Manager’s Guide
Pre Season
Fall/Spring
Other Tasks
Winter
A Note From Director of Coaching Ray Selvadurai
Managers,
The Manhattan Soccer Club Youth Academy is THE most important program in our club. We are developing the future of our club, where our players can learn not only the requisite skills and techniques of the sport, but also valuable lessons of being part of a collective group. As both a member of a team and the greater MSC Community, the lessons and values they learn will carry over into their lives outside of soccer. We want them to see connections to the other collective groups in their life, so that our players will also find success within their school community, their family, and more.
We take a holistic approach at MSC, where IT IS MORE IMPORTANT to develop a young player's character, integrity, accountability, sportsmanship, courage, self-confidence, generosity, discipline, self-awareness, and emotional control than just their ability on the field. We look forward to reinforcing these same goals that you work on at home. Together we are stronger than alone.
Outlook on matches
League play and tournament matches are viewed at this program level as primarily skill testing. We are looking to see if our players have grasped the concepts from training and can apply these in pressurized game situations. Though we do want the players to have success on match day, the final score line will not trump the player development goals of the MSC Youth Academy. MSC takes a patient and long-term development plan for our players to succeed and gain competence both as individual players and as members of a team.
Coaching Philosophy
SC has an outstanding and experienced coaching staff. Each team has been assigned a coach that will lead the training sessions and match play, however, it imperative to understand that the development of our players at this level is the responsibility of the entire club and not just the assigned coach. This season, as Director of Coaching and at my discretion, I will occasionally assign a different coach to a training session or match in order for the coaching staff to gain a more complete understanding of the players in our club. Through this collaborative approach, our players will benefit from different perspectives, voices and directions. Also, the coaching staff will receive more valuable feedback on player development from multiple viewpoints.
So please do not panic if your assigned coach is not at a session or match. We will alert team managers if I assign a different coach to a session or match. Understand that our coaches have a great deal of experience in training and match management, which allows such a collaborative coaching approach to be successful. I personally am looking forward to working with our Youth Academy teams in training sessions and matches this year as much as possible. We have a great group of kids, coaches, and parents, and it is a pleasure to be a part of the MSC Community.
I hope this email provides some basic program points!
I'll see you all at the fields.
- Ray