Goals and Visions for SSC

Something I shared about at a meeting on sunday.
From my understanding, Saturdaysoccerclub (SSC) was formed because a group of guys from KumYan really loves to play soccer, and opportunities after everyone graduated from school are limited because there's no more "school team". And in KY, we always had a group of guys playing soccer anyways, so afew guys came together and formed this team. Over the years, we've had players come and go, be it because of overseas studies or players going back to their home country etc. Leadership of the team has also been handed over afew times, and most recently to me from Bas and Shawn Kong, both of whom went to Australia for studies and army respectively, that was somewhere mid of 2008.

At the beginning of 2009, I talked to Jurgen Ho about helping me out in 'running' SSC. Since then we've been constantly talking about the team and how we can improve. Recently, I talked to a good friend and I got this insight from him, that to really enjoy a good game of soccer, tactics and trainning are important, and that coming together to just play friendlies and making the same 'mistakes'/errors for every game is frustrating for many. Of course on the "good" days when we play weaker opponents, we can boast of our win, but when we play teams like the one we played last saturday against the Sabah team (who probably plays regularly on sundays), we get humbled.

Thus, I thought about it and came up with some goals and visions for SSC. Things I am hoping that we can achieve, also something we can strive for perhaps?
I love the fact that we can always invite friends, classmates, relatives, colleges etc to come join us in a friendly game. But at the same time, some players have reflected to me, and I see it too, that we are mostly at the age where players peak in their playing, which is around 26-28, and many of us want to improve and play better football. There is also a group of players who would like to keep soccer as a casual sport.
Therefore, I'm currently asking and looking for players who wish to improve their game by becoming "core" players of the team. These players are required to commit their saturday mornings to games/trainings etc. Of course when circumstances arise where they aren't able to come down, all they need to do on their part is inform Jurgen or myself. As of now, there are no fines or any forms of "punishment" and I really hope we do not need to do so, we will see as we go along. These "core" players will of course get priority to play games, however there may be some games they'll sit out to rest or give other people a chance to play. Trainings will also be a requirement to attend, and though we do not have professional coaches, many of us do come from teams previously and have some sort of training knowledge, so whatever we know, we'll share and train together. I do not foresee many people being able to commit to being a "core" member, especially at this early stage, but with whatever numbers we get, we will work with and hopefully all learn together and share with one another our experiences!
I have not forgotten about casual players and friends, relatives, colleges etc of players who would like to come join us for some friendly fun. Jurgen and myself will still continue to contact everyone whenever there is a match to play or tournament that comes up. And I do hope to have all your support in building this team to not just become better soccer players, but that this will be a team where we can all have fun and have fellowship with one another.

The goals and visions may not be the clearest or to some it may be alittle short-sighted (or lack of long-term goals), but I hope this is a start we can all work towards, and hopefully soon we can have more goals and in-depth visions. Hope to have your support!! Thanks and God Bless!!

~chao (",)