Nelson Elite Select Tryouts - Spring 2016

Lady Generals Soccer Community,


It's not too late to sign up to participate in select soccer for the Spring 2016 season. Our local Nelson Elite club will be hosting tryouts to form older division age groups on the girls side. Coach Alex Martin will be coaching a U16 girls team and Coach Whitney Hatfield will be coaching a U17/18 girls team. Tryouts for these teams will occur over the next few days.

Coach Martin will be hosting tryouts for a U16 girls team on Sunday, January 10 from 2:00-3:30PM at TNHS gym. All interested players should attend tryouts (please bring flats and guards in order to participate). Contact Coach Martin if you are unable to attend tryouts or if you have additional questions.

Coach Whitney Hatfield will be hosting tryouts for a U17/18 girls team on Monday, January 11 from 6:00-7:30PM at NCHS gym. All interested players should attend tryouts (please bring flats and guards in order to participate). Contact Coach Hatfield at 502.460.1693 if you are unable to attend tryouts or if you have additional questions.

As usual, feel free to contact me if questions or concerns arise.


Sincerely,


Alex Martin

End of Season Celebration and Checklist

Lady Generals Soccer Community,


Good afternoon. First, I appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we work to organize our end of season items. The purpose of this post is to identify specifics about our banquet celebration and to communicate general end-of-season housekeeping items.

End of Season Celebration
Our banquet celebration will take place Sunday, December 13 from 4:00-6:00PM at TNHS Cafeteria. Your presence is crucial to the success of this event as we celebrate our girls and our team. It's very difficult to accommodate for everyone's busy schedules, so my apologies if the date and time do not work with your schedule. We will celebrate our season through a pot-luck meal, player recognition, and picture slideshow. I request the dress for this event to be semi-formal attire. Follow the checklist below to ensure each of us are prepared for celebration.

1. Attendance - each player should complete this one-question survey to communicate how many people in your party will be attending the event.
2. Dish Request - In order to make the pot-luck meal possible, each player has been requested to bring a dish. Click on this link to view your requested dish. 
• If you feel really passionate about a particular dish of yours, then feel free to adjust the request as you see fit. 
• We will serve fried chicken with the sides requested (booster account will purchase the fried chicken).

Uniform Collection

All players will be expected to bring their uniform to the banquet for recollection. Please have all pieces of your uniform cleaned and placed in an individual bag with its player's name on it. As a coaching staff we have to assess our uniforms from a count and durability perspective. 

We will offer a uniform purchase deal for any senior player who wishes to keep parts of their uniform for personal memorabilia. Obviously, any part of the uniform which is kept by a senior player will need to be replaced before the following season and therefore the purchase price of your uniform will be equal to the purchase price of a replacement jersey. According to BSN Sports, the prices to replace pieces of our uniforms are listed below (click on this link - tops, shorts - if you wish to view a purchase recipit from additional uniforms that we ordered two years ago).

Short-sleeve tops = $60.00 per top

Long-sleeve tops = $67.50 per top

Shorts = $32.75 per short

Follow these steps if you wish to purchase part of your uniform

1. Return all pieces you do not wish to keep in a individual bag with its player's name on it to the banquet.
2. For the pieces you wish to keep, total your purchase and make a check out to TNHS - Girls Soccer and bring this to the banquet.

Feel free to contact me if additional questions arise.

Sincerely,

TNHS Girls Soccer Coaching Staff

Player Survey - Awards and General Housekeeping

Lady Generals,


I have created a survey to gather information about our your attendance at our banquet, to vote for player awards, and to inquire about your interest with off-season activities. As a member of the team, make sure your voice is heard by completing the survey within the given timeframe.

The survey has three parts. Make sure you are able to answer all of the questions before you complete the survey because you can only submit it once. The three parts of the survey are described below.

Survey Parts

1. Banquet attendance. We will have our end of the season celebration banquet on Sunday, December 6 at TNHS cafeteria from 4:00-6:00PM. Note we are not having the banquet this weekend.
2. Player Awards. You will have an opportunity to vote for players who best exemplified the traits described for each award. The awards are different from last year as they better align to our values. We will have one representative from both the JV and Varsity teams be recognized for each award. Reference each award and its description below.
• Higher Purpose Award - A player who exemplifies these characteristics played for a higher purpose. They did not use the game to just compete and win, but they used the game to help prepare them for life. They seeked excellence in all areas - in the classroom, outside of school in their community, as a person, and as a player.
• Community Award - A player who exemplifies these characteristics invested a lot of energy into building the community within our program. They reached out to develop relationships with ALL of our teammates. They reached out to help support others on and off of the field. They were a consistent positive life force - someone others wanted to be around.
• Team over Individual Award - A player who exemplified these characteristics ALWAYS placed the needs of the team above their own needs. They would sacrifice their own self-interest for the greater good of the team. They played for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back of the jersey.
• Pursuit of Excellence Award - A player who exemplified these characteristics consistently looked to themselves for ways to improve. They consistently worked to get better by focusing on the small things. They never settled for "that was good enough". They pushed the tempo in practice and they constantly pushed themselves and the team to improve.
• LEADER Award - A player who exemplified these characteristics were a true LEADER on our team and to our program. Others looked up to this person and they were a player who you would follow. They represented and lived our LEADER values on a consistent basis.
3. Off-Season Interest Inquiry. You'll simply rate your level of interest for potential off-season activities.

Let me know if you have any questions about the items on the survey. You must be logged-in to your school's Google account in order to access the survey. Reminder, you can only submit it one time. Click on this link to access the survey when you are ready.


Thanks,


Coach Martin

5th Region Tournament

Lady Generals Soccer Community,


Good afternoon, I'd like to thank all of the fans and supporters who came out to the 19th District Tournament. The energy from the crowd and the contest was electric, and as a result it was a fun environment to be a part of. Ultimately, we came up short on our goal of 19th District Champions, however we have advanced into region play and a greater trophy awaits the winner! As a team, we're moving forward and focusing our energy on advancing in the region tournament.

The rest of this blog post will provide specifics about the 5th Region Tournament and our practice plans to prepare for the those games. Elizabethtown High School (they have a very nice stadium with turf surface) will host the 5th Region Girls Soccer Tournament (click here for an official tournament bracket). In the 1st round of regions, Thomas Nelson will play LaRue County on Sunday, October 18th at 2:00PM. We will not be taking a bus for this weekend game. If we were to advance in the region, then our game schedule would be the following: Sunday at 2:00, Tuesday at 5:30, then the finals would take place on Thursday at 6:00. Goooooo Lady Generals!

Please click on this link to view our practice plans as we prepare for the region tournament. As usual, feel free to reach out with questions or concerns should they arise.


Sincerely,


Alex Martin

Celebrating Taylor's Life

Lady Generals Soccer Community,

I am very grateful for the continued love, support, and care that we have received from our community and our supporters. In recent years, I've gained a greater appreciation for the value of personal relationships and the bonds to which we develop on a daily basis. At the end of the day, it's the loving care and support of each other that will help this program and its stakeholders to continue to grow. Continue tending to these relationships in a positive manner and our community will prosper even more.

On behalf of Will Blaire, close friend of Taylor Martin, he would like to formerly invite our Lady Generals Soccer Community to Keystone Cinema to watch a video that celebrates Taylor's life. The video will be shown tonight, October 1, at 6:30PM at Keystone Cinemas in Bardstown. Each of the soccer players and their families have been invited to the 6:30 showing. The video is approximately 45 minutes in length and will highlight videos, pictures, and music that celebrates Taylor's life. I have informed the girls that attendance is optional and we will end practice early enough to allow for adequate transition time. My apologies on the late notice. Click on the video below to listen to a song written and performed by Aaron Givan in memory of Taylor.

As usual, feel free to reach out with questions or concerns.


Thanks,


Alex Martin

“A community’s well-being simply has to do with the quality of relationships, the cohesion that exists amongst its citizens...it is the extent to which we extend hospitality and affection to one another.” 

Peter Block

Forever in Our Hearts - #14

Lady Generals Soccer Community,

Play for Tay! Taylor was an involved member of our first Legacy Core team, and her assistance with forming the framework for our LEADERship team has laid the foundation for many Generals to come. Taylor was very mature for her age, always offering a holistic perspective on what this team and program was meant to accomplish. Taylor's comments will continue to echo throughout our program as I've organized Taylor's comments from our Legacy Core meetings on this document (click here). I would encourage you to read through this document to gain a perspective on what she wanted for this team and program to accomplish. 

Our Lady Generals Soccer team and TNHS Athletic Family plan to honor Taylor in a variety of ways throughout the rest of the season. Our coaching staff is always brainstorming and having conversations with invested stakeholders to make sound conclusions. I'm sure additional ideas will form, but currently these are a few of the ideas that we have in place to honor Taylor.

1. We have made special "Play for Tay" t-shirts and armbands for each member of the soccer team. Special thanks to Sarah Rogers for organizing the production of the t-shirts, and a huge appreciation to Apparel and Awards Factory for donating these shirts to the team. Expenses for the armbands were taking care of through our booster account. See the image to the right to view the "Play for Tay" gear. 
2. In our first home game following the loss of Taylor, we will honor Taylor by hosting a shield posting ceremony tomorrow night before the JV game. Our soccer team will participate in a small gathering in which we will mount a General Shield that commemorates Taylor in an area overlooking the soccer field. I would like to formally invite everyone to attend, the ceremony will be short and sweet, and should take place at 5:45PM. Following the ceremony, we will support our JV team as they kickoff against Christian Academy of Louisville at 6:00.
3. We several ideas formulating for our senior night celebrations. I would like to thank Michelle Simpson for taking the LEAD on this event, your commitment to these girls and our community is remarkable. Stay tuned for more information regarding our senior night celebration.
4. Additionally, I have visions to decorate or build a landscaping area of a flower bed, shrubbery, and/or tree, and then to dedicate this area in memory of Taylor. We're currently brainstorming options on what that would look like.  

Numerous schools, community supporters, friends, and parents have reached out to me or this program in a variety of ways and I've been extremely thankful for the love and support that we have received. I would like to send a special thanks to each of you for your work and care in our most precious resource - the growth of our Generals would not be possible without your diligent support.

Sincerely,

Alex Martin

Coach's Response to Ejections

Lady Generals Soccer Community,


Thank you for your continued support and Happy Labor Day Weekend. As many of you are aware, at our most recent game vs. Oldham County, myself and a TNHS player received red cards and were ejected from the match. The purpose of this post is to address the situation, take accountability for my actions, and to communicate next steps for how we will learn from this and move forward. Our coaching staff has already met with our players on Thursday to discuss these items.

Accountability for My Actions
I would like to start by apologizing to our players, parents, and supporters for my actions at the game. Receiving an ejection from a match is an embarrassment to myself and our program. Additionally, I will be required to face suspension penalties that will essentially prevent me from directing helping our players. Also, I believe the subsequent red card and ejection received by our player occurred as a result of me being ejected. Ultimately, my actions has affected many people. I take full responsibility for them and I would like to apologize for my actions.

From my experiences I do not believe my actions towards the official warranted such a harsh decision. However, he is the referee, and regardless of how unjust we feel his decisions are throughout the game we must respect his calls. I will be honest and state that I was completely unaware of the harsh suspension penalties that occur as a result of a coach's ejection. I will face a 3 game suspension in which I will not be able to coach, sit on the sideline, or even attend the game as a spectator. Were I aware of this penalty, I can assure you that I would have acted much more intelligently. Many of our players and supporters understand the passion, care, and love I have for our players and program, and it's going to hurt me deeply not being able to support our girls during the next 3 games.

Our Current Reality
As referenced above, I have met with our players to discuss the events that occurred on Wednesday, our current reality, and how we will move learn and move forward together. Our team and program has numerous goals that we would like to accomplish, and we are moving forward to continue to work towards those goals.

I will face a 3 game suspension in which I will not be allowed to coach. Thankfully, we have two knowledgeable assistant coaches who are fully capable of picking up for my absence. We will continue to work and collaborate together, but I have full confidence in their abilities to keep our heading. I am allowed to attend and coach at practice, and therefore we will conduct our practices as usual. However, Coach Hurst and Coach Michael will work collaboratively to manage the next 3 games.

Our ejected player will serve a 2 game suspension and will not be allowed to participate during those games. She is a very strong player and someone who we routinely rely heavily upon in our defense. Her absence will open up minutes for another player and we expect our all of our players to have her back by stepping up in her absence.

Stay the Course
Our coaching staff is fully aware of our team record over the past 4 games (1-3-0), bringing our overall varsity record to 4-3-0. I assure you that no one hates losing more than myself, however I am able to keep our recent performance in check by understanding the context of what we are trying to accomplish. Ultimately, we want to continue working to get better each and every day, and one of our goals as a team is to be playing our best soccer by the time the postseason begins. We intentionally increased the difficulty of schedule because we knew that our girls need to be challenged in order to experience adequate growth. We will continue pushing to improve each and every day. We will continue to seek necessary adjustments to ensure we're playing our best soccer by the time our district tournament begins. Have confidence in our girls, coaches, and program, and stay the course.

As usual, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have a question or concern. I want each of our supporters to be on the same page and thus I am a firm believer in having necessary conversations.


Sincerely,



Alex Martin