GRASC

Club Newsletter — May 2026

Grand Rapids Area Soccer Club

Hi GRASC families — a few quick updates: tournament RSVPs are out, fall registration is opening, and we have big news from our fundraiser, our juggling champs, and more. Jump to whatever you need below.

Action Items — What We Need From You Do this week

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Tournament RSVP — Travel Teams & U10 Boys

An RSVP email went out this week to all travel teams and U10 boys. Yes, tournaments were part of registration, but we still struggle when families can't make a tournament and don't let us know — so we're working on that. Please RSVP even if you've already told a coach.

• Travel teams — RSVP link: https://forms.gle/ghaCRDsqAbccFjdp9
• U10 boys: sent directly by Nick Koerbitz and through the club email — check those messages and respond there.

A note for U12 Boys Tier 2 families: I knew this and we didn't communicate it well — there wasn't a plan to add tournaments for this team. We knew the schedule would include more regular season games, and now that we have it in hand we're looking at whether we can balance things out with one or two added tournaments. You'll get the same tournament RSVP email so we can see if there's enough interest to make that work. Please respond either way — "yes" or "no" both help us make the call. ~ Marty

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Fall Registration — Open Soon

Yes, you can play soccer in the fall too! We're opening registration for Fall 6v6 In-House and Fall Travel Soccer.

• Fall 6v6 In-House: [registration link / dates / fees to be added]
• Fall Travel Soccer: [registration link / dates / fees to be added]

More info, including age groups, schedules, and what to expect, will be posted at www.grsoccerclub.org and shared in the next email.

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Fundraiser Update — We Crushed It!

We did it. The 2026 TeamFi Fundraiser raised $19,086 — thank you to every family who set up a page, shared it, and donated.

What happens next. GRACF (the Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation) matches every dollar we raise up to $15,000. That match goes to our scholarship fund at GRACF — the fund we use to make sure any kid in the area can play, regardless of what a family can afford. That's huge, and it's a direct result of you taking five minutes to set up a page and share it.

Prize Drawings — Congratulations to Our Winners!

Prizes were based on sharing, not on dollars raised — you earned one drawing entry for every 10 working contacts you added. We pulled 61 families into the hat for 94 total entries. You can watch the drawing on YouTube if you want to see how it went.

A separate free registration was awarded earlier to Lauren Beckfeld — congrats Lauren! And a huge thank you to Casey Heinle, who was drawn for a TPES Camp spot and graciously deferred it so another family could attend. Matt Mlinar is the new TPES winner thanks to Casey's generosity.

Additional prizes (player experiences and first dibs on reduced-price match and charter trips) will be communicated to recipients directly.

Trips in the Works

Speaking of trips — here's what's coming:

• A club trip to a Minnesota Aurora FC match (our state's pro women's team)
• A trip to a Duluth City FC vs. Superior City FC match in Duluth

First dibs on bus seats and ticket deals will go to families who participated in last year's or this year's fundraiser — regardless of how much you raised. Setting up a page and sharing it is what counts. Details and sign-ups will come out as we firm up dates.

Thank you again. This kind of result only happens when a club shows up together.

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Juggling Challenge — Congratulations!

Congratulations to the four players who completed GRASC's first ever Juggling Challenge over the winter! For their efforts, each will receive a t-shirt to commemorate their achievement, plus the additional prize noted below.

5,000 Juggles

• Dre Dewey — age 6
• Chandler King — age 8

10,000 Juggles

• Finley Dewey — age 9
• Kirby Walker — age 9

Dre and Finley earned free camp registrations to the Minnesota United Youth Camp in July, and Chandler and Kirby each won a 2026 World Cup Trionda ball. Amazing job hitting those numbers, you four!

Keep an eye out this coming winter for our next Juggling Challenge so your players can sharpen their skills and keep getting touches through the offseason.

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Weather & Air Quality — How We Make the Call

Northern Minnesota gives us a little bit of everything — thunderstorms, heat, cold snaps, and now wildfire smoke. Here's how GRASC handles weather and air-quality calls (full details are in the GRASC Club Handbook):

• We use established guidelines for air quality, heat, cold, and severe weather.
• Our go-to tools are AirNow (for air quality / AQI) and WeatherBug Spark (for lightning and severe weather). These help us make smart calls before and during games.
• Lightning: Play stops when lightning is in the area and resumes only after the all-clear window required by the guidelines.
• Air quality: When AQI gets into unhealthy ranges, practices/games may be shortened, modified, or cancelled. Players with asthma or other respiratory conditions should always err on the side of caution.
• Cancellations are communicated as early as possible via Crossbar, email, and our website — please make sure your notifications are on.

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Crossbar App — Use It for Your Team

Quick reminder — the Crossbar app is more than just a schedule. The Team section is perfect for:

• Ridesharing and travel coordination — message your team without digging up phone numbers
• Team-only communication from coaches and team managers
• RSVPs for practices and games

If you haven't downloaded Crossbar yet, please do it today — your team's schedule and messages live there.

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Thank You to Our In-House League Vendors

A big shoutout to the vendors who show up to our in-house game nights at West Rapids:

• Kona Ice
• Bobcat's Lunchbox
• Borealis Creamery

Here's the deal we want families to understand: by partnering with these local vendors, we eliminate the need for concessions volunteers. We give up the fundraising dollars that running our own concessions would bring in, but volunteer help has been hard to come by across the board, and this has been a good tradeoff — food and treats are available, no parents stuck behind a counter all night, and we get to support three local small businesses while we're at it.

Please support them when you can. They're showing up for our kids, and a busy line on game night is the best thank-you we can give them.

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On the Road — Travel Behavior

This is a quick but important one. When we travel, we represent GRASC — the club, the kids, and every family back home. The expectations we talked about at the parent meeting (cheer for effort, respect the refs, no coaching from the sideline, no arguing calls) apply at every game — and frankly, we need to be even better when we're on the road.

• Our referees on the road are not our home refs. Many are young people learning the game. Same standard everywhere — no yelling, no arguing, no intimidation. Concerns go to a coordinator after the game, not during.
• Technical fouls and ejections follow your child and your team's reputation — back to our fields, to opposing clubs, and into how we're invited to (or not invited to) future tournaments.
• Hotels, restaurants, parking lots, hallways: please remind your players to be respectful of the space and the people in it. Pick up after yourselves. Keep the noise down at night. Be the team people are happy to see check in next year.
• Cheer hard for our kids, and cheer with class for theirs. "Coach a team that loses with class and wins with humility" — that's the standard, and it goes for the sideline too.

Thank you in advance. Our coaches and board members hear it when our families travel well, and it matters.

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