Manchester North Soccer League

Coaches Guide

Introduce yourself!

Contact your assistant coaches first. Find out if they have ever coached before. Talk about your different coaching styles. Ask if they have a preference on how to coach. Understand how much time they have available and what they would like to do to help.

Contact all parents/guardians to let them know what team their children are on and introducing yourself and the assistant coaches is an essential part of organizing the team.

When you call the parents, do not just tell them the information, ask them about their child, find out what the child likes and does not like. This information is invaluable in building a successful team at every division. This also helps you develop a Practice Schedule and to be able to make this a great experience for you, the parents and the kids.

Some things that parents will need to know when you call are:

Your name and contact information and preferred method of communication (phone call, email, cell)
Your assistant coaches name(s) and contact information
The name of the team their child will be on
The color of the team
How many children are on the team
Day, time and location of practices
When and where the games will be played (you can point them to the Field Information page on the site - coming soon!)

Take a minute before you call any of the parents and write down each of these items with the answer so that when you call you have the answers available and you can focus on talking with the parent. Sometimes a parent will ask you for one of the pieces of information out of order, and having the answers written out will help you answer the question quickly without losing your train of thought.

Here is a sample intro you can use to get the conversation going:

Hello [Parent's Name], I am calling from Manchester North Soccer League. I will be coaching your [son/daughter] [child's name] this year and would like to give you the information that you need and ask some questions.

If you get a voice mail, do not just leave the information on the answering machine. Customize the intro above and ask the parent to call you back. Talking with the parent is much more pleasant and you do not want to miss out on the chance to ask the parent questions about the child's likes/dislikes etc.

If you do not hear back from the parent in a day or so, then call back. If you are not able to get through after 3 or more times, then leave a message with all the details and notify the Division Manager that you were not able to connect with the parent. The Division Manager will most likely be getting a call from the parent, and it will help the Division Manager to know that you tried.

Make sure that you know when you are playing, when practices will be held, know your team players names.

This will be given to you when you are called and given your team's information.

Things will come up so be prepared for anything.

Please plan to have your team arrive at least 15 minutes prior to all games in order to be on the field at the correct time. Remember - if you are late, all the games following will be late.

Please contact your Division Manager for any issues that may arise.

Please make sure that all equipment is returned and checked in at Concessions on the last day of the season.

Thanks so much for all your hard work and dedication to support the team!