2021 season underway!
With
the season now rolling, we thought it would be good to give everyone a quick
update and share some thanks.
With the season now rolling, we thought it would be good to give everyone a quick update and share some thanks.
First, and most importantly, thank you to all volunteer coaches who have made the season possible. In a normal year, we have over 5 months to plan the season and to get coaches signed up and prepared. This season, we had less than 5 weeks. It was definitely a challenge, and there were teams that were in danger of having no coach. But in the end, someone stepped up for every team and every kid who wants to play is getting that opportunity. Thank you, coaches!
Next, big thanks to all families (i.e. you) for your patience and flexibility as we hustled to get things organized. We had to make a lot of decisions on the fly about teams, fields, rosters, coaches, uniforms, equipment, payments, schedules and leagues, and all of you have been extremely accommodating and positive about it all. We genuinely appreciate that the vast majority of you have stayed focused on what’s most important this year; that the kids have any opportunity to play, even if the situation has been less than ideal because of all the delays and uncertainly due to COVID. Much appreciate! Note: Now that we’re through the crunch of getting the season started, we’ll be following up with some of you that asked questions about payment.
Here are a few facts and updates on how GMS shaped up this season:
- Our final 2021 total is 320 players (our most ever) from 222 families.
- We have almost an exact split between boys and girls, which is great to see. We made changes a few years ago hoping to keep more girls playing, for longer. It’s exciting that we’re trending in the right direction
- We have a total of 32 teams. Of that, we have 12 older teams playing in tier II & III EMDSL leagues and 20 younger teams playing in our in-house programs.
Now that the kids are playing, let’s all keep our fingers crossed that the pandemic situation continues to improve and vaccine rates continue to climb. We’re very fortunate that Ontario Health officials and Ontario Soccer have allowed the season to proceed with very few restrictions, so it would be a huge disappointment for the kids if the season had to be disrupted by another spike in infections and another lockdown. Please stay safe!