Miscellaneous:

Academy Camp: See camp link

Equipment:

• Backpack:  What should be in your backpack? First, what should be on your backpack?

  • How to ID:  You can customize your daughter's backpack with a luggage tag, colored wrist strap, ribbon, small stuffed animal, etc. You may also choose to have your backpack embroidered with your daughter's name or initials and uniform number. This will help minimize lost & found situations.

  • What to store:  Ball, water, sandals or crocs, sunscreen (in a small zip-lock bag to prevent leakage), first-aid supplies (band-aids, Neosporin, tape or pre-wrap), extra hair accessories such as headbands or scrunchies (pre-wrap makes a quick and easy headband), a towel, a small roll of TP in a zip-lock bag, a large garbage bag to cover the backpack in bad weather. Another tip is to attach a carabiner to the handle. If the ground is wet (or ants are nearby), a player can clip her bag to a nearby fence. Game days: Girls should pack their "other" uniform shirt, shorts and socks in a large zip-lock bag. If you have other tips, please feel free to share them.

• Balls:  See balls link 

• Shin guards:  buying guide from a 3rd party / another 3rd party buying guide

• Shoes:  basic info about soccer shoes  /  detailed info about soccer shoes

• Uniforms:  See uniforms link

Fees: See fees link

Frequently asked questions: See FAQ link

Gifts (soccer related): See shameless commerce link

Injuries: See injuries link

Player and parent information:

• guidelines for training sessions
• guidelines for game days
• dealing with player injuries
• Soccer America's Youth Soccer Insider (good source of info for parents of youth players)
  • How to navigate your child's path (article about evaluating youth soccer options)
  • Dump the GPS and let the kids drive (article about players making their own decisions during games)

Playing at home:  Soccer is a fun game to play. The better your skills, the more fun you’ll have! A great way to improve your skills is to play with friends or play on your own. Link: soccer activities you can do at home or in the local park 

• Skills and soccer sense tests:  This is a "work in progress" document that combines a bunch of our weekly tests from past years. We'll fine tune it as time allows, with the goal of creating an easy way for a player to complete a test and submit it on-line. As it stands now (spring 2011), there's duplication in some areas, missing content in others, but we think there's enough for a player to find something challenging. Link: skills and soccer sense tests

Registration materials:  NASA's on-line registration system handles the majority of registration paperwork. Here's what you'll need to submit by hand:

Registration item	Required for
a notarized medical consent form (Acrobat file)	all players
a copy of the player's birth certificate	new players only

We'll collect these items at the initial orientation meeting. If you're unable to attend the meeting, please check with your lead coach or age group manager for further instructions.

Rosters:  Rosters for the 2011-2012 season will be available mid-summer and will be distributed via e-mail. Rosters can be helpful in arranging car pools.

Uniforms: See uniforms link

Weather:  Rain itself isn't a problem, but waterlogged fields and lightning can cause problems. Here are our bad weather procedures for practice sessions and game days:

• Practice days:  If there has been any significant rain in the previous 48 hours, or the weather forecast calls for rain or storms around practice time, please check the appropriate Academy age group's hot-line or other communication channel before coming out. (The Academy communication channels take priority over the general NASA field status hot-line.) If fields are closed or storms could interfere, at times we're able to make other arrangements and move practice to another location.

  • U10 Girls:  When NASA fields are closed, we always try to find another option, sometimes successfully. A quick review of what / when to check for weather-related changes:

    • Academy web site:  Our web site sometimes has details about changes, other times will refer you to our phone hot-line.

    • Phone hot-line:  We update our Academy phone hot-line by 4 PM on days when we have to switch from our normal schedule. 1-866-206-9066, ext. 8870#. (We don't update the hot-line on a daily basis, only when we switch from normal routine.) Our Academy hot-line trumps the NASA hot-line -- not for all NASA groups, but for our particular G10 Academy group. If you only have time to check one thing, check our phone hot-line.

    • Texting service:  This is a companion to our phone hot-line. If you prefer to receive text messages about last-minute schedule changes, you can do so by following our Twitter account from your cell phone. Twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/nasaacadg10. Details on activating "follow:" www.nasaathenaacademy.org/twitter.htm. Like our hot-line, we only update our Twitter account when we have to change from normal routine.

    • What about e-mail?  If time and logistics permit, we'll send a group e-mail. In many cases, lack of time or being away from a computer prevents us from e-mailing. Nothing has ever prevented us from being able to update our hot-line, though.

• Game days:  If game-day weather is bad, assume games are "on" and will be played as scheduled unless we post otherwise on our Academy web site or Academy phone hot-line, or the host club (for away games) posts otherwise on their web site or field status hot-line. In the case of early morning away games, there's a chance you'll have to be on the road to the field before you can get final confirmation about game status.