pm-7:30pm
Player:
Parent(s):
About the coach: Dejan
Milojicic played basketball all his life, but he fell in love with coaching
soccer about 10 years ago. The fact that he regularly watched soccer leagues in
Yugoslavia and Germany over a number of years helped overcome absence of
significant playing experience. Over the course of 7 years Dejan has coached 9
AYSO, one CY, and 5 German speaking student teams at Gunn High School in Palo
Alto and on the East Coast. He coached from U10 to U19 girls and co-ed teams.
He also coached basketball at YMCA and NJB. During his morning and early
afternoon life Dejan is a researcher and a senior manager at HP Labs, Palo
Alto.
Coaching Philosophy: Soccer is a very fluid sport, where there is ample room for
improvisation within the playing field.
This is very different from many American sports, which consist of a
series of “set plays” often controlled by someone outside the playing field.
At the younger age levels,
the coaching staff devotes great effort into developing individual technique
(ball skills). At this level, we
will use those skills to develop strategy and team tactics. Realistic “goals” will be established
for each player as well as for the team.
We will begin the program by dissecting the sport into some very
fundamental principles. Each
practice session will then focus on only one or two facets of the game, and
there will be a natural progression from one session to the next. The players will learn how to “read” a
game, assess certain game situations and respond accordingly. By season’s end, they will be playing
with their heads-up, and will know what they’re going to do with the ball
before they have actually received it.
My coaching approach is to
run organized, intense, yet fun practices. We encourage open discussion. Soccer is very much a “thinking person’s“ sport, and we find
that posing questions which require some logical analysis is a far more
effective teaching tool than directing “rigid” instructions to his players.
My practices will also
emphasize physical conditioning, a part of soccer training which is unpopular
with many players, but essential if one wants to be competitive. Physical conditioning means more than
running hard and fast. It
encompasses flexibility, agility, balance, timing and rhythm. However, my
conditioning is never boring repeated sequence of same drills or running,
instead it will be a fun set of drills involving competition, frequently
players are not even aware that there is conditioning taking place and they rarely
complain about it.
We expect full attention and
effort at select team practices.
When players are asked to do anything in practice, they are expected to
do it to the best of their ability.
Sloppy practice habits simply ingrain bad technique. My view is that since we only have our
players for a few hours a week, there is no time to waste. We will encourage fun and camaraderie.
However, we will also practice even minutes before the game.
We also expect
players to practice basic ball skills on their own, on the days between
practices. Select soccer demands commitment from each player to work toward
improvement. Success will
naturally follow if everyone is committed.
I am a very
disciplined sideline coach. I expect all players and parents to be as well. I
believe that coaching should be done before the game is played. At this level of play, our main goal is
not to win at all costs, but to instill into the players a sense of knowledge
of the game by instruction, drills and game experience. We are very competitive, but we also
know how to lose.
Playing time is
guaranteed for every player, but the extra time throughout the season will depend
upon work ethic at practice, punctuality and progress. I believe that
experience on the field of play contributes most to the players’ improvement.
However, if an important game is on the line, in the fourth quarter I will
field what we consider to be the best combinations of players we have
available. This is select soccer.
A few
words about my style of coaching:
I
hope to have a fun season with all of you and I can hardly wait that it starts.
I welcome any and all changes to our expectations.
Best regards,
Dejan Milojicic. 424 8691;