Hello MIFC Families,

With a good portion of our summer done the attention for MIFC staff and board has turned to preparations for our fall seasons. Many teams in our Juniors, Select and XL programs are well into summer training, tournaments and jamborees. Our recreational program will start at the of this month and our Micro soccer program starts with school so the job for our club is to plan to make those fall programs the best that we can. This involves lots of time spent by our staff in team formation, scheduling of fields, communication and many other tasks. We are lucky to have a fantastic dedicated staff that does all of this work with the help of the board but we can always use more volunteers so if you are interested in helping please reach out to one of us.

So far we have been lucky not to have some of the issues of the past seasons with air quality and extreme heat but we want to remind you that we have a plan and policies in place to deal with those issues if and when they arise. You can see a copy of the guidelines developed with our other association clubs to keep players and coaches safe. Please keep in mind that these are guidelines and will be interpreted by each club depending on factors such as local conditions, availability of information and decision time pressures. Sometimes clubs will make different decisions to play or train that are different from our club so we have to be flexible. If games have to be cancelled due to the air quality, heat or field conditions we will do our best to reschedule but that is not always possible. We will endeavor to communicate decisions via email, Teamsnap and website as soon as possible. Please let us know if you have any questions and remember you can always choose to hold your player out of soccer activities based on your own risk assessment.

We hope you all enjoy the rest of our glorious summer season and look forward to seeing you on the pitch!

Greg Snyder

MIFC Board President

Upcoming Important Dates

Aug 22 - Rec coaches meeting

Aug 28 - Start of rec season, practices are ON

Aug 28 - Start of fall Juniors season

Sept 9 - Start of league play for Rec, Juniors and most Select/XL teams

Sept 9 - Start of Microsoccer

MIFC needs referees!

Last season we had many reports of no game day referees so now is your chance to get certified and help ensure we have coverage for all our games.

If you are 13 or older you can start reffing games.

For those turning 13 in the fall, you can get certified now so you are ready to go when you are 13.  

MIFC always needs referees from all groups: players, parents, soccer fans, and encourages everyone to consider the opportunity of supporting the club and the players becoming a referee. 

Available clinics: 

There are many available clinics coming up: 

• Saturday 8/12 - Issaquah 9:00-1:00 PM
• Saturday 8/12 – Tukwila 10:00-2:00 PM
• Wednesday 8/16 – Seattle 5:00-9:00 PM
• Wednesday 8/21 – Seattle 5:30-8:30 PM 
• Sunday 8/27 – Redmond 10:00-2:00 PM

If none of these work in your schedule, you can find more clinics Available Clinics (wareferees.org) 

For more information on how to get involved with refereeing, head to wareferees.org or ask for information at info@mifc.org. 

Referees are an important part of the soccer community, and a great way to engage in an active way with the sport. MIFC needs always referees from all groups: players, parents, soccer fans, and encourages everyone to consider the opportunity of supporting the club and the players becoming a referee.

Why should you be interested in refereeing?

We really recommend becoming a referee whether you're a player or a parent.

As a player you will always have a day free on the weekend where you can referee. You get to pick your own games so you can organize your games around one field so you don’t have to move much.

It pays well, so for middle schoolers who aren’t old enough to work yet but want money they can get involved and make good money while being around the game.

For parents who want to get involved, being a certified referee gives the opportunity to see your kids in action or compare with other kids of similar age; and it can have big benefits for your kids as well: if the referee doesn’t show up or the full referee crew isn’t there then if you have your shirt then you can make sure the kids games go ahead.

Coaches Corner

July Results: The club would like to recognize all the teams, players and parents that represented the club in summer tournaments so far, and congratulations to the following teams that won tournaments:

XL B11B- Champions Cornucopia and Snohomish Big Foot

XL G14 – Champions Cornucopia and Blast Off

XL B14 Champions Cornucopia

XL B10 Champions Cornucopia

XL B09 Champions Crossfire Select (playing a year up)

Fall Season: rom all the coaches and volunteers, a reminder going into the Fall season for parents to please watch the following short videos regarding youth soccer:

Don’t Retire The Kids

https://youtu.be/TInFe337gZQ

Soccer Parent

https://youtu.be/gETP14z515Q

Respect

https://youtu.be/vz6xZ3lhM_M

Its Just A Game

https://youtu.be/ReKw6J5tK2c

Thank you,

Paul Bayly

MIFC Director of Soccer

Women's World Cup

And finally, congratulations to the U.S. Women's national soccer team for their valiant effort in the FIFA Women's World Cup. Although they suffered a heartbreaking loss to Sweden, they made it to the knockout round and showed great spirit in representing our country well on the international stage.