Official New Site

www.eastalabamafc.com is now the Official Communication page for The Storm of East Alabama Futbol Club & www.facebook.com/EastAlabamaFC/ is the Official FaceBook Page.

The site that you are currently on, https://eastalabamafc.blogspot.com/ , will now serve as an archive for the club, with some very limited future updates to store historical content and as otherwise needed. The same is currently true for the Twitter feed twitter.com/EastAlabamaFC, though the frequency & content of that feed could vary in the future.

The FB Alumni & Supporters Page www.facebook.com/groups/EastAlabamaFC/ is currently active and updated with new content several times per week.

The Bus Keeps On Moving....
Storm For Life!
Onward & Upward!
YNWA!

In Memory of Coach Ken McIntosh

It is with great sadness and deep sympathies that we pass along the tragic news of the passing of Ken McIntosh, one of the co-founders of the Storm, and father of former player Rusty McIntosh.

Coach McIntosh co-founded the Storm in 1988 and began a legacy of youth soccer and mentoring that still exists to this day. He and his family touched the lives of many and made it possible for the Storm organization to touch many more lives.

The Storm family owes a great debt to the McIntosh family and we extend our deepest condolences and thoughts for the family and everyone who knew and loved Ken. Thank you for everything you did for the kids, the club, and the sport.

In lieu of flowers, the McIntosh family asks that you consider a contribution to the American Cancer Society cancer research program. 

Development needs to replace winning

By Robert Ziegler, ESNN

We've talked about it before. Development needs to trump winning in our youth system. Still, coaches, looking to impress the bill-paying parents, engineer their setups to focus mainly on winning matches, even if that means taking tactical shortcuts that are never going to work on a higher level of play.

U.S. Soccer Technical Director Claudio Reyna has seen from his overseas travel as a player and now in this role, that the top player development operations in South America and Europe do no such thing. The results in terms of respective player quality speak for themselves.

So Reyna is continuing to call on American youth coaches to quit sacrificing the developing careers of top youth players for the sake of the almighty win.

Here's what he had to say to us on the subject last month at the U.S. Soccer Summit at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

http://topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer/club-soccer-archives/nid-19858/Development-needs-to-replace-winning

Opinion: How Soccer Parents Can Avoid the Trap of “The Next Big Thing”

by John Akin

I have spent 27 years in the game of soccer playing at all levels – youth, high school, college and professional – and am now a head coach at the youth and college levels. Recently, I have observed some serious issues in the landscape of American youth soccer that need to be addressed. I have three children and they will most likely all play soccer. I know there is an epidemic growing that coincides with our American “give me options at every turn” lifestyle, and with the constant quest for “the next best thing,” but we can do something about it.

How A Soccer Star Is Made

“I am never looking for a result — for example, which boy is scoring the most goals or even who is running the fastest. That may be because of their size and stage of development. I want to notice how a boy runs. Is he on his forefeet, running lightly? Does he have creativity with the ball? Does he seem that he is really loving the game? I think these things are good at predicting how he’ll be when he is older.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Soccer-t.html

Claudio Reyna: 'Coaches should sit down'

By Mike Woitalla

For many reasons, Claudio Reyna was the perfect choice to be named U.S. Soccers Youth Technical Director one year ago.

The New Jersey product, who captained the USA at two of his four World Cups, played American youth club, high school and college ball before embarking on a career in Europe that saw him captain teams in Germany, Scotland and the English Premier League. After finishing his playing career with MLSs New York Red Bulls, which he also captained, Reyna traveled the world to observe the most successful youth programs including FC Barcelona.

Reynas research, and his own experiences, culminated in the Federations new curriculum for youth coaches (available for download at USSoccer.com).

Upon the unveiling of "U.S. Soccer Curriculum," Reyna spoke to us about what had impressed him about the youth programs that he found worth emulating.