As Enright and Seiler articulate, organizations that that practice stewardship

strengthen the bond between recipient and giver. Here are several ways that I practice
stewardship as it relates to my oversight of the University School of Milwaukee
soccer program and our associated fundraising :
Strategic Plan - I convene a parent/player mandatory meeting every season, during
the first week of training. The meeting typically lasts one hour. This year the
presentation consisted of four parts. We invited a registered dietitian who gave a 20
minute block of instruction on soccer specific nutrition and eating for a healthy
lifestyle. We had a school psychologist speak to "soccer tough," the importance of
mental focus. I gave a Power Point presentation outlining what our mission was, our
"why," and how we were going to get there. We finished with a video presentation my
captains made with each member of the team articulating their goals for the season.
The whole presentation demonstrates that the soccer program is organized, thoughtful
and interested that each player have a positive sport experience. As aprt of that
presentation I tell the program's "story." A rationale is presented for why fundraising
is critical. Players and parents are briefed on the two fundraisers we will execute juggle-a-thon and alumni soccer match. I underscore the value the fundraisers
generate for the program.
Recognition - At the conclusion of every season, I hand write a letter to each player
on the team, congratulating them on their unique contributions to the team. I started
this 2 years ago and I have been through three seasons (2 boys & 1 girls) with this
tradition.
Recognition - I hand write a thank you letter to all the support staff at the school that
had a hand in our season's success. This would include the Athletic Director and the
members of his staff, the food service director, the building and grounds staff that
cared for our fields, our assistant coaches, athletic trainers, the school's head master,
and so on.
Recognition - I purchase a thank you present for each captain's parent and present it
to them at the conclusion of the season. I pay for this with my own money. I have
given school blankets embroidered with the names and dates of their service to the
team in the past.
Recognition - The captain's parents plan an end of season team banquet. Team
awards are distributed. I present an overview of the season. It is an excellent
opportunity to recognize everyone associated with the soccer program and to celebrate
their contributions.

Accountability - I prepare and electronically disseminate a written, end of season

summary, that chronicles how we met each of our objectives and how we progressed
according to our strategic plan that was presented at the beginning of the season. It is
essentially an after action review (AAR).
Accountability & Communication - I write an electronic communication to the
parents and players after every match. I write another email once or twice a week to
keep parents informed about what we have been concentrating on at training and why.
Here are a couple examples of recent communications from me to the players/parents:
This communication was disseminated midweek as a recap of our recent training:
Wildcats Both JV and Varsity worked with Brandon Berna, USM Strength and Conditioning
Coach, on Monday and Tuesday. He will join us again on Thursday. Brandon's
objective is to increase our agility, balance and quickness. These are key to the
style of play we aspire to this season - quick transitions, quick counter attacks,
and creative, imaginative play.
We are attempting to take advantage of the week off between matches to do
some conditioning and also to address the player roles and responsibilities by
position. Monday's training session saw us devote serious time to defensive
fundamentals. We spent a good chunk of time on a 9v9 scrimmage on Tuesday.
Today we rehearsed a pre-match warm-up routine. The idea is to settle on a
warm-up routine that replicates the game and that prepares us mentally and
physically to play the match at a steady state equilibrium. We infused
conditioning as well. The girls returned their pre-season expectations/thoughts
sheets and they also completed a written match analysis following the Grafton
match.
We have continued reading excerpts from The Champion's Mind to set a tone or
theme for each training session. The captains have organized a "nutrition
committee" to explore current player satisfaction with USM food service
offerings at lunch and to ask if they meet our student-athletes nutritional
requirements. They are soliciting input from each player and compiling
observations and recommendations that they will present at some point to an
appropriate school representative. We continue to visualize. We actually
sustained our first injury during a visualization exercise this afternoon. We were
on our backs, hard at work imagining wonderful, perfect things. The session
concluded and the girls were dismissed. Kate got up awkwardly and somehow
twisted her knee. We called Mike, our athletic trainer to the scene and he
rendered immediate assistance. Kate recovered quickly but will forever have
the distinction of sustaining an injury while "visualizing."

The girls' soccer team has committed to helping at this year's edition of
Rummage at the Rink. We will be helping move and organize rummage
sale items from 9am - 10am on April 19th. I know several girls have told
me that they are unavailable. Please let me know through email or in person if
you can not attend. Otherwise, I will expect you to be available to help in this
USM fundraiser.

Here is another communication disseminated after a match:

Wildcats Congratulations to the team for a well deserved victory. It was a dominating
performance which shouldn't surprise the girls all that much. We talked during
the week that most teams witness significant progress from game one to game
two. The girls certainly digested a lot of philosophy and then practiced it during
the week. We spent time on visualization, practicing penalty kicks, switching
the point of attack, reading excerpts from The Champion's Mind, learning the
fundamentals of defense, discussing roles and responsibilities, goalkeeper
training, conditioning and forming a nutrition committee. As you can see we
covered a lot of ground, and a fair portion of it was not what one would consider
traditional soccer training. We are all benefiting from Rogerio's role as skills
coach. He is excellent at designing activities to improve technique.
Additionally, Abby, Stormy and Ruby have progressed rapidly under Kate
Taylor's tutelage.
Abby did well. Recording a shutout is serious business at any level. I though
Marielle was the player of the match. She "owned" her mark. She was
aggressive, constantly stepping in front of her mark to intercept the ball. She
allowed no space. She pushed forward, making overlapping runs. She ran
through gaps in the defense, counterattacking after she won the ball. Our
technique at receiving a ball and turning with it was much improved compared
to last week. Lizzie showed great promise at striker, making streaking runs
through the heart of KSJ's defense.
We have not dedicated much time to set pieces - corners, goal kicks, direct
kicks. We will visit this in the coming weeks. Our defensive heading was poor.
This will be addressed. Our defenders must learn to hit our target player as
they build out of the back. Too many balls were being played in a direct fashion.
We prefer to link through the midfield and then serve our strikers. We need to
generate more shots. We spoke at length about this at the half. It will be a
season long exercise to try and hunt for our shots, attack off the edge, and to be
bold and creative.
Conference play commences this coming week. We are prepared!
Wildcats Unite, Jock