Welcome to the Spring 2007 season, we are off to a great start with the fantastic Opening Day we had this past Saturday. The Board ap-preciates all the hard work and long hours our many volunteers devoted to getting the pre-season work done. We have another record number of players and teams in the program this season: 1650 players on 205 teams!

Our biggest challenge this season has been recruiting coaches. We needed to add 91 teams this season to accommo-date the new spring players. While we did get a lot of parents volunteering to be a coach and a leader for our budding super-stars, we still needed to fill 75 coaching slots. For those coaches returning, those who volunteered, and those who said “YES” when we called, a big THANK YOU for taking time and commitment from your schedule and helping our soccer pro-gram.

At the end of fall’s season, we held elections for Vice President and Treasurer. Rich Forcier won the tally as Treasurer and Dave Trussell won as Vice President. Unfortunately, workload forced Dave to decline fulfilling the Vice Presidency but, subsequently, we were able to recruit U10G and MidG coach Dusty Ducher to fill the vacancy. These two positions are supported by Jean Barney, Registrar, Kevin Harper, who filled-in as Secretary, and me, Bob Shultz, President. We are sad to report that Rich accepted a job opportunity in Singapore for the next two years. We will miss his energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to the kids and our soccer program. We cannot thank Rich enough for his contribution over the last several years as an assistant coach and then as a Board member! We are actively recruiting a replacement, including adding a Treasurer’s Assistant to our Coordinator program. If you are interested in contributing to our program and helping the players and families in Nampa KID Soccer, please contact any one of the Board members. Also, this spring we will conduct elections for the other three Board positions: President, Registrar, and Secretary. This will start us on a spring election cycle, which better helps with Fall/Spring continuity. Nampa KID Soccer’s success is driven by the contributions of parents and volunteers. We would like to share with you the great feeling we get when we see the kids practicing and all the cheering and squeals of enjoyment on Game Day. Please stop any one of the coordinators or board members and we’ll share our energy and excitement with you.

The Board would also like to show its appreciation to Mercy Medical Center for allowing our use of the field behind their offices (corner of Juniper St. and Hawaii Ave.) and their continued offer of their parking lot. Without the use of their field and parking lot, we would not have been able to safely handle all the games on Liberty Park. To play games for all 205 teams this spring, we needed 17 fields. We found that we could not easily, and safely, put 17 fields on Liberty Park. By placing the two U4 and three U5 fields on MMC, we were able to ease congestion on the park and manage the traffic and parking around the two sets of fields. So, our gratitude to Mercy Medical Center!

Our ID badge program took the next step in improved quality this year. Keith Christensen from KCPortraits, our team and individual still photographer, took head-shots during the pre-season and used some specialized software to integrate everyone’s information and picture into a unique Nampa KID Soccer ID badge. The ID badge demonstrates to everyone that the recipient passed our vigorous background check process, has permission to work with the players, and access to the field, as appropriate, during games. If you are a coach, assistant, or parent volunteer – anyone who comes in direct, regular contact with the players – you should have registered with us, have your photograph taken, and received your badge.

This season continues the expansion of our uniform program based on feedback we received from players and parents, which we started in the fall. We included color-coordinated shorts and socks along with the player jersey we provided in the past. By providing the shorts, we are supporting the league’s requirement of each player wearing same-colored shorts during games. The addition of socks will help us with a complete uniform and, for the U8 and higher levels, help the referees identify ball possession and last-team-touch for out-of-bounds, etc. Players with incomplete uniforms will be given a warning by a league official, including referees since they are part of Nampa KID Soccer.

To help defray some of our increased program costs, we made a $5 adjustment to our registration fees for the 2006/2007 season. We are sensitive to the financial pressures many of our players and families experience. To minimize the financial strain, we continue to monitor our program costs closely and look for ways to maximize the program value from the products and services we purchase or receive. We also look for volunteer help or local community support to contribute time or resources in bringing the best possible program to our youngsters for the best possible value.

We would like to thank Healthy Nampa, Healthy Youth (HNHY) again for the receipt of a $3000 grant to help cover some of our program costs, especially for players and families requesting scholarships. HNHY is a local coalition of businesses, public service entities, political leaders, and various agencies with the commitment of supporting, developing, and funding youth-oriented activities in our community. We hope to continue receiving HNHY’s support as well as improving the program by providing the type of team-oriented and involved activities the coalition promotes.

We have a lot more in store for the upcoming season, so stay-tuned and keep an eye on our website for announcements and additional team and season information. I hope the spring season is as successful as our previous ones and that our children experience the joy of outdoor activity and playing the world’s most popular sport.

Happy Soccer,

Bob Shultz
Nampa KID Soccer President