Hello Tewksbury Youth Soccer,
As we kick off a new Fall year, I wanted to reach out to our members update on what’s going on at Frasca this year. The grass is in beautiful shape after all the rain we’ve seen and look for new player benches to be added to the upper fields this Fall. Spectators and players arriving at Frasca will enjoy a mask-free experience this season, as we are nearing the end of this COVID nightmare. We hope it stays this way all season, but if new spikes cause any mandated changes, we will inform you asap.
Our program is growing! This past spring TYSL introduced a new revamped “Little Tikes” Pre-K clinic program. This relaunch brings our tiny little players back into the TYSL system and to having fun in a game-like atmosphere. We also brought back some of our veteran soccer players to help run the drills and monitor the player’s progress. The little ones absolutely adored the program in the Spring, and we look forward to the fall being more of the same. U8 parents will find we’ve added another field “J” inside of one of the larger fields, to accommodate the growing number of players in the program.
Uniform Shortages. Some of you may have heard about shortages in uniforms this season. Fret not, as long as your player is in the correct color shirt, (with a unique number on the back for travel) refs have been instructed to let it go. This is a problem in several towns, due to vendor shortages. TYSL is looking at our vendor relationships to see if a more reliable offering is out there for next year.
Speaking of shortages, we are encountering a huge referee shortage across the state! This means that many games will be short-staffed or might have no referee assigned at all. As always, the league zero tolerance for referee abuse will be enforced, and I ask you to remain patient with ALL of our referees, but especially with our younger referees. They WILL make mistakes! Parents and coaches yelling at them on the field will not get your calls overturned, and instead may result in ejections or even worse, more refs quitting. Please help us to grow the referee program, and if your older players want to get involved, (and make some $$), please email our director Ryan
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Finally, I want to send a huge thank you out to the many people who have worked hard to keep this program functioning and thriving. Our tireless board members, coaches, teen volunteers, and referees all deserve a pat on the back. This is a 100% volunteer program, and we can’t do it without them!
Good luck to all our players as we kick off the 2021-22 Soccer season!
Mike Garabedian
TYS President
