Coaches Resources
2024 – 25 Playing Year
DIRECTORY
INFORMATION FOR 2024-25
PRESEASON CAMP TRAINING PLANS
KEY DATES
June & July
In-person team meeting with parents
Optional pick up games by team or age group (coaches organize)
Self scheduling for CPL and BPYSL
August
5 | FCC game – families and friends invited
5 | No practice
6 | Practices can begin
6 to 8 | Coaches preseason clinics (mandatory; pick your night to attend)
12 to 15 | Preseason camp for all fall teams
17 & 18 | Preseason Tournament Friendlies
19 | Regular fall practice resumes
HELPFUL LINKS
Click on the buttons below for commonly used resources
SOCCER RULES
FIFA - OFFICIAL LAWS OF SOCCER
LINK TO THE COMPLETE RULES OF SOCCER – FROM FIFA
Football’s Laws are relatively simple compared to most other team sports, but as many situations are subjective and match officials are human, some decisions will inevitably be wrong or cause debate and discussion. For some people, this discussion is part of the game’s enjoyment and attraction but, whether decisions are right or wrong, the ‘spirit’ of the game requires that referees’ decisions must always be respected. All those in authority, especially
coaches and team captains, have a clear responsibility to the game to respect the match officials and their decisions.
The Laws cannot deal with every possible situation, so where there is no direct provision in the Laws, The IFAB expects the referee to make a decision within the ‘spirit’ of the game and the Laws – this often involves asking the question, ‘what would football want/expect?’
SMALL SIDED GAME RULES
Special rules for 7v7 and 9v9 games – CLICK HERE
MOST MISUNDERSTOOD RULES OF SOCCER
HEADING RULES IN YOUTH SOCCER
Heading rules and ages it is allowed.
Heading is not allowed at U9, U10, U11
For the complete rules – CLICK HERE
ANNUAL PROGRAMMING FOR SELECT AND PREMIER TEAMS
SELECT TEAMS
- Paid or licensed coach
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- Head coaches are required to have a D license by U11. If coaching an older age group, coaches have 1 year to obtain a D license.
- Head Coaches who obtain a D license will have their child’s club fee waived starting at U10.
- Some coaches/teams may be provided more support until they obtain their required credentials.
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- Teams will hve two 90-minute training session a week during the fall and spring seasons
- Referee fees for all league games (Jennifer will send money to coaches/admins via check or Venmo)
- League registration (Buckeye/CPL)
- U9 provided a trainer or paid coach for the ball mastery curriculum
- U10-U19 – Director of Coaching or Senior Trainer will work with teams and coaches at a minimum of times per season (training sessions and coaching games).
- 6-8 weeks of winter training with paid coach or FC Storm training staff/contracted trainers.
- 4 tournaments per year (2 in the Fall and 2 in the Spring). Coaches/admins responsible for registering their team for tournaments. (Jennifer will submit payment for all tournaments via check).
PREMIER TEAMS
- Paid or licensed coach
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- Head coaches are required to have a D license, C preferred or equivalent.
- Head Coaches who obtain a D license will have their child’s club fee waived starting at U11.
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- Referee fees for all league games (Jennifer will send money to coaches/admins via check or Venmo)
- League registrations (Buckeye/OSSL/GLC)
- U11 & U12 Teams will have:
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- Two 90-minute training session per week.
- One 60-minute technical training session per week.
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- U13 to U19 Team will have:
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- Three 90 -minute training sessions per week.
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- 6-8 weeks of winter training with paid coach or FC Storm training staff
- 5 tournaments per year (3 in the Fall and 2 in the Spring). Coaches/admins responsible for registering their team for tournaments. (Jennifer will submit payment for all tournaments via check).
- State or Presidents Cup participation in May (counts as one of the two spring tournaments)
REMINDER
NO TEAM BUDGETS IN 2024-25
Teams budgets have been eliminated beginning with the Fall 2024 Season
The Club Fee includes money for referees and tournaments
EXPECTATIONS FOR PRACTICES
Your players will play 15 – 20 games. You’ll expect your players to come to each one with their “A Game” readiness. You’ll expect them to leave their best on the field that day. You’ll coach around 30 practices this fall. We expect you to bring your “A Game” to each practice. Here are several tips to better practices
- Be prepared with a well-thought-out lesson plan, it’s the foundation of all good practices. Waiting to the last minute or making it up on the spot often leads to an ineffective practice. I always build more into the plan than I need and have alternatives in case something doesn’t work as I expected.
- Be organized and arrive early to set up so you are ready when your players arrive. Don’t allow them to play in the goal. It sets the wrong tone for practice and it’s the easiest way to get hurt. As soon as the first players arrive, consider practice started. Have a pre-practice plan. A lot of coaches set up small goals and have the players self-organize small-sided games. (even the new U9s can do this). If there’s limited space, have the players pass or practice juggling. Have the players organize their gear away from the practice field.
- Be enthusiastic; your attitude sets the tone for practice
- Be positive; everyone responds to correction better if it begins with a positive comment
- Set clear expectations. Setting expectations and holding players accountable for achieving them is important. This includes expectations on behavior. I’ve coached boys and where 2 or more are in line, they can’t resist wrestling.
- Be adaptable. Practices don’t always go as planned. Maybe your players need less pressure on the ball or more space to execute a move or pass. Or maybe the game is too easy and you need more game like conditions.
- Be as game-like as possible. Moving from unopposed to opposed to game like is a great progression for any drill, exercise or game. Many players’ skills in unopposed situations breakdown under the speed and pressure in a game. Much of that is due to not creating more game like conditions at some point in the training progression.
- Be a coachable coach. This one might pose the biggest challenge for some of us, especially if we have been coaching for a long time and have a depth of soccer experiences. We want to coach players that are open to being taught and trained to improve. FC Storm wants coaches who are open to being taught and trained to improve their coaching skills. We don’t expect you to know everything about coaching, but we do expect you to ask for help when you need it and be open to constructive feedback about how to coach and train to best develop your team. Take every opportunity to learn from your trainer and Director of Coaching.
- Have Fun. I keep the photo below on my desk to remind me that it’s ok to take time out and just have fun. This was taken one fall practice when we spent the last half of practice in a squirt gun and water balloon fight.
LEAGUES
Cardinal Premier League
The Cardinal Premier League offers division for teams from U9 through U15. Most of the clubs in the greater Cincinnati are place their younger teams in the league. The U9 and U10 Divisions often have from 6 to 8 brackets of 8 or more teams.
Buckeye
The Buckeye League begins at U 11 and offers divisions through high school (U19) in the spring. Historically, it has been considered a more competitive league for older teams. Buckeye has teams from Northen Kentucky tothe northern part of Columbus.
HOW TO
Tips for Scheduling League Games
Both leagues use an on-line self-scheduling process. Buckeye only uses on-line scheduling. CPL uses it along with an in-person coaches scheduling meeting.
The scheduling process is …
- In order to be prepared to schedule games, you need to have the fall season pretty well planned. That means have tournaments picked so you block off those weekends. DO NOT TRY TO SCHEDULE A GAME ON A TOURNAMENT WEEKEND. IT IS TOO MUCH FOR THE PLAYERS (AND PARENTS)
- Once the brackets are final the league gives the go-ahead to begin the scheduling process.
- Coaches or Team Admins will begin to contact each other offering dates to schedule games. You’ll need a calendar to keep track of all of the information.
- Here is link to an on-line spreadsheet that I (Bruce) have used the past few seasons. CLICK HERE. You will need to fill in the teams in your bracket and then send a link to your contact. Before you use it, go to FILE and drop down to MAKE A COPY. That will duplicate the spreadsheet so that you can save it under a different name. If you don’t do this you’ll be filling out the template. If that doesn’t make sense, contact Bruce.
- Work with each contact to agree upon a date and time.
- Check Book-a-Field (our on-line field scheduling platform) to find a field that corresponds to your age. SEE SEPARATE INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING BOOK A FIELD
Use Book A Field
Book-a-Field is our on-line field scheduling platform. It has realtime information on what fields are available to schedule games. Jennifer Paumier is the club owner of this. Contact her for any questions.
The link to the BookAField login page is: https://app.bookafield.us/oh/ac/frs/Web/
Your login is your first and last name, all lower case (ie jenniferpaumier)
The password is: password
When you login in you will go Schedule, then Create/Edit. You can then find the date you want and see which fields are available. The fields we are using this fall for games are listed below – CLICK HERE.
Click on the field and timeslot you want. The window below will pop up. Please make sure you enter
- the correct starting time,
- team names (yours and opponent),
- league (CPL, Buckeye), kick off time,
- and make sure ‘ref requested’ is selected.
Once you complete that Jennifer Paumier will get an email to approve it. She always looks them over to make sure there isn’t any info missing.
Our ref scheduler uses this to schedule all our games so any changes or cancellations need to be sent to Jennifer by Email ASAP. Please let me know if you have any questions or problems when you start scheduling.
Fall 2024 Game Fields
7 v 7 Fields for U9 & U10
Lever Park (Loveland)
Boike Park (Loveland)
VFW (Loveland)
Livingston (Indian Hill Teams Only)
Miami Meadows – Fields 9 & 10
VFW (Sundays Only)
9 v 9 Fields For U11 & U12
Phillips Park Field D
Miami Meadows Fields 3 & 11
Kugler Mill 2 (Indian Hill Teams Only)
11 v 11 Fields for U13, U14 and U15
Loveland HS Turf Field (Sundays Only)
Phillips Park Field B (U13)
Phillips Park Field A (U14 and U15)
Miami Meadows Field 13 & TBD
MIAMI MEADOWS FIELD MAP
Click below to view and downland the Field Map for Premier Tryouts
Miami Meadows Field Map 2024
Miami Meadows
1546 State Route 131
Goshen, OH 45150
GAME INFORMATION
Referee Fees
The Cardinal Premier League (CPL) and Buckeye Youth Soccer League (Buckeye) use a three referee system; Center and two Assistants (AR or ‘linesman’). The referee fees are the same in both leagues; they are summarized in the table below. Each team pays one-half of the total fee for all of the referees. In practice, teams pay for one assistant referee and one-half (1/2) of the total fee for the Center.
Beginning in 2024, the ALL REFEREE FEES were included in the Club Fee. Coaches (or admins) will be sent by check or venmo the money needed to pay their share of referee fees for the fall season. If questions, contact Jennifer Paumier at [email protected].
Link to the referee fees for the Buckeye — Buckeye Referee Fees
Link to the referee fees for CPL — CPL Referee Fees
| Age | Center | Assistant (Line) | Total Per Game (Half of the Center + 1 AR) |
| 7 v 7 | $44 | $32 | $22 + $32 = $54 |
| 9 v 9 | $58 | $38 | $29 + $38 = $67 |
| 11 v 11 (U13 – U14) | $60 | $44 | $30 + $44 = $74 |
| 11 v 11 (U15 – U16) | $70 | $50 | $35 + $50 = $85 |
| 11 v 11 (U17 – U19) | $80 | $56 | $40 + $56 = $96 |
tip – put the money for the Center and AR in separate envelopes to make it easy for the referees
Match Length and Ball Size
| Age Group | Game Size | Length of Half | Ball Size |
| U9 & U10 | 7 v 7 | 25 minutes | 4 |
| U 11 & U12 | 9 v 9 | 30 minutes | 4 |
| U13 & U14 | 11 v 11 | 35 minutes | 5 |
| U15 & U16 | 11 v 11 | 40 minutes | 5 |
| U17 to U19 | 11 v 11 | 45 minutes | 5 |
SEVERE WEATHER POLICY
Upon hearing thunder or seeing lighning, the fields are to be cleared immediately. NO exceptions!
A lightening detector is located at Phillips Park. One long blast indicates lightning has been detected in the area. It is possible lightning will be seen before the detector goes off. Upon hearing a lightning detection siren (long blast), fields are to be cleared immediately. The lightning detector will give 3 long blasts to indicate all clear.
Regardless of how far you estimate thunder or lightning to be from the field area, coaches and trainers are to clear all team personnel from the field area and ensure they are under a shelter or in a vehicle for safety. There must be 30 minutes without thunder or lightning before players/parents/coaches may return to the fields. There are no exceptions; the safety of our club members is the top priority for FC Storm.
FC Storm requires referees to wait 30 minutes after hearing thunder, seeing lightning or after a lightning detector goes off before making a decision to resume play.