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TECHNOLOGY TechTimes

Issue 21

December, 2012

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Important Dates

Youth Indoor Provincials March 15-17

Senior Indoor Provincials March 22-24

ASA Annual General Meeting

January 19

CMSA Coaches Convention February 2-3

ASA Holiday Hours: The ASA Office will be closed from noon on December 24 to January 1 inclusive. We will be open once again on January 2. From all of us at the ASA, we would like to wish you a very Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Happy Holidays from the ASA!

Ranee Premji Ranee Premji of Calgary recently won the Women's Soccer NCAA Division 1 National Championship with her school team, University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Winning an NCAA Division 1 Championship is a significant accomplishment in the world of sports and Ranee was the only Canadian on the Tar Heels team to be apart of this impressive feat. Ranee was an original member of the Calgary SWU Premiers 90 FC, a team that medaled at CSA Nationals twice, were six time Alberta Pro-vincial champions, and were 11 time City of Calgary Champions. Ranee had a very special 2012 as she was invited to a 26 player Canada WNT 10 day pre camp in Larnaka, Cyprus on Feb. 28th 2012. On top of it all she helped the Calgary Callies Womens' AMSL team quali-fy for and win silver at this year's ASA's Jubilee Shield Provincial competition.

The ASA would like to take this opportunity to con-gratulate both Marco and Ranee on their impressive achievements!

Marco Carducci Calgary

teenager

Marco Car-

ducci has

been named

Canada’s

U17 male

player of the

year for the

2012 soccer season as voted on by national

team coaches and other Canadian coaches.

Carducci is a member of Canada's men's U-17

team, having taken part in three national pro-

jects in 2012. He saw action in eight interna-

tional matches, including shutout victories

over Costa Rica and Panama. He was Canada's

Player of the Match in the 1:0 win over Pana-

ma at Estadio Rommel Fernandez on 25 No-

vember 2012. Goalkeeper Carducci is a mem-

ber of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency

program. In 2011-12, he helped the Whitecaps

finish first in the Western Conference of the

U.S. Soccer Development Academy League.

Pride of Alberta

@AlbertaSoccer

In soccer competitions, as in many events in our lives, there are always people ‘behind the scenes’ who ensure that things run smoothly for those participating or attend-ing. Most of the time, the work of those indi-viduals goes largely unrecognized by the general population, and ASA provincials are no different in this re-spect. At all ASA com-petitions, the Referee-in-chief (RIC) is a key figure, essential to a successful competition. The RIC is in charge of all officials at the competition, and has several duties to carry out before, during and after the event. Although RIC’s do receive an honorarium for providing this valuable service, as well as an as-signing fee based on the number of games, the number of hours put in by these individuals for

each provincial competition more than justifies the money that they receive.

Perhaps at the next provincial competition that you attend, you might spare a thought for the RIC, who has worked very hard to ensure that the offici-ating at the tournament runs smoothly. The ASA would like to thank the following people for their con-tributions as RIC at provincials in the 2012 outdoor season:

Laurier Jubinville, Hugh Netzer, Tony Wadsworth, Rod Rigden, Debbie Sargent, Ricardo Lodhar, Brian Wilkens, Matthew Kennedy, Robert Hayne, Paul Anwender, Mike Barwegen, Brad Frunchak, Jason Bolen, Malcolm Pritchard, Ken Kovacs, Murray Milavsky, Jens Woller.

The Alberta Soccer As-sociation welcomed a new member to their

Staff in November.

Lindsay-Anne Freire joins the staff as the

new Communications and Business Develop-ment Coordinator for the ASA. She joins us

after spending a year in Europe completing an

International Master in Management, Law and

Humanities of Sport (FIFA Master).

Lindsay-Anne is original-ly from Ontario but has

previously lived and worked in Edmonton.

She is an avid soccer fan and player.

@ AlbertaSoccer

Giving Thanks: Referee-In-Chief

FC Edmonton proudly announced the hiring of former Vancouver White-caps assistant coach Colin Miller as the club’s latest head coach in November. Miller played professionally for 18 years before moving on to the full time coaching ranks. His coaching career is highlighted by positions with both the Men’s and Wom-en’s Canadian National Teams, first team coach at Derby County Football Club in the English Premier League and most recently, assistant coach for the Vancouver Whitecaps.

“We pride ourselves on developing Canadian talent, and giving Canadian players the chance to be-come professional. It’s time we help develop our Canadi-an coaches. We are happy to have Colin be a part of our team,” says FC Edmonton owner Tom Fath. Miller’s first task on the job was to oversee the Winter

2012 FC Edmonton Combine which featured a number of Albertan Players and Alberta Tech-nical Staff such as Shaun Lowther, Ian Skitch, Troye Flannery and Dean Cordeiro.

ASA 2013 Annual General Meeting

FC Edmonton Unveils New Coach and holds Player Combine

The 2013 ASA Annual General Meeting is scheduled to take place on Saturday January 19, 2013 starting at 9:00 am. The AGM will take place at the Calgary Coast Plaza & Convention Centre: Please be advised that as this is an Annual General Meeting and elections will be held for the following vacancies on the ASA Board of Directors:

President (2 year term)

2nd Vice President (2 year term)

Director-at-large x 3 (2 year term)

Director-at-large x 2 (1 year term)

In 2015, Edmonton will be one of 6 host cities to welcome the FIFA Wom-en’s World Cup. Alt-hough a schedule has yet to be determined for the largest single sport event for women in the world, all games will be held at Common-wealth Stadium. On December 14, the Canadian Soccer Associ-ation released the official emblem for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup at BC Place in Vancou-ver. Each of the official host cities also unveiled

composite logos in collaboration with the CSA. Edmonton re-leased their logo at a small ceremony that took place in Common-wealth Stadium that included representa-tives from the munici-pal and provincial gov-ernments, the Canadian Soccer Association, the Alberta Soccer Associa-tion, FC Edmonton

Owner Tom Fath, and female players from the Vimy Ridge Academy.

Looking for a unique gift idea? Want to make a difference in the lives of a child in your commu-nity? Consider sup-porting KidSport and giving the Gift of Sport this holiday season. Funds raised help pro-vide a child with a sea-son of soccer, basketball or whichever sport they choose and no donation is too small. Your donation will be directed to your local KidSport chapter, help-ing make a difference right in your own com-munity. Donations of $25 or more are eligible for a tax-deductible re-ceipt. To give the gift of sport this holiday season or for more information, please contact KidSport Alberta at 1-888-914-5437, or visit www.kidsport.ab.ca to make your donation online.

2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Still Looking for a Christ-

mas Gift?

John Clubb, ASA Provincial Coach (South) was in town to present a Supporting Your Soccer Star parent clinic in Fort McMurray, on what was a bitterly cold & snowy night. Despite the condi-tions nearly 30 parents supported the event and took part in an interactive seminar that John hopes will be received across the province. All the parents have chil-dren in soccer or other sports and were provided with information regarding the ASA player pathway, Long Term Player Develop-ment (LTPD) and more importantly how to support their budding sport stars. Ian Diaz from Fort McMurray expressed that the parents loved the discussions and espe-cially the personal perspective within the deliv-ery. John confirms that with three boys playing various sports at different levels it is easy to have empathy with the soccer moms and dads. “It is not always that straight forward being a sport parent”. The seminar also presented a sup-portive perspective to challenge potential barri-ers and understanding between players, their

parents and also coaches. The “Supporting Your Soccer Star” program will be available as a resource for all districts and community clubs, and will be supported by vari-ous information documents, such as a coach

assessment tools. The idea is to educate parents on the standards and ex-pectations they should observe through their child’s involvement in grassroots soccer. John supports that “if we don’t set standards how can we ever develop the game at all levels.” LTPD is a sports develop-

ment model established through Sport Canada

and the Canada Soccer Association that advo-

cates for age appropriate coaching methodolo-

gy, through greater training and education of

coaches. The goal is for each player to develop a

passion for soccer through access to the right

coach at the right time. For further information

on the Supporting Your Soccer Star program

please contact John Clubb south-

coach@albertasoccer.com

Supporting Your Soccer Star

The typical intrigue that surrounds dates that are once in a lifetime was made all the more intri-guing due to the recent success of Canada’s most notable female soccer player. Fun Fact: Christine Sinclair chose the number 12 because her child-hood athletic hero was Roberto Alomar who also wore this number. Many Canadian Soccer fans have taken notice of Christine for just over a decade now but it wasn’t until this past summer that the rest of Canada started to take notice. “Sinc”, as she’s referred to by her teammates and coach, John Herdman, made a bronze medal feel like a Gold in what was truly a soccer/athletic performance for the ages. The month of December signified a month in which Christine Sinclair started collecting awards and accolades that she has deserved for so long including:

CBC’s Canadian Athlete of the Year

Sportsnet’s Athlete of the Year

Air Canada Athlete of the Year

CSA Top Female Player

Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s Athlete of the Year

Christine Sinclair has done wonders for the game in Canada and Alberta Soccer would like to con-gratulate her on all of her successes. 12/12/12 could not have come at a more appro-priate time. Perhaps, we should refer to it now as Christine Sinclair Day.

Classics: Calgary Spirit (Gold) U14 Boys: Internazionale (Silver) U18 Girls: Victoria (Silver) Men: EdmontonScottish (Silver) U14 Girls: SWU Premiers (Bronze) U16 Girls: NSD Saints (Bronze) U18 Boys: Chinook United (5th) U16 Boys: SWU 96 FC (6th) Women: Edmonton Angels (7th)

Congratulations to all teams for their outstand-

ing performances!

12/12/12 2012 CSA Club Nation-als Results

We’d like to send our Congratulations to a number of Albertans who were nominated for the

Canadian Soccer Association’s Player of the Year Awards at both the Youth and Senior Level:

U-17 Male U-20 Female

Marco Carducci (Winner) - Calgary Danica Wu - Edmonton

Hanson Boakai - Edmonton

U-20 Male Women’s

Jon Dollery - Calgary Erin McLeod - St. Albert

Men’s

Kevin McKenna - Calgary

Lars Hirschfeld - Edmonton

Thank you to our generous partners:

Player of the Year Nominations