REMINDERS/UPDATES YOU NEED TO KNOW!
As each season progresses, things come up that we need to address, and here's the list from last season:
- Gear Exchange: This is a wonderful program, and it relies on you to make it go! If you have gently used soccer gear that you are no longer able to use (mainly cleats your kids have grown out of, balls, shinguards, etc.), please bring them to our gear exchange and we will help them get recycled! If your kids have forgotten their cleats, or grown out of them, please feel free to get a new pair out of the gear exchange! It's that simple!
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NO tobacco, drugs, vaping, or alcohol are allowed at our facilities, or at matches our teams are playing at other locations.
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NO vaping during a match!
Believe it or not, we had a complaint that an older youth player was vaping during an away match!
- GOAL SAFETY: NO climbing on goals or rough play with the small portable goals. It's not that we don't want kids to have fun, it's that we don't want anyone to get hurt! Every year kids and adults are getting permanently injured and killed from goals flipping on them. If you see anyone playing on a goal, or hanging from the crossbar, PLEASE ask them to stop and report the incident to the nearest coach or MUSC Board Member.
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Peanuts:
Please be aware that some people in our community may have a severe peanut allergy. If you are eating peanuts in the shell, please do not discard the shells on the ground - collect them and properly dispose of them
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Give a hoot, don't pollute!
Please pick up water bottles and other litter you may come across around the fields. The guys mowing don't have time to stop and pick it up, so they just run over it
- Bathrooms and Trash:
PLEASE do not put 'general' trash (food, discarded chairs, car debris) in the bathroom trash cans - use the cans in the pavilion for trash generated at the fields, and use the dumpster if your chair, umbrella or canopy blows out. If you have trash from outside restaurants, please take it home with you and don't leave it for a volunteer to deal with! (Racoons also get in our trash at nights, and food is what they are looking for!)
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Dogs:
Officially, we have a No dog policy at our fields. We have relaxed that over the past few years, but this is a reminder that not everyone is a fan, so please be responsible - keep your dog on a leash, be respectful of those around you and if you see someone is uncomfortable, please move away from them it is not their responsibility to move - it is yours).
PLEASE continue the great job you've all been doing of picking up after your dog! (Poop, hair - if you are grooming them, please just leave behind piles of hair, if you are feeding them and they don't eat it all, please take the excess home, etc...) One incidence of someone stepping in dog poop may be enough to ban dogs altogether. (This ban would not apply to working service dogs, but will apply to emotional support dogs)
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Parking:
if you can, please carpool as a family, or as team members - parking is always tight, and we all need to work together to make it work! Parking is always tight at Cheat Lake - please only use designated spots in the lower lot, and do NOT park along the road - use the upper lot. If you have extra gear, or small children with 2 drivers, please drop them off and then park up top if the lot is full.
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ITC:
if you need to change your child's diaper, PLEASE don't just discard it in the parking lot! We have a trash can inside and if you're not going to take it with you, at least put it in there
And - saving the most important for last -
- REFEREES: We have a
ZERO TOLERANCE
policy for any abuse of referees, especially when it is directed to a youth referee! This also applies to our away games. If someone is guilty of this (anything directed negatively or sarcastically at a referee), even after the fact, they
WILL
be banned from attending future games UNTIL:
- They have served as an Assistant Referee in at least 2 matches that do NOT involve their team.
- They may also be required to write an apology to the referee(s).
- Depending on the degree of the infraction, we may also assist the referee in obtaining a restraining order, and work with the West Virginia Soccer Association to ban them from all state sanctioned events.
This is a serious issue for many reasons - nationally and across all sports, referees are quitting the profession due to abuse/harassment, and several referees have actually been killed in recent years, as a direct result of escalated abuse.
Here is the verbiage from the WVSA Athlete and Participant Safety Policy, pg 16;
Harassment consists of unwelcome conduct, whether verbal, physical or visual, that is based upon a person's protected status. WVSA will not tolerate harassing conduct that affects tangible job benefits, that unreasonably interferes with an individual's performance, or safety, or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.
Among the types of conduct prohibited by this policy are epithets, slurs, negative stereotyping or intimidating acts based on an individual's protected status and the circulation or posting of written or graphic materials that show hostility toward an individual because of his or her protected status.
Prohibited conduct can also include jokes, kidding, or teasing about another person's protected status. While harassing conduct is unlawful only if it affects tangible job benefits and/or interferes unreasonably with work performance and creates an abusive or hostile work environment,
this Policy forbids harassing conduct even when it does not rise to the level of a violation of law.
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