Soccer-Outdoor

A NEW SPIRIT POINT SYSTEM IS IN TOWN. At the Sport and Social Club, ‘improvement’ is the name of the game. We are constantly seeking feedback from our players because our Club wouldn’t be our Club without you. Over the past several months, our team has been working on a full overhaul of our Spirit Point System to better match what our players value most, and to make our processes for managing sportsmanship issues at league nights cleaner and faster. This past Winter 2023 season, several divisions were selected to trial the new system and provide their feedback. Their feedback?

DID YOU KNOW?...
...That we have a Field Maintenance Program?
...That we invest tens of thousands of dollars each year into this program?
...That we maintain an average of 90 playing fields each season?

Most players are aware of the City’s involvement in sports field maintenance, but not many are aware of the Club’s involvement. Call it a humble brag, but we’re proud of the program we’ve built and we want YOU to know about it.

As a kid, nobody wants to be the goalie because it’s boring – you don’t get to run around kicking the ball along side your best friends, and you can never score! Fast-forward a few years, and the keeper becomes one of the most important and difficult positions on a soccer team.

Let’s go through the two best ways to properly utilize your goalie:

Offside is the most contested rule in Soccer! Professional referees now have video review, in ear pieces, and lots of training and still have troubles getting it right. As a fun-first player in our Leagues, we don’t expect you to be perfect, but we do ask that you take a bit of time to become familiar with the rule and how to call it. If you and your team understand the rule, it will allow the game to flow better and be surely appreciated by your opponents.

One of the most important defensive skills a player can learn is how to properly mark an opponent. Even for someone who is new to soccer or just learning how to defend, it is very hard to score on player who has positioned themselves well.

Defending Basics:

We get it, you’re at your game and urine it to win it but then nature calls. You’re a whiz when it comes to sports but don’t always plan ahead. Well in our ESSC leagues, you bladder plan ahead as that would be golden! Okay, these puns are getting ex-stream.

Here are some helpful tips to avoid urination complaints from the neighbours and City of Edmonton:

When I say ‘employee wellness,’ what comes to mind? Can I guess? Dental coverage. Vision coverage. Physio. Chiro. Massage. Basically, whatever is covered under your employee health benefits. The reality? It’s so much more.

Everyone benefits when everyone is in the know! We are excited to be rolling out Phase Two of our Online Player Orientations (OPOs) as part of our commitment to ensuring players are set up for a successful season.

In the Spring 2017 season we eliminated in-person Pre-Season player meetings, by popular demand, replacing them with an Online Orientation. As part of our continued effort to improve the player experience and the Online Player Orientation, our team has been hard at work on enhancements that we are proud to be rolling out for the Fall 2017 season!

We have all experienced those players on our team, you know, the one who only shows up to about 40% of your league games. Their excuses are always (somewhat) valid – “I’m swamped at work,” “My car got stuck in the snow,” “I had to feed Mr. Meowington” – but they usually pay their league fees in full and they’re always up for a post-game beer, so we put up with them anyway.

You don’t want to play short (again) so you need to find a sub. This can sometimes be a tedious task, so here are a few tips to help simplify your quest:

WHO TO ASK

While having variety is the ‘spice of life’, we understand that having multiple Soccer formats to choose from can be intimidating when registering, or a little confusing when playing in different formats night to night. This can especially be the case when there are slight rule variances among said options. In order to help you and your team navigate through the different Soccer offerings, we have put together a chart to show which rules apply to which formats to help simplify the differences.