Taylor Martin Memorial Game

Nearly one year ago, our community lost a dear friend, teammate, and Original General as Taylor Martin was taken from us on September 10th, 2015. Taylor embodied the notion of LEADERship through peacemaking, CARE, and friendship. Through collaboration with our Legacy Core team and our TNHS LEADERship team, we have identified our home match vs. Nelson County on September 12, 2016 as the "Taylor Martin Memorial Game" to honor and celebrate her life.

We intend to make September 12th a day of remembrance and celebration as we have a variety of unique activities planned for that afternoon. First, we intend to make this a community celebration and we want to invite all members of our community to this event. Our school community will be hosting House Tailgate to create a space for students and community members to gather and connect before the game. The House Tailgate is planned to take place next to the tennis courts and is set to begin at 5:00PM. TNHS plans to provide and grill hamburgers and hot dogs for the tailgate, however, a few other items have been requested to ensure its success. If you would like to bring something (soft drinks, water, cups, chips, pop-up tent, etc) to the House Tailgate, please add your item or suggestion to this document.

Finally, we have established a scholarship foundation to honor Taylor's life. The Taylor Martin Memorial Scholarship Foundation seeks to raise $10,000 contributing to an annual $1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior over the next 10 years. This scholarship will be awarded to a senior female that represents peacemaking, CARE, and LEADERship. ALL proceeds from the September 12th game and its aligned events will go directly to the scholarship foundation.

Next Steps for our Lady Generals Community

1. Please help spread the word about the Taylor Martin Memorial Game. All proceeds from the game and its events will go directly to the scholarship foundation. Game times for the September 12th game are JV - 6:00PM, Varsity - 7:30PM.
2. Review the House Community Tailgate list and contribute items as you see fit.
3. We also need two additional community partners to work concessions during the varsity game and two ball boys/girls to support during the JV game. Please add your name to this document if you wish to support.
4. Please reach to Coach Martin if you additional comments or questions.
5. Special thanks to Senior and Legacy Core Member Claire Hicks for helping organize this special event!

Home Game Work Schedule

We have 5 home games remaining on our schedule and we want to ensure our community members and guests enjoy their experience at Thomas Nelson. In order for our home games to run efficiently and effectively we need your support! With all the moving parts in place, it takes a village to build a successful program. So, we request that at least one parent representative work AT LEAST one work shift per child on the team.

You will find there are still several openings in our schedule and thus plenty of opportunity to provide your support. I request each parent to complete these steps:

1. Review our current work schedule (CLICK HERE).
2. Sign up for a position and time slot if you have not already done so. Simply click in the box you wish to sign up for and type your name and the name of your child in the box (example: Jeannie Watkins - Amelia). If you are not a fan of Google Docs then simply text Coach Martin and I'll update the document with your request. 
3. Print your work schedule. Remember your date and provide your service for the duration of the time slot.

Again, thank you for your support!

Team Captain Selection: How will you LEAD?

Background:

All team members will have a voice towards the selection of team captains this season for both the JV and Varsity teams. Our coaching staff collaborated with our Legacy Core team to nominate girls who possessed the demeanor and potential to serve in a leadership role for our program. See the list below to view the nominees, congratulations to those for being recognized!!

Process:

All players will have a chance to vote. Girls who participate on the JV team will vote for JV captains, and girls who participate on the varsity team will vote for their team captains. Each girl will vote for 3 candidates to serve in this capacity, votes will be counted and team captains will be announced.

Nominees:

JV - Izzy Whitis, Caroline Boone, Sierra Meza, Caroline Middleton, Rachel Rosario, Shaye Hartman, and Grace Thurman

Varsity - Julia Rogers, Sammi Howard, Marley Rogers, Grace James, Joanna Whitis, Amelia Watkins, Cameron Boone, Claire Hicks, Valerie Rogers, Haleigh Reiter, and Maddie Byrd

Things to Consider:

What does it mean to serve as a team captain? What does a quality captain look like? Click HERE for an interested read to explain.

Vote:

JV players ONLY will vote for their JV captain while Varsity players ONLY will vote for their team captain. Only players who participate in a dual role will vote for both. 

JV Captain Link

Varsity Captain Link

Kick-off Celebration Follow Up

Special thanks to everyone who was able to attend today's kick-off celebration; it was fun! If you were unable to attend, then no worries, all of the important documents from our celebration have been linked to this blog post. Also, have a laugh by viewing our program Facebook page to see our siblings battle it out in the tire tug-of-war.

Reference Documents - Refer to these as you see fit

1. Kick-off Presentation - See this presentation to view our Coach's message, incoming player introductions, how to positively support our program, player policies and much more.
2. TNHS Athletic Handbook - All encompassing handbook for athletics at Thomas Nelson.
3. Extracurricular Eligibility Policy - Student-Athlete eligibility policy to participate in athletics.

Next Steps

1. Please send all necessary paperwork with your daughter to practice ASAP. Players who were unable to attend kick-off celebration will receive this paperwork tomorrow.

Kick-off Events and Celebrations

Good afternoon and Happy Sunday! This blog post will unveil our 2016 Match Schedule and will preview numerous upcoming program events and activities. With a number of items on our agenda, I'll get right to it...

2016 Match Schedule
I couldn't be more excited for slate of games featured in our 2016 game schedule. Our schedule is full of tough competition that will challenge our Lady Generals and will force us to continue to grow. Highlights of our schedule include 6 district games (each district opponent will now play each other twice during the regular season), our first home match is a scrimmage vs. Eastern on August 12, and participation in two regular season tournaments - I-65 Battle of the Turfs in Elizabethtown and the Visit Danville Classic at Boyle County. Continue to stay up-to-date with our team activities by viewing our Living Team Calendar (changes occur weekly).

With that being said, our program plans to celebrate our Lady Generals and the official start of our season in a variety of ways over the next couple weeks. Please see the list below for an official description of upcoming events.

Wednesday, August 3 - Scrimmage at South Oldham HS
Our first scrimmage will take place at South Oldham HS - JV kicks off at 6:00PM, Varsity to follow at 7:45PM. Our team will be taking a bus. All players are required to ride the bus to the field with the team but may ride home with a parent as long as they have written permission. Bus to South Oldham will depart from TNHS around 4:00PM. Please click here for directions to the field.

Friday, August 5 - Back to School Bash
Come meet the LEADERs of TNHS and celebrate with our community the start of the 2016-2017 school year. Open house will kick off B2SB where Generals can get their new class schedule, meet their TNHS LEADERs, obtain locker combinations, and much more. Open house will occur inside the school from 5:00-7:00PM. Festivities will then transition to TNHS football field at 7:00PM where Generals and community members can participate in a variety of games and activities. Please visit the Lady Generals Soccer section.

Saturday, August 6 - Soccer Field Clean-Up
The Generals and Lady Generals soccer teams partner together to clean-up and prepare our soccer facilities for the upcoming season. Community Partners will clean our concessions, pressbox, bleachers, sidewalks, etc, and will line and paint our soccer game field. We will need approximately 10 girls soccer volunteers and 10 boys soccer volunteers to support the event. Clean-up and field-lining will start around 8:00AM, please contact Coach Martin if you are interested.

Sunday, August 7 - Kickoff Celebration
Lady Generals Soccer will host a kickoff celebration on August 7 from 5:00-6:30PM in TNHS cafeteria. The celebration will feature food, coach's introduction and message, excerpts from the Legacy Core, and logistic paperwork items. Stay tuned for dish requests later this week. We ask both players and parents attend this event.

Wednesday, August 10 - Navy-White Scrimmage
We will host our first annual inner-squad scrimmage on August 10. The scrimmage will introduce our girls to our community as they compete against each other. Junior varsity players will play an 8v8 match starting at 5:30PM, followed by a 8v8 varsity match at 6:30PM. Admission is FREE.

Thursday, August 18 - TNHS Fall Sports Showcase
In our first annual TNHS Sports Showcase, all fall sports teams will gather from 4:00-7:00PM on August 18th to take team and player pictures, sign team contracts, speak with local media, and celebrate our TNHS fall sports teams. More details to come at a later time.

Finally, I would like to thank our Legacy Core leaders as they have and will continue to play an important role in organizing and running these events, nice work ladies!

Still to come this week...
Tuesday - Soccer uniform delivery. Girls will be given team uniforms for the upcoming season.
Tuesday - JV and varsity team reveal. Girls will be notified which squads they will be playing on for Wednesday's scrimmage. Please reach out if you have questions or concerns.

Legacy Core 2.3: Creating Together

Agenda

1. Team Norms - time and place for feedback
2. Team Captain selection - What should this process look like?
3. Collaborating Systems
• Shared Google Folder
• Legacy Core Google Classroom
4. Focus Events
• B2SB
• Field Clean-up
• Kick-off Banquet
• Navy-White Scrimmage
• Fall Sports Showcase

Legacy Core Meeting 2.2 - What can we create together?

Agenda

1. Team Norms Review - how can we efficiently work together?
2. Collaborating Systems - Shared Google Folder
3. Pulse of the Team
4. Event Planning - what can we accomplish over the next couple weeks?
5. What roles could we establish within the Legacy Core?