Well the schedule for games at the Universiade has been set and we now know who we will play when. The soccer tournament in Belgrade starts June 30 and runs until July 10th with games being played every second day.
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Well, here we are just over 4 weeks away from the start of our FISU adventure. With much of the logistics planning pretty much completed, we have now started our discussion on preparing our team line up and tactical philosophy. We have a dynamic group of team members that bring a wide range of abilities and the challenge is going to be getting everyone on the same page quickly and make sure we put in game plans that everyone can adapt to quickly while maximizing the individual strengths of each player. Put together this team is a unique challenge as everyone of the players are regular starters with the university or club teams and yet some of them will have to adjust to new and differents roles than that with which they are accustomed. Some of these players will find themselves playing less than they are used to or playing in a different role. Well if it was Hi there, Last Saturday March 21st, the organizers of the Belgrade 2009 Universiade held the draw for team sports participiating in this summer's games. Canada's ticket came up in group A where we will play against China, Poland and the hosts Serbia. The other groups are made up as follows; Well the FISU games are no longer just something to look forward sometime down the road. While there has always been some work being done, the real work now starts. The official announcement for the players selected will be made once the CIS championships season comes to a close but the planning side of things is starting to take off. My role consists in large part of putting together the logistical side of things for the games. Planning the flights, booking accomodations as required, setting things up for our pre-games training camp (which may take place in France), etc. Lots of moving parts to deal with but our goal is to give the athletes an experience to remember. We want something beyond the soccer that you can look back upon for the rest of their lives and remember fondly. Well after a lengthy conferance call, numerous emails back and forth and a few 24th hour hectic phone calls, we have finally selected our final 20 players that well represent Canada at the FISU games in July. It wasn't easy with the quality players we had to choose from and there were a few really tough and heart wretching decisions but in the end we think we have put together a great group of players with whom to move forward. With a self imposed deadline of Feb. 28th to name our final roster for this summer's games, we have had quite a bit of back and forth evaluating the players and trying to put together what we think will be the best group of players. With the nature of the games, it isn't quite about taking the best 20 players but about selecting certain players that can fill specific roles within the group. Additionaly, while all of these players are top players on their university programs, some may actually find themselves towards the end of the bench with our squad so we need to also evaluate who will feel can accept a lesser role than that which they might be accustomed to in their soccer careers. Well not much to update in terms of the FISU games other than to say we should be naming our final selection at the end of February. A lot of behind the scenes going on as we plan our equipment purchases, start thinking ahead to our training camp and travel arrangements, evaluate the short list of players, etc. Well here we go, my first FISU games update. Graham, Liz and I decided to take a different approach than in the past in the selection process of players. We used the competitive season to try and develop a list of possible candidates for the team via coaches recommendations, scouting info, conferance all stars and All Canadians, not to mention our own wish list. Through it all we came up with a list of 80+ names and we were able to see many of them in action either as participants with their teams at nationals or in one of the two evaluation camps we held. We organized a western camp in conjunction with the CIS nationals Nov 6th to 8th in Langly and then had an eastern camp in Montreal Nov. 21st to 23rd. It was great to see the efforts made by many players to get to one of these two camps often at personal cost to them not to mention the time off school, work etc. |
AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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