When current Lubbock Soccer Association president JJ Cadd was elected this past May, one of her goals was to bring more recognition to the many volunteers, coaches and referees. She also envisioned attending a North Texas Soccer Annual General Meeting and hearing someone from Lubbock receiving an award at the Awards Dinner.
“I’ve been involved with Lubbock for many years, and I was sick and tired of going to the AGM and not hearing anyone from Lubbock win,” Cadd said. “I know we have people who are worthy of winning these awards, so we put together a committee to start giving out awards for our association.”
As a result, Lubbock handed out their first seasonal awards at the end of the Fall season in 2017 with the intention of submitting all of the winners as candidates to win their respective award at the 2018 North Texas AGM. Cadd explains that while they didn’t receive an overwhelming amount of nominations the first time around, she is confident more will follow once the word gets out.
“We had a big cookout at the end of the Fall season to honor our champions, volunteers and referees where we invited the winners and their families, and I think that was really cool,” Cadd said. “As we go forward I think we will build on the involvement and there will be more nominations now that more people know what is going on.”
While there has been many intended positives to come out of giving out the awards, Cadd mentioned there was an additional positive that was unexpected.
“My daughter won the Female Referee of the Year. She received two nominations, and she was shocked. I didn’t even find out until a couple days beforehand,” Cadd said. “She has been refereeing for four years now, and she was completely shocked, amazed and very excited.”
The full list of winners can be found below. Cadd explained that finding volunteers and referees can be difficult, so if this was something that could help keep the current volunteers and bring new ones in, she was all for it.
“It gives volunteers another avenue to have some form of recognition, and I think you have people step up to the plate more. We can have a hard time getting volunteers and especially referees since people don’t like being yelled at,” Cadd said. “My goal is to recognize more people so they know they are appreciated. We are tweaking a couple of things since it was our first time doing it, but we are excited going forward.”
Cadd mentioned she wasn’t familiar with how many or if any other associations had awards similar to what has started in Lubbock, but she would love to more and more get involved.
“I hope it sets an example. I would love for that to be the case,” Cadd said. “We would love to hear some of the other associations outside of the metroplex having award winners. We would love to see Midland or Odessa called as well. Hopefully we can start at home and one of these days hear Lubbock being called at the AGM. That would be really cool.”
2017 Lubbock Soccer Association Fall Award Winners
Rec Boys Coach - Luis DeLuna
Rec Girls Coach - James Price
Comp Boys Coach - Jamie Faz
Comp Girls Coach - Sam Ordaz
Young Female Ref - Taylee Baker
Young Male Ref - Israel Garza, Jr.
Volunteer of the Year - Celesta Hernandez