This is a post from LIJSL that we thought was important to pass along to our community.

It is the beginning of a new Seasonal year for youth soccer on Long Island.  One of the most important items of concern for the safety of our players has to be Goal safety.  Each year at least one child is killed due to a falling soccer goal.

Because of field realignment or simple field maintenance, goals are moved from time to time and must be secured again before play resumes on the field.  The only sure way to be sure the goals are secure on any field is to constantly check them before our teams take the field for competition or practice.  With that in mind, I’m requesting that prior to allowing our teams to take the field of play, that someone on each team be designated to physically check the security of all goals.

In addition to the team check, the referee crew has a responsibility to check goal security as well as other items concerning field safety before play begins for any match.

With this dual check in place, it is important that any goal found unsecured be reported to the club.  Only if we all do our part can we insure a safe environment for our players.

Please take a moment click on the link below and view the TV spot on goal safety.  It serves as an example of what could happen if we drop our guard.  There will is a short commercial first then CBS News reports on Goal Safety.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=2896814n&tag=related;photovideo

Remember player safety is all our responsibility.