Parents,

As we indicated in our survey email that went out a couple of weeks ago - girls volleyball and basketball WILL be switching seasons for the upcoming school year. As the number of teams participating in the traditional CYO seasons has diminished so has the competition, and the distance between teams has radically increased. Leaving us with little choice but to switch the season to match the majority of the league.

As we are well aware, this puts the two most popular girls sports ( soccer and volleyball ) directly on top of each other, and has created a lot of chatter and confusion among parents. We sent the survey to gauge the level of complexity that this change will cause for our coordinators and teams. Having reviewed those results and discussed internally how we intend to deal with these issues we are now prepared to detail our position on these conflicts.

1. St. Michael’s Athletic Boosters is encouraging our female athletes to sign up for any and all of the sports that they are interested in.

2. We will work diligently to minimize conflicts between volleyball and soccer games, as well as practices.

3. Coaches will be directed to not penalize players who have practice conflicts. (this is for St. Mike conflicts only)

4. Girls who make the ‘A’ team for volleyball will be expected to put volleyball BEFORE soccer if a game conflict arises.

5. Requests for specific team assignments have never been promised, and most likely cannot be granted due to the complexities of spreading the girls to minimize team conflicts.

6. Soccer eligibility changes this year from school year ( August-July ) to birth year ( Jan - Dec ) . This means that in some cases kids will not be able to play with their friends in their grade. If your kid is extremely young, or extremely old, they may be affected. Please understand that we cannot honor any requests to ‘play up’ in order to play with their friends/classmates. Building teams is already super complicated with the possible conflicts with volleyball.

7. Those interested in cheerleading need to understand that this activity can be layered on top of these other two sports due to the lower commitment required in cheerleading. ( 1 practice directly after school per week, and cheer at games if no conflicts)

We have seen a disturbing trend among parents where there are less volunteering to coach teams. With these two popular sports overlapping each other we are going to need more VIRTUS certified parents to volunteer to be coaches for both soccer and volleyball. A lack of coaches WILL result in an in ability to field teams.  If you know nothing about the sport we can and will help you find the material to make you an effective coach. These are your kids and it is time to step up!

Registration for both sports will open by April 1, and close at the end of April. Talent nights for 3,4,5 grade volleyball, and tryouts for 6,7,8 volleyball, will be held in May BEFORE school is out. Teams will be formed immediately following these events. Late registrations cannot be accommodated for soccer or volleyball due to the complex timing of these events.

Thanks and Go Mustangs,

Doug Jacobs

President

St. Michael's Athletic Booster

513-739-9471