Tryouts are complete, so now it’s time for a summer break. Many youth development experts encourage kids to take occasional 2-week breaks from adult-organized sports. This is an ideal time for a 2-week break. But that doesn’t mean we suggest becoming a summer couch potato!
Summer break sports options:
Does your daughter want to put her soccer ball away for a while but still stay active? Swimming, tennis, dance, gymnastics or martial arts are good options. They keep players in shape and help with overall athletic development. Summer is also vacation and nature camp time. So feel free to enjoy a break from organized soccer!
Summer break soccer options:
We won’t have any regularly scheduled Junior Academy Girls team training during June. But if there’s enough interest, we’ll reprise last summer’s optional “Fridays in July” sessions. (We’ll poll families in late June to gauge interest.)
If your daughter is an independent self-starter who wants to practice skills on her own, check out our play at home activities. Our play at home site includes descriptions and demo videos of a bunch of different skill-building activities.
If your daughter wants to participate in large-group clinics, Tophat offers two different summer group training programs:
- Girls Academy Summer Training. Link to more info: https://www.nth-tophat.com/Default.aspx?tabid=316363
- Girls Academy Speed/Mobility Summer Programs. This is a new offering this summer. Follow the same link as above for more info.
If your daughter is looking for individual or small group training, consider having her train with our long-time helpers Emily (“ET”) and Ally.
The budding entrepreneurs (also known as Misfits Soccer Training) are high level players who have years of experience as guest coaches with our Junior Academy Girls program. They relate wonderfully to young kids. Plus they have a super-cool TOCA machine. You can reach them at 4(zero)4-9(three)8-3(five)44.
Summer break for parents:
With tryouts complete, we now shift into administrative mode. There are three summer to-do tasks for parents:
Register for Junior Academy (deadline Friday, June 11):
NTH registrar Stevi Nuss will e-mail a notice to families of players who have been invited to join or return to the Junior Academy Girls program. Once you receive this message (likely late May / early June), you’re clear to register.
- Registration (updated May 28): Registration is open. All parents should have received a registration-related e-mail message from NTH Tophat registrar Stevi Nuss. Refer to the registration page for more details. Stevi requests that everyone register by Friday, June 11.
- Orientation: Before COVID became a thing, we had June in-person parent orientation meetings. We have moved away from the in-person meetings and have replaced them with an on-line orientation presentation.
- Uniforms (updated June 8): NTH Tophat will start a new uniform cycle for the fall 2021 season. Our uniform supplier (soccer.com) will create an on-line NTH Tophat uniform store. The store’s activation date is currently TBD (estimate late June). Once the store is up and running, our supplier will contact players’ families to let them know they are ready to process uniform orders. For the time being, the only thing you need to do uniform-wise is to submit uniform number requests. Deadline: Tuesday, June 22, 2021.
When do we start our fall season?
- We start fall season prep with Academy Team Camp the week of August 2nd.
- We start regular practices the week of August 9th following team camp.
- Junior Academy groups won’t play a pre-season tournament. (Fall season tournaments normally start at the under-9 age.)
- Weekly Academy play starts the weekend after Labor Day. We usually receive our fall season game day schedule in late August.