These are strange times to be sure. Thank you (all 268 of you!) for taking the time to share your feedback on the Spring 2020 situation. The comments were overwhelmingly supportive, and that felt really good. Here are two of my favorite comments.

Thank you for your hard work and creativity in supporting both families and coaches. It is must be hard to figure out how to run your business with everything being a moving target. We have kids in several different soccer clubs. Cincy SC is far more proactive and customer oriented than the others during this time.

We appreciate everything the club is doing for the kids. I love the outside the box thinking to keep them engaged. I know there’s not many other clubs, if any, in the region doing this for the kids. Thank you and keep up the great work.

Results Summary

Play in June and July?

Forms response chart. Question title: Play in June?. Number of responses: 269 responses.
Would you support extending the spring season through the end of June? Tryouts are currently scheduled for the end of May/early June.
Forms response chart. Question title: Play in July?. Number of responses: 269 responses.
Would you support extending the spring season through the end of July? Tryouts are currently scheduled for the end of May/early June.

Comments on playing in June and July

A strong majority want to play in June (76% overall), and that included the high school groups (63%). That’s certainly an option we’ll pursue.

July is a different story. Vacations, heat, needing a break, and HS training for our older teams likely make July a no-go in general. That wouldn’t preclude us from entering a few teams into a July tournament though, if we thought we could create teams from the 47% who said yes.

About a week after collecting these responses, OSYSA announced that tryouts would likely be pushed back into June or July.

Keep Engaging Players or Try to Maximize Refund or Credit?

Forms response chart. Question title: Engage or Disengage?. Number of responses: 269 responses.
Cincy SC is striving to keep players physically active, developing, and socially engaged with teammates through Morning Kick, Zoom meetings, sharing videos, and other communications. Would you prefer that we continue to do what we can to keep players engaged, or would you prefer that we take steps to minimize our costs (take a pause, furlough staff, etc.) in order to maximize potential refunds or credits?

Comments on Engagement

This was a difficult question for us as leaders of the club and it seemed to be difficult for many of you as well. Are we providing a valuable service by engaging with players through Morning Kick, Zoom meetings, and videos during this time of social isolation? Some said no, but many more told us that what we were doing was critical and the best thing going on for their son or daughter right now.

It was tough to summarize the 131 comments related to the question about continuing to engage players, so here’s a word cloud of what you said.

The EPIC Cup: May, June, or Cancel?

Forms response chart. Question title: EPIC Cup in May?. Number of responses: 269 responses.
Assuming we are playing soccer by then, would your player be available to participate in The EPIC Cup in May? Originally planned dates: Girls May 2-3, Boys May 9-10.
Forms response chart. Question title: EPIC Cup in June?. Number of responses: 269 responses.
Assuming we are playing soccer by then, would your player be available to participate in The EPIC Cup in June?Contingency plan dates: Girls June 5-7, Boys June 12-14.

The EPIC Cup: May, June, or cancel?

This confirmed what we believed. If it’s safe to play (a big if), the May dates are the best for the most people. June does look viable though. We also used these responses to extrapolate to other teams that were planning to play in June. Although teams may be missing a player or two, that wouldn’t necessarily prevent the team from being able to play in the tourney. We’d only cancel if it doesn’t seem safe to play in May or June.

Forms response chart. Question title: My child is grateful for Morning Kick.. Number of responses: 268 responses.
Forms response chart. Question title: I am grateful for Morning Kick.. Number of responses: 268 responses.

Morning Kick Comments: some downtime needed

So the parents are more grateful than the kids… doesn’t that just sum up life in general?

The most common suggestion was to give a couple days off, and we’ve already implemented that by going to weekends off and “matches” from M-F. Of course, that doesn’t prevent players from doing Morning Kick activities and submitting scores on weekends, if they want. They just won’t be part of the “match.” This also means fewer emails about matches ending/starting and Morning Kick in general.

Who Responded:

  • 268 responses (a number that would represent 57% of our players)
TeamResponses
Boys 20029
Boys 20038
Boys 20047
Boys 20052
Boys 2006 Elite11
Boys 2006 Premier10
Boys 2007 Elite13
Boys 2007 Premier10
Boys 2008 Elite10
Boys 2008 Premier12
Boys 2009 Elite9
Boys 2009 Premier5
Boys 2010 Elite6
Boys 2010 Premier7
Boys 2011 Elite4
Boys 2011 Premier8
Boys 20124
Boys 20131
Girls 2001/026
Girls 20032
Girls 20049
Girls 20058
Girls 2006 Elite10
Girls 2006 Premier13
Girls 2007 Elite11
Girls 2007 Premier12
Girls 2008 Elite6
Girls 2008 Premier11
Girls 2009 Elite6
Girls 2009 Premier10
Girls 2010 Elite7
Girls 2010 Premier3
Girls 2011 Elite3
Girls 2011 Premier5
Girls 20125
Girls 20135
Grand Total268