Date: September 1, 2003

To: All Tennessee High School Boys’ and Girls’ Soccer Coaches

From: TACA Girls’ State Chairman

TACA Boys’ State Chairman

Subject: Post-Season Selections

The start of the new school year and 2003/2004 soccer seasons is underway. We would like to take this opportunity at the beginning of the year to explain to all coaches (both old and new) about how post-season selections will be made in the boys’ and girls’ seasons this year.

• First of all, we need all coaches and teams to include their schedules and results in Tennessee State Soccer database at www.soccerinfo.com.
• If you are new or have forgotten your ID and password, go to the web site and click on the “Volunteer Registration Form.”
• After completing the registration form, an ID and password will be sent you. You can then enter your team’s schedule and update it with game results.

• To update the schedule, simply click on “HS Teams in TN,” and then go to “Find a Team.” Locate the team you want and click on that team. At that point, click on “Update Game Schedule” and enter your ID and password.
• Please update all the coaches’ information as well, and provide an e-mail address at which you can be contacted.

For this to work, ALL the coaches in the state need to participate and update the data base with schedules and scores. We can no longer rely on any one person to do this, so we all must take a more active and involved role in keeping soccer alive and growing in our state.

Coaches should start out by looking at different teams around the state on the web site. This will give a good idea of the caliber of play. Weekly rankings are done by a group of “ranking coaches” from around the state in each division. Each week the “ranking coaches” submit their top picks. “Ranking coaches” are those coaches whose teams play a competitive schedule and have opportunities to see many of the teams in the state which in turn helps them make comparisons. If you feel you should be included in this process, please e-mail us and we will consider your request.

The selection process for All-State begins near the end of the season during the district and regional competitions. Each region and district has its own system for identifying the nominees. Regional team selections will be forwarded to the State Chairman for possible selection to All-State, All-South, and All-America positions.

Ø 1) Only those teams that have updated schedules posted on the web site will be eligible to have their players listed on the ballot or be eligible for any of the above named post-season awards, AND 2) only NSCAA coaches will be allowed to vote, and only those players whose coach is a NSCAA member are eligible for post-season nominations. The criteria in 1 and 2 both must be met in order for a player to be considered for post-season awards.

Ø To facilitate voting, we request that voting be handled via e-mail. On soccer information’s web site, there is a place where coaches can enter their e-mail addresses. Voting this way will be much easier, particularly with the boys’ teams because of the school year ending. Any coaches who don’t already have an e-mail address should try to get one, either at school or at home. An e-mail account is easy to obtain, and e-mail services such as Hotmail and Yahoo offer free e-mail accounts. If you are serious about voting, please make sure you have an e-mail address. We can contact you by fax, but it is not as reliable especially in the summer when school is out Please help to make this work by obtaining an e-mail address.

Ø All teams need to play well-rounded schedules for consideration and exposure for their players.

Voting and making sure Tennessee is well represented on the All-America, All-South and other post season teams is important for the future of the state and the credibility of our programs. Coaches, please make sure you are listed as a high school coach for voting. The chairmen will request a list of the coaches from the NSCAA who have paid their annual dues. If you coach club or any youth teams, make sure you are still listed as a high school coach and your name is on that list in order to vote. To sign up for the NSCAA go to www.nscaa.org and click on “join now” in the upper right hand corner.

Our coaches’ organization in Tennessee is only as good we make it by all of us participating, working together, and continuing to strive to improve soccer in Tennessee. Please encourage the coaches in your part of the state to participate and become involved to make it work even better. We wish you the best of luck during the school year and soccer seasons.

Bill McCloskey, Dobyns-Bennett High School, TACA Girls’ Chairman

Eric Turner, Bearden High School, TACA Boys’ Chairman