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Volunteer Categories

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GCAA always needs the help of other volunteers.

There are two main volunteer categories: sports and administrative. Realize that oftentimes people are active in multiple roles at the same time, and those roles may be in either category. They are broken down into these categories primarily to provide a description of the volunteer opportunities. Also, for the safety of all of our kids, most of these positions do require a background check which is handled by our Risk Management Director.

Administrative:

Board Member:

An elected position. Elections are held in January each year. Being a Board Member requires you to show up to monthly (often twice per month) meetings and be involved in key decisions for the direction the organization moves. The Board Meetings are open to the public, but only Board Members vote on the issues. Many of the Board Members also serve as a Sport Committee Member.

 Sport Committee Member:

A sport (soccer, baseball, basketball, softball, or volleyball) Committee Member is primarily focused on a single sport. These members work closely as a small group of people and focus on how their particular sport is going to run. You also help prepare the playing areas (fields or courts), help with fund-raising, and may be assigned to be a league director as well as anything else needed to help that sport have a successful season.

Parent Volunteer (Listed on Website as "Other"):

A parent volunteer is essentially indicating to the organization that you want to help and what you want to help with. Then when it comes time to perform that task, you may be contacted and asked to help.

Sports:

Coach:

Well you're it... the one in charge of your team. But you are not on your own, and volunteering for the coaching position does not necessarily require any prior experience or knowledge of the game (although you will be expected to learn the rules of the game before the season starts). For soccer we have a Director of Training (currently, Joel Tucker). He is there to help coaches however he can. He starts the season with a free Coaching Clinic. He gives you some pointers on how to coach kids for your age group. Then if you want him to come out and give you some pointers during one of your practices, he will do that too.

Coaches also must attend coaches meetings which are usually held at the beginning of the season and then may occur as the season moves along. The coaches are also responsible for helping to communicate any news, announcements, or requirements to the parents of the players as the season moves along. These things may be handled via phone calls, emails, and/or the team pages of the GCAA Soccer website.

In the Rec League, the coach is ultimately responsible for obtaining the team sponsorship. The sponsorship is a TEAM REQUIREMENT, so the coach should enlist the help of the parents on the team to obtain the sponsorship. Usually the team sponsorship is received from a parent's business or from a personal contact of one of the parents. The money is very important and is used to help keep registration costs down. Our current registration fees do not cover the costs of running a single season of soccer. We depend on the sponsorship money to cover nearly a third of our budget requirements.

The most important task a coach must perform is to help the kids to have fun and be safe. The coach should use age-appropriate drills to help teach the various aspects of soccer to the players. Different age groups focus on different skills. The younger leagues focus on basic ball control and basic rules of the game. The older leagues learn about passing, position play, and strategy. The focus of our Recreation Soccer program is recreation, exercise, enjoyment, and player development (not winning and losing). The Challenge and Select Leagues of soccer add competition to their focus.

This position does require the completion of our Risk Management procedure which includes a background check. There is a $10 fee for the background check.

Assistant Coach:

Simply stated, the assistant coach helps the coach. This is especially helpful with the younger kids. The coach usually sets up the drills and explains it to the players. Then the coach and assistant coach work together to help the players run the drills. In the Coach's absence, the Assistant Coach would have to perform the duties of the Coach. For the younger groups (U04 and U06 especially) an Assistant Coach can be used to "babysit" the bench during the games. The coaches are responsible for refereeing in these younger groups, so it helps to have another adult to help keep the non-playing kids under control.

This position does require the completion of our Risk Management procedure which includes a background check. There is a $10 fee for the background check.

Team Parent:

The Team Parent is there to help the team and the coaches. The team parent usually organizes after-game snacks. The team parent may also be asked to be the information relay person. The coach may call the team parent and ask them to inform other parents of practice or game changes/cancellations or to send out email reminders. The team parent may also serve as the "voice" or representative of the parents. Other parents may talk to the team parent and voice any concerns or issues, and then the team parent can relay that information to the coaches. This procedure may be dependent on the situation or the coach's preferences.

A team parent should never have any individual direct contact with the kids, these responsibilities are reserved for the Coach and Assistant Coach. Therefore, this position does NOT require a background check.