PRESEASON SOCCER MEMO

With practice officially beginning this week, there are a couple of items to bring to the attention of both coaches and officials. A few of these items were touched on at the rules meeting, but it merits a reminder to all now that the season has begun.

Class 1A Regional Date: I’ve received some correspondence regarding the first date of Class 1A regionals. Due to the Memorial Day holiday weekend, several first round Class 1A regional matches will be played Thursday, May 27^th (Last year, there were only 13 first round matches). This date has been on the unified calendar since it was approved last April. A reminder, schools may still play regular season matches until the tournament series concludes with the state finals June 12.

Online Rules Meeting Ends April 1: The last day to view the online rules meeting is midnight, April 1. Varsity head coaches are required to view the meeting and officials that would like to work regional contests are also required to view the online meeting. If you have not met this requirement, please get this done before the April 1 deadline.

2010 Soccer Administrative Regulations and Iowa soccer adaptations are both on the soccer website. There are no new adaptations for the 2010 season and the regulations have not changed from the previous year, but please take a few minutes to review both documents.

Classification: I’d like to have classification finalized before the start of the first match. The latest classification numbers can be found on the IGHSAU website by clicking here. If I’m missing a sharing agreement, please contact me as soon as possible. I’d like the numbers finalized no later than April 2nd.

Site Availabilities: If you would like to have your soccer field considered for the regional tournament, please have your AD fill out the site availability form as soon as possible. A list of schools that have applied (as of March 23) to host can be found by clicking here.

Prospectus Online: Coaches are encouraged to download and fill out the 2010 prospectus. This information is very useful in preparing preseason rankings, which I’m planning on tentatively releasing April 1. The more information, the better! The form can be downloaded by clicking here.

Send in your scores: I will once again have a daily score list available on the website. Coaches are encouraged to e-mail their scores to jasoneslinger@ighsau.org. Feel free to include any individual highlights or milestones that may occur in your matches.

Check the website daily: It is recommended that coaches check the soccer website daily. Important information regarding soccer will be posted on the soccer website immediately. This is especially important at tournament time as any weather-related postponements/rescheduling will be posted on the website first. The soccer is page can be found by clicking here.

Sign Up For the IGHSAU Soccer E-mail List: Soccer coaches, officials and fans are urged to sign up for the IGHSAU’s free e-mail subscription. All memos, weekly rankings, site changes, and weather-related postponements during the regional tournaments will be distributed to e-mail subscribers. The subscription is sport-specific, so if you are interested in receiving news specific to soccer, simply subscribe to the soccer list. The goal of this service is to offer another form of distributing information in a timely manner. To subscribe to our e-mail list, click here.

Official Reminders: A couple of items for officials. Many of you have received correspondence about our new online official lockers. If you are interested in working regional tournament matches, you must have an online official locker set up as regional & state tournament assignments and contracts will all be done through the online lockers. Tournament availabilities are also done through the official lockers. There is also an area in the lockers where officials may put in their regular season schedules. Please do this!! If you have any questions or problems regarding the online lockers, feel free to contact me or Joel Oswald for assistance.

Also – please double-check your online lockers to make sure you have received credit for attending/viewing the soccer rules meeting and you are listed as tournament eligible. If you are not listed as tournament eligible and should be, please contact the State Office. All of the attendees of rule meetings should be in the system by April 12^th, so please check after that date.

Officials are also asked to please sign both scorebooks before each match. Coaches are required to recommend officials for tournament play at the end of the season and it is difficult to recommend officials when they have no record of who worked their matches. Taking the time to do this will only benefit you in the end.

Please feel free to contact me at any point in the season with any questions you may have. Good luck to everyone this spring.

Jason Eslinger

Assistant Director/Soccer Administrator