2016 Season-End Thoughts

Well, believe it or not, the 2016 KCSL season has now come and gone! First of all, I want to thank all the parents and players for your amazing participation this year. In general, we enjoyed a fabulous season, with over 500 players enjoying the game of soccer each week!

As you know, each season comes with its ups and downs. We started the season with some very nice weather, and we ended it with the same. I will admit, we had some cold and wet weather in between that we all had to endure! But everyone did great!

I want to also thank our many volunteer coaches. I say this every year, but it doesn't minimize the importance of this group of great people! Without these coaches that give of their time, offer their experience, and demonstrate care and concern for our players, we would not be a successful youth soccer league. So, ONCE AGAIN, "thank you" to all of our coaches, assistant coaches, and team managers.

No season goes without its hiccups. This year, we were a little short of meeting our sponsorship goals. That prevented us from offering any extra participation awards to our players this season. We always hope to be able to do that each season, but it just was not in the cards for this year. We hope that your players were still satisfied with the jerseys and valuable time they received on the fields. If anyone is aware of sponsorship opportunities that we may have missed this year, please let us know. We would love to meet those budget goals next season.

We also had a few times this season where the proper mix of PARTICIPATION versus COMPETITION were challenged. Many factors play into this: coaching, referees, fans, etc. At KCSL, we are always trying to find the right blend of these two great attributes of the game of soccer. Our board is dedicated to keeping a friendly level of competition in our league. We feel it adds to the overall enjoyment and success of the season. From time to time, we end up with a game that pushes the edges of "friendly competition". If you experienced one of those games, we do apologize for that. We truly intend for every KCSL game to be enjoyable for all involved: players, coaches, fans, and referees. We will continue to look for ways to improve this blend of PARTICIPATION and COMPETITION from season to season.

Please mark your calendars NOW for February 2017. That is when registration for our Spring 2017 season will get underway. In the meantime, please keep your eyes open for an announcement regarding a Fall 2016 camp-style season. The Warsaw Travel Soccer Club and KCSL will be combining efforts to host this Saturday-mornings-only camp. Once the details are completed and available, I will be sending you another email. We will also be announcing it on our Facebook page.

Have a super summer...keeping playing soccer in the back yard...and we plan to see you again soon out on the soccer fields!