Hi everyone!
I hope you players have been staying active and enjoying the summer so far.
I am sending this to every prospective player/family/parent email I have so far – please let me know if you don’t want to be a part of this distribution.
We are close to starting our season, and I’m very excited. I hope you are too!
A goal of mine for this year is to keep emails short, so here are the things you need to know:
Things to Know
- Practice location is EP Church: 308 Possum Park Rd, Newark, DE 19711
- Preseason practices begin 8/14
- Every weeknight at EP
- Season practices and games begin 9/4
- Practices are planned for Tues/Thurs/Fri at EP unless there is a game that day
- See the questionnaire link at the bottom of this email
- Game Schedule: https://www.grizzliessports.com/page28241
- Practices are planned for Tues/Thurs/Fri at EP unless there is a game that day
Things You Need (Prior To Stepping Onto The Field)
- The cost is $185 per player this year.
- Any checks should be made out to Mount Sophia Academy.
- Payment can be given to Stephen Dekker, Tammy Hunter, or the MSA office.
- You need a sports physical form signed by a physician the first day you attend practice.
- The form is different from last year! https://doewebmaster.wpenginepowered.com/…/2023-24-DIAA…
- The physician needs to fill out and sign pages 4 and 5. You can have that done at a sports physical appointment – those can be scheduled with your primary care physician or at a CVS/Walgreens.
- Ensure you have soccer cleats, some practice soccer socks, and shin guards that fit well (here’s a good guide: https://soccerhandbook.com/socce…/best-soccer-shin-guards/).
- Make sure to run in new cleats and shin guards a few times to break them in – this will help prevent blisters at practice.
- New Players: If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out this workout schedule (https://1drv.ms/x/s!Aj0AiWIyZOlaz17Fi5wYA4_BIzAS?e=0fiTKz) and try to run it to the best of your ability.
- Don’t be discouraged if you can’t complete a particular exercise or set – focus on working hard for at least 30 minutes a day.
- At this point, you may not meet our goal of an 8-minute mile if you’re just starting out. However, you still have an entire month to build some strength using this guide so hop to it!
Questions For You To Answer
Our practice schedule during the season can change if we need it to. Please fill out this short Microsoft Form to let me know what you think about the Season practice schedule and that you understand what is needed for the season.
You can do this on a phone – it takes less than 5 minutes 
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Coach Dekker
Stephen Dekker – sjdekker97@gmail.com
Mt. Sophia Academy
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Two more things to mention.
First – if possible, please turn in your sports physical forms and payment to the MSA office ahead of the first practice on 8/14. This will allow for some buffer time to fix any forms that aren’t correct before the first day of practice.
You may turn them in on the first day of practice, but if there are issues with the forms, the player will have to sit out from practice until they are corrected.
Here are the relevant MSA office days when you can drop them off:
July 18, 19 – office open
There will be an office day the week of 7/31 – TBD
August 7 – office open, Career Exploration seminar in the afternoon
Second – please sign up for my Remind class. Remind is a text messaging service that allows me to send messages to the whole team at once and choose whether to keep replies separate or as one big conversation.
I use this for short encouragements and reminders, and it is super handy at away games when we are trying to find the correct field to play at.
If you didn’t get my test message from today (7/16/23) you need to sign up. To sign up, please do one of the following:
- On the computer, go to www.remind.com/join/b7fgcb
- Download the Remind app, and join a class using my class code b7fgcb
- Text the code @b7fgcb to 81010
After following one of those first steps, it should prompt you to give some details about you, including your name, number, and status as parent or student. I recommend you sign up for both parents and students alike – you just need a unique cell number for each person.
As always, feel free to send any questions to me.
Thanks,
Coach Dekker
Stephen Dekker – sjdekker97@gmail.com
Mt. Sophia Academy