I look forward to having our first practice tonight at 5:30 PM. Players should wear their Gray Club V t-shirt on Mondays and a White t-shirt on Wednesdays until the uniform orders come in. I expect that we will look and act like a team from day one. We’ll talk more about that at practice.

Remember to arrive early enough to be warmed up and ready to play right at 5:30 PM on Court 3 tonight. Players should bring their pens and folders with their “Manifesto” as the back cover with quotes, words, drawings, photos or whatever else is meaningful to them. Don’t worry if it is not yet finished. It may be a work in progress and can be updated as the season progresses, but there should be at least one quote or saying on the back cover for practice tonight.

Each player should also write down a goal and some keys and/or principles to achieve it in their journal for tonight’s practice. It could be as simple as, “learn the name of every player on the team by the end of practice”, “serve 5 times to area 1 in a row”, or “pass 3 times in a row to the setters box”. We will talk more about this at each of the upcoming practices to make those journal entries more meaningful and productive.

I have created a GroupMe group for Parents, Players and Coaches to join here if you didn’t already respond to an invitation you may have received from me. I encourage players to join this group via email or text message with their parents’ permission so they are accountable for the information shared here. Please send a short message to confirm you’re in the group. I will send most of my quick messages to the team in this way in addition to one email every week which will also be posted to CoachBobWard.com for those players who may not have an email account.

I apologize for the overload of messages to your phones/email. It should settle down after everybody has joined their respective groups. There is also a GroupMe group just for Parents and Coaches here. I hope this will be used to coordinate carpools, travel arrangements, food, or any other questions parents have for the coach or team parent(s).

Players need to get their AAU membership by September 1st. Use the Club V code: W34636
Please confirm you have received your 2022 AAU membership by completing this online form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bcuOr7NbIUwQqQZOubCmEkAmcDsvxqtmd78WeXdh8-8/

There will be no practice on Labor Day Monday, September 6. I just removed it from our calendar. However, any of the players, parents, or siblings are invited to play for free in one of the two outdoor doubles tournaments I am hosting in Orem this weekend (Saturday and/or Monday) if you and your partner are willing to come help setup nets at 7 AM either day. Just let me know which division you will play and your partner’s name by Thursday.

Please let me know if players or parents need to be added to this email group. There is more I want to share, but this message is already way too long so I will send another later in the week. Thank you for being a part of the Club V South 14s Open National team!