How to Award Your Soccer Team

Whether your team is a group of under 10 children or adults in an open league, it is important for the morale of any team that a fun awards night is held at the end of the season. Regardless of where your team finished in the standings, it is important that you make this a time to feel good and have fun, because just the fact that you formed a team is well and truly something to be celebrated. The following are a few ways you can award your soccer team at the end of the season.

Have a party

There is no better excuse to hold a party than to mark the end of year awards for your soccer team, so book the local school or community hall and get ready for fun. You should be able to raise enough money for the party just by getting all of the parents to chip in, and apart from the food and prizes, it likely won’t cost much at all to put on. If yours is an adult team, your party will cost quite a bit more, as it takes more food to fill adult bellies. You’ll probably need to get some alcoholic beverages as well.

 

Something for everyone

If yours is a team of youngsters, you should be celebrating just the fact that you have all been out and playing sport together for the season, so make sure you have an award for absolutely everyone. You obviously need to recognise that some players may have shown outstanding talent and scored a lot of goals, but it is also important to recognise that soccer is a team sport, and every single person on the team plays an important role and makes a unique contribution. It is important to come up with a unique award title to recognise everyone’s individual contribution, and it will be more fun having more specific titles for each of the awards and trophies.

The coach

Your coach is without doubt pivotal to the existence of the team, and likely will have spent countless hours trying to get everyone organised and improving, so make sure that, if nothing else, a heartfelt thank you isn’t left unsaid. It is important that your coach gets properly thanked, because it can often be an otherwise unrewarded volunteer job, and if you want him or her to do it again next year, you had better say thanks and have some sort of trophy ready.

Get awards donated

Well before the season ends, have people from your team approach local businesses for donations to give out as awards at your end-of-season event. Often, donated items can be claimed as a tax write-off, and regardless, it is in the interest of local businesses to support the local team. If you can have most of the awards donated, you will be able to put on the awards event for next to nothing.

Say “thank you”

Rather than focus on individual awards, have your team concern themselves with ensuring that everyone who has helped the team throughout the season will be properly thanked. It matters little what you give to your show of thanks, as the gesture alone is sure to have your volunteers lined up again next year.