Lake Norman Soccer Club encourages our children to be the best they can be by working hard to improve their soccer skills, by learning the strategies of the game and by giving their best at each practice and each game. We at LNSC also must always be in touch with the consequences that one unthinking moment can bring to the hopes and dreams of children dedicated to achieving them. Our culture at Lake Norman Soccer Club must never accept “injuries happen” and "getting hurt is just a part of the game".
The LNSC Board of Directors has adopted an "Excellence in Safety" philosophy. We believe all injuries can be prevented and acknowledge that all hazards can not be taken out of the game but safe guards can be taken for all hazards. We are committed to beginning the journey of establishing our policies and practices from the perspctive of how would we approach things differently if our goal was to have zero injuries.
Over the next two years our goal is to reduced the number of season ending injuries by 50%. We will challenge each team to embraced the guiding principles of "Excellence in Safety" and set a team goal to achieve an “injury free” season (defined as no injury requiring medical attention) during the next year.
The LNSC board in adopting an “Excellence in Safety” process has established certain Safety Guiding Principles that must be embraced by everyone in our Club including:
Everyone is responsible for safety.
We look out for each other.
Hazards are a part of the game but all hazards can be safeguarded.
All injuries can be prevented.
All incidences are reported.
Playing safely is a condition of membership.
Our first step was to establish a severity rate and an incident rate in 2007/08 to measure our performance and trend our improvement. We began at the top of the injury pyramid by asking the Team Managers and the Coaches to assure an LNSC Incident Report was submitted to their Director of Coaching for all injuries requiring a doctor’s attention. From these incident reports we reviewed each injury to determine the contributing factors and looked for trends that have led us to make changes in our policies, practices and behaviors to avoid future injuries.
There is much more we will need to embrace on the journey to eliminate injuries. We acknowledge that the goal is ambitious but who can argue that preventing an injury that dashes the hopes and dreams of our children is not worthy of our best efforts.
If you want to be a part of an exciting opportunity to lead Lake Norman Soccer Club to a significant improvement in safety, please call the office and talk with Mike Couch.
