HYR Parent Player Academy for 4 year-old players
HYR’s program for 4 year-old players is called the Parent Player Academy. In this program, a 4 year-old player is given their first exposure to soccer in an age-appropriate manner through the use of exercises, drill, and game simulation led by instructors who have experience working with young children. The parents participate in the exercises and drills with the players allowing the players to experience sports and physical activity in a safe and family friendly atmosphere. The first half of each hour is dedicated to the parent and child working on drills together on the field, and the second half of the hour is dedicated to a scrimmage where the kids play and the parents cheer from the sidelines.
Children participating in the Parent Player Academy do NOT have a weeknight practice. (Bedtimes and overscheduling, etc.) Instead, they have a weekly practice/game on Saturday mornings during the soccer season at either the 10 AM or 11 AM session. There are approximately 30 players per session with adult instructors and high school referees leading each session. Our adult instructors for the spring of 2023 are PPA Leader Jess Prestigiacomo and assistants Avery Story and Evvie McCarty.
Since this season's team theme is musicians and composers, we chose some cool children's music for the team shirts. All the kids and parents shirts are purple tie dye. The 10 AM session team is called "Honey" named after the musical group Sweet Honey in the Rock. (You might check out their children's album called "Still the Same Me"). The 11 AM session team is called "Roxx" named after music artist Divinity Roxx. (You might check out her children's album called "Ready Set Go". Since the Parents all wear team shirts too, the parent shirts all have "The Carnival of the Animals" on them. (Named after the beloved orchestral piece for children by Camille Saint-Saens. If you do not know it by title, you would likely recognize it. )
We sent out a Google form last week for parents to select the 10 AM or the 11 AM session. 27 people used the form to select the 10 AM session, and 13 people used the form to select the 1 AM session. Any parent who did not select a session was randomly assigned so that each session has similar numbers of kids. You can see that in the Team Central Portion of our web site or by clicking the exported list below:
2023 hyr spring soccer team roster by team.pdf
If you would like to switch sessions for the whole season, please send an email to [email protected] by Thursday night, March 16th, and we'll switch you. If you ever want to attend a different session on a particular day, you do not need to make any advance notice. Just show up to the different session.
We hosted an optional orientation on Saturday, March 11th at Highlands Community Ministries that was attended by a small number of participants.
If you would like to see what it looks like, watch a 90 second video if the Parent Player Academy below:
HYR Parent Player Academy VideoBelow is a link to HYR's Equipment List (What WE provide and what YOU provide)
hyr soccer equipment list.pdfBelow is a link to a set of drills done at the Parent Player Academy
hyr parent player drills 2021.pdf
Opening day is Saturday, March 18 at Atherton High School. Please see the linked map below for where to park.
hyr_atherton_map.pdf