Soccer Club of Newington

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16

Sep, 2021

SCN NEWS 9/16/2021

The Soccer Club of Newington provides an opportunity for children to play soccer in a community-based environment that strives to promote personal and athletic development while learning valuable life skills. Using soccer as a vehicle, the club strives to develop each child's self-image, respect, talent, and sportsmanship, while having fun playing the game of soccer.

IS WINNING IMPORTANT?

Many athletes would answer the above question with a resounding YES! After all, winning feels good! Let’s be honest: Winning is fun! There is much to be said for the joys of competition, and coaches, players, and parents love to see their team win. In fact, in some cases, everyone’s allowed to win—though that’s another story for another time. \

Having spent 25+ years coaching, I have observed many players play hard, fail and succeed. Over time, I have learned that focusing only on the ‘win’ can come with a price. Sometimes coaches and parents pursue a win no matter the cost.

If winning is so great, does that make losing a terrible experience? Not necessarily. Losing actually provides some lessons that winning cannot, particularly for young athletes.
Let's take a look at the pros and cons of both winning and losing?

The Cons of Winning

If winning is so great, then where did the phrase “winning isn’t everything” come from? The fact is, if you win all the time, those special feelings you get from winning fade and you lose the drive to get better. It becomes easier to stop learning. Young athletes are more likely to go on autopilot, and that is when bad habits begin to develop.

Constantly winning, or winning early on, can also be detrimental because it may give kids a false sense of their own abilities. Just because a young athlete wins does not mean that he or she is the best. Especially at a young age, kids still have a lot to learn.

The Pros of Winning

Though winning might not be everything, it still feels really good! A win is an easy self-confidence boost, which is a big deal for many young athletes.
Furthermore, winning is validation. A win says that the game has been played the right way and that practice paid off. Winning motivates one to continue playing and to continue striving for more. Also, winning connects good feelings with the sport, which can give your young athlete the drive to keep going.

The Cons of Losing

What is the worst part about losing? Survey says, Losing!
No one wants to lose because no one wants to feel bad and feel inferior to other players and teams.

The Pros of Losing

Losing does not feel that good, yet, it does build character. Dealing with a loss is one of the most important life lessons anyone can learn. Losing a game is not the only time players will face defeat, and how they respond and pick themselves back up will say a lot about them, both as an athlete and as a person.

Losing also provides drive and purpose. It makes athletes strive to be better and achieve what they previously could not accomplish. Losing forces young athletes to evaluate their performance. The only way to make adjustments and improve performance is by looking in the mirror and extracting the lesson(s) if they truly want to improve. A loss forces young athletes to do a self-inventory of themselves.

Does winning feel better than losing? Of course, it does! Is losing the end of the world? Far from it. Winning isn’t everything, and losing doesn’t have to be, either.

Development vs Winning in Youth Sports

youtu.be

SCN PLAYER PHOTOS

The club will be communicating with Jr., Sr. Rec, and Travel coaches to determine an exact schedule. At this time, Junior and Senior Rec photo days will be September 25/26 and October 2/3. Travel photos will occur during the week at NHS and Mill - details from coaches to be announced.

Order Photos | Bishop Photo

bishopphoto.com

TEAM UPDATES

This weekend the U14 girl's team 2 went up against two tough opponents in West Hartford and Glastonbury. While the games did not go as planned, the girls fought hard until the end and got 3 goals out of the 2 games. There were lots of positives that can be taken out of this weekend and we will keep working in practice to improve our shortcomings and compete with every team we play against in the future.

Coach Dan Vala, U14G Team 2

We had a good first game against Wethersfield. We spent much of the game shifting & organizing our positional assignments. The chemistry of the team is great for just being aligned a couple of weeks ago. We notched a 3-2 away game win Saturday, which was not indicative of how much we controlled the game. We’re just getting started, but I have high expectations for the development of this team!!

Coach Paul Giangrave, U14G Newington United SC

The game on Saturday was certainly a good start for the boys. They played aggressive team soccer. The game was played in their end of the field for the majority of the game with several nice goals scored. The goal of the game was actually from Manchester, a beautiful shot from about 20 yards out. There are quite a few things that we need to work on, most notably, corner kicks, throw-ins, passing, and free-kicks. I was really happy for the boys, they were very excited after the game. On a side note, the referee pulled the coaches aside and said "it is really nice to see such passionate coaches that have a strong sense of sportsmanship, I would love to referee all of your games." A good example of the sportsmanship was when one of their players had a handball in the box, the referee was going to give the free-kick (we were up by 7 at that point) and we told him to disregard and give Manchester the goal kick. This was a really good game.

Coach Geoffrey Paul, U9 Boys Newington Ninjas

On 9/11 U11 Cosmos opened up the season with an Impressive 5-2 victory over Granby. The boys kept the pressure on early and never took their foot off the gas pedal. Guiseppe Duran and Luke Tarillo both had a pair of goals with the 5th goal being scored by newcomer Thomas Martins. Big recognition to our goalie Nolan Kosciukiewicz who had 11 saves including a penalty kick late in the second half. The boys have been working hard for the last three weeks and their efforts are showing on the field.

On Sunday, September 12th the Newington U10 Cosmos battled a skilled Windsor team but came up short 0-5. The Windsor team set the tone of the game early with a fast aggressive pace, but the Cosmos players held their own and moved the ball well. Cosmos Goalie Nolan Kosciukiewicz came up big with 16 saves in the first half keeping the score at 0-0. During the second half, the Cosmos players just couldn’t keep up with the pace Windsor set and couldn’t match their scoring. They had some penalty kick opportunities, but Windsor’s goalie made some great saves. Definitely came away from the game with areas we need to work on in practice and look forward to next weekend’s games.

Coach Guiseppe Duran, U11B Newington Cosmos

The U10 girls played probably their best team game since becoming a team. The ball movement and constant player movement off the ball led to many scoring chances on Saturday v Rocky Hill. Sunday we played Suffield, in the first half we forgot how successful we can be when we move the ball as a team. During the second half, we were able to get back to playing as a team. Our defense and goalkeeping were solid and helped us move to 2-0 on the season.

Coach Josh Krusewski, U10 Girls

The U14 Boys had a strong start to the season by winning both matches. We scored 8 goals and conceded 0. I’m very pleased with how the boys are working together as a group on both sides of the ball. If we can continue this, we will be a tough team for opponents to compete with this season.

Coach Quentin Lux, U14/15 Boys

We played Enfield twice this weekend. While we lost both games (5-1 and 5-3), I was incredibly proud of how our girls showed improvement and grew and developed as the two games progressed. They never gave up, they started to make nice passes, they made hard runs and shots on goal, and our keepers stepped up with many saves. Awesome start to the season!

Coach Jillian Crawford, U9 Girls