Brunswick Soccer Association: Welcome

We are a community based travel soccer club located in Brunswick, OH.  We have boys teams from U8 - U14 and girls teams from U9 - U14.  We participate in the NOGSL and AASL area soccer leagues.  We are a member of OYSAN.

P.O. Box 633 Brunswick, OH 44212

Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast

Travel soccer tryouts for BSA will be held Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, June 4th, 5th and 7th for the 2012-2013 soccer seasons for both boys and girls.

U7-U9's will be Monday, June 4.  (please note this, U10's are Tuesday night)

U10-U12's will be Tuesday, June 5

U13 & U14's will be Thursday, June 7.

Times of tryouts are normally from 6-8pm.  Player registration starts at 5:15pm.  Location of our travel soccer tryouts is on the back soccer fields, behind the Brunswick High School soccer/football stadium.  Any questions regarding tryouts, do not hesitate to contact BSA's coaching director, Tim Shearer at coachtim@roadrunner.com

Click on the Tryouts Tab on the left for more information.  There are forms you can download, print out, fill out and bring to tryouts to make your registration easier and faster. 

Any general questions regarding our local travel soccer program, please contact Jeff Petrenko @ jap0711@aol.com

Any questions regarding coaching, tryouts, skill developments, etc., please contact Tim Shearer @ coachtim@roadrunner.com

2011/2012 BSA Annual Membership Meeting:  Wednesday, June 13.  Location is Brunswick City Hall, Council Chambers.  Meeting starts at 7pm (or as soon as we count all in attendance and the proxies so please get there before 7pm if possible, thank you!).  We need at least 51% of our membership in attendance or with proxies in order to conduct the meeting.  Please be sure to attend or send in your proxies with a representative from your team.  We are also in need of 3 board positions to be filled: 1.) VP/Fields, 2.) Secretary and 3.) Marketing Manager.  Also, we will be congratulating the five (5) BSA Kathryn Curtis BHS Senior Scholarship winners.  See you June 13.

These positions for next years' 2012/2013 BSA Board Members that are either open or up for re-election are as follows:

Also, our Annual Meeting will be held at City Hall on June 13th at 7:00 p.m.  Listed below are the positions that are up for election.  If anyone is interested in running for one of these positions, please have them contact Kim Clouse at clouse3883@frontier.com.  If someone is on the board, their child plays for free (one child).   We would love to get some new parents involved on the board so please share this with your families.

Those interested in becoming an USSF licensed referee for soccer, please read.

Anyone wanting to become an USSF and/or a High School soccer official, he or she can get all the information on class schedules and cost by simply looking at www.ohnrefs.org on the web.  It has all the information and contacts of whom he or she would need to contact for further information.  If there are any other questions, please contact Dave Griffiths (who is our ref assignor) at either his home (330) 225-4614 or via email at dgriffster@yahoo.com

Please read this article.  It points out why you should suspend a game (or
practice) whenever you see severe weather anywhere near you.   Note the last
paragraph where "officials" said it was "clear" yet they saw the severe weather
a couple of miles away.  ALWAYS ERR ON THE SIDE OF SAFETY!

Lighting strike leaves four injured at Indiana softball field
 
A lightning strike at a softball practice has left the town of Seymour, Ind.,
reeling after four girls on the Seymour (Ind.) High team were taken to the
hospital when a bolt of lightning struck one girl directly and injured three
others.
 
As local CBS affiliate WISH-TV in Indiana and the Seymour Tribune reported, the
Seymour team was preparing for practice when they noticed a storm a couple miles
off in the distance. With the severe weather not posing a threat to the
practice, the team continued warming up.
 
But just moments before they were about to take the field, a bolt of lighting
came out of nowhere and struck Seymour freshman Emily Bobb; three others --
Kristin George, a sophomore, Kelsey Nolting, a junior, and Carlee Westfall, a
senior -- were also injured during the strike, but all three were reportedly
nowhere near Bobb at the time.
 
"Only Emily was struck by lightning, and the other three girls were taken to the
hospital after it was determined they were complaining of headaches or similar
issues," Seymour Community Schools Superintendent Teran Armstrong told the
Seymour Tribune. "They were not struck by lightning and were really nowhere near
Emily."
 
Bobb was rushed to Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in critical
condition, while the three others players were taken to Shenck Medical Center in
Seymour with non-life-threatening injuries. They were later released on Thursday
evening. Riley Hospital confirmed with the Seymour Tribune that Bobb was in
critical but stable condition on Thursday night.
 
While some might question what the team was even doing on the field in the first
place, officials were quick to point out that the skies were clear prior to the
accident. It would appear this really was a freak lightning strike. You just
hope the freshman player in critical condition pulls through and is able to get
back on the field in the future.

For soccer fans, please take time to read these 15 points.

15 Things Everyone Should Remember - Please forward to all you families.  I would also like to recommend the book The Car Ride Home for all families as it discusses many of the points below. 

We all recognize that soccer is a very passionate game— for players and fans.

But when it comes to youth soccer, the soccer pitch can bring out some of the worst instincts that we have.

We all want our sons and daughters to play, to play hard, to play well, and have fun. We want them to be well coached, play on a team that is competitive in their category, and benefit in a host of ways from being involved in competitive athletics.

Yet we, as parents, sometimes undercut how much fun our kids have, and how much they will actually benefit.

This happens by and through our behavior, especially during games.

So with the 2011 soccer season around the corner, here is a primer, a reminder, of little things that we can do on the sidelines this spring and summer to make this soccer season more pleasant for all concerned — most importantly, for the kids.

15 things to keep in mind while watching from the sidelines this summer:

1. Let the coaches’ coach. If you are telling your son or daughter — or any other player for that matter — to do something different from what their coach is telling them, you create distraction and confusion.

2. It is very unnerving for many young players to try and perform difficult tasks on the field on the spur of the moment when parents are yelling at them from the sidelines. Let the kids play. If they have been well coached, they should know what to do on the field. If they make a mistake, chances are they will learn from it.

3. Do not discuss the play of specific young players in front of other parents. How many times do you hear comments such as, “I don’t know how that boy made this team….” or “she’s just not fast enough…”. Too many parents act as though their child is a ‘star’, and the problem is someone else’s kid. Negative comments and attitudes are hurtful and totally unnecessary and kill parent harmony, which is often essential to youth team success.

4. Discourage such toxic behavior by listening patiently to any negative comments that might be made, then address issues in a positive way. Speak to the positive qualities of a player, family or coach.

5. Do your level best not to complain about your son or daughter’s coaches to other parents. Once that starts, it is like a disease that spreads. Before you know it, parents are talking constantly in a negative way behind a coach’s back. (As an aside, if you have what you truly feel is a legitimate beef with your child’s coach — either regarding game strategy or playing time, arrange an appointment to meet privately, away from a soccer field.)

6. Make positive comments from the sideline. Be encouraging. Young athletes do not need to be reminded constantly about their perceived errors or mistakes. Their coaches will instruct them, either during the game or at half-time, and during practices. You can often see a young player make that extra effort when they hear encouraging words from the sideline about their hustle.

7. Avoid making any negative comments about players on the other team. This should be simple: we are talking about youngsters, not adults who are being paid to play professionally. I recall being at a rep baseball game some years ago, when parent on one team loudly made comments about errors made by a particular young player on the other team. People on the other side of the diamond were stunned— and angry. Besides being tasteless and classless, these kinds of comments can be hurtful to the young person involved and to their family as well

8. Try to keep interaction with parents on the other team as healthy and positive as possible. Who’s kidding whom? You want your child’s team to win. So do they. But that should not make us take leave of our senses, especially our common sense. Be courteous ‘till it hurts; avoid the ‘it for tat’ syndrome.

9. Parents on the ‘other’ team are not the enemy. Neither are the boys or girls on the other team. We should work to check any negative feelings at the door before we hit the pitch.

10. What is the easiest thing to do in the youth sports world? Criticize the referees. Oh, there are times when calls are missed, absolutely. And that can, unfortunately, directly affect the outcome of a contest. That said, by and large those who officiate at youth soccer games are hardly over-compensated, and give it an honest — and often quite competent — effort. At worst, they at least try to be fair and objective.

11. On that note, outbursts from parents on the sideline made toward the referees only signal to our on children on the field that they can blame the refs for anything that goes wrong. Blaming others is not a formula for success in sports.

12. Yelling out comments such as “Good call, ref” or “Thanks ref” may only serve to alienate an official. The ref always assumes they made the proper call, that’s why they made it. Trying to show superficial support because the call went ‘your’ way is simply annoying to the officials, and to anyone within earshot.

13. Walking up and down all game long along the sidelines, following the play, is unnerving to players and totally unnecessary— particularly so if you are trying to yell out instructions to various players, including your own son or daughter. It is likely embarrassing to the player/players involved and simply counterproductive. If you want to coach, obtain your coaching certification and then apply for a job.

14. We all feel things and are apt to be tempted to say things in the ‘heat of the moment’. But we don’t excuse athletes for doing inappropriate things in the ‘heat of the moment’ (there are penalties, suspensions, etc.) so we should apply similar standards to our own sideline behavior. Quickly check yourself and ask: Will I be proud of what I am about to say or do when I reflect on it tomorrow?

15. The parking lot is not the time to ‘fan the flames’. Whether it is a coach’s decision, a referee’s call, a comment that was made, let it go. Don’t harass the coach, or an official, or a parent on the other team after the game is over. Go home, relax, and unwind. Talk positively with your child. The ride home is sometimes as important as the game itself. Make that time a good memory for your son or daughter by discussing as many positives as you can about him/her, her coach, her teammates, etc.

7th ANNUAL BRUNSWICK FALL CLASSIC SOCCER TOURNAMENT

Thanks for a great weekend of soccer!  Rain finally stopped and decent weather too with sunny skies in November.  Thanks to all who participated.  See you all next year in the 2012 Fall Classic.

Jeff Petrenko/Tournament Director (jap0711@aol.com)