Our spring 2022 season ended with us entering three Junior Academy Girls teams in the NTH Adidas Select Cup tournament. All three of our teams either finished as champions or runners-up in their respective divisions.
Tryouts quickly followed. Tryouts are now complete (links: tryouts / tryout results). So it’s time for a well-earned 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!
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 (and free!) “Fridays / July Days” 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, or with a sibling, friend or parent as a training partner, 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.nasatophat.com/competitive-camps; click NTH Tophat Academy Girls Summer Training for details
- Girls Academy Speed/Mobility Camp. 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:
- Registration (updated May 28): Registration is open. NASA Tophat 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.
- Orientation: Before COVID became a thing, we had June in-person parent orientation meetings. The purpose was to review the Junior Academy program (schedules, procedures and philosophies), registration, uniforms and other related topics. We have moved away from the in-person meetings and have replaced them with an on-line orientation presentation.
- Uniforms: NASA Tophat is entering the 2nd year of a 2-year uniform cycle. New players will need to order uniforms. Returning players get to keep their current uniforms. Our uniform supplier (Soccer.com) will create an on-line NASA Tophat uniform store. The store will be likely be ready for orders in mid-June. Once the store is up and running, our supplier will contact new 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: Thursday, June 9, 2022.
When do we start our fall season?
- We start fall season prep with Academy Team Camp the week of August 1st.
- We start regular practices the week of August 8th 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.