| "A Monopoly of Mediocrity.” |
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| on 12 Nov 2006 | |
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This article appeared in Puro Football Soccer Magazine in 2005: “I had a Mexican father tell me the clubs were “loco” because they traveled to San Diego when the kids could not even control the ball or did not even love the game. Imagine moving here from Mexico, signing your child up for soccer and realizing they only played from late August to late October and then most kids moved on to basketball and then baseball. Imagine that same family wanting their child to play more serious club soccer and finding out they had to travel to Sacramento, San Jose, Modesto, Fresno, San Bernardino, San Diego, and when they were older, Idaho, Florida and Phoenix. Imagine then choosing to play for a class III team and beating everyone in your league but not be allowed to move up to compete in leagues against other better teams because they are class I leagues and your team is labeled “class III”. This was the world of soccer before last year. The world moves teams up and down but in our area we give clubs and teams a monopoly. We believe all too often it is a monopoly of mediocrity.” In the summer of 2003 a group of motivated soccer coaches and former players met to discuss forming a new league for their teams. Believing competitive soccer had developed into a money eating machine fed by tournaments and the costs surrounding tournament travel (hotel, gas, food, entry fee’s, time) they looked to other countries for idea’s for a competitive structure. Seeing most countries did not attend many, if any tournaments; they developed a league based on the following ideas:1. Leagues are better than tournaments for the development of players. 2. Leagues should have promotion and relegation. 3. Top teams must compete across a wider area – the lower the level the shorter the travel. 4. Teams should play against opponents of similar abilities ie multiple divisions of play. 5. Leagues should use US Club Soccer paperwork – US Club is a 5-year-old national organization run by soccer people who allow people to set up clubs and teams easily and inexpensively. 6. Leagues should allow the “club pass” which provides a flexible player selection process permitting clubs to play players on different teams within their club. In 2004 the league had over 120 teams register. After the 2004 season the NorCal Premier Soccer League board decided to develop the “NorCal Cup”. Again taking ideas from other “footballing” countries, they presented a cup competition for interested teams from Visalia to the Oregon border. The response was tremendous. The 2004 NorCal Cup had over 140 teams participate and they crowned the NorCal Cup Champions on Jan 28th at Santa Clara Sporting’s Soccer Complex. The NorCal Premier League was first developed to provided clubs with games during the spring, a traditional down time in soccer. Because they believe excelling in soccer requires year round participation and games are an important part of the educational process of young players they choose this time of year to host the league. The league presents clubs an opportunity to educate and develop their players with consistent games spread out over a 2-3 month period and while most teams have a second period of league play in the fall, those leagues limit the involvement to teams from within traditional CYSA recognized clubs. The league emphasizes that the results of games, at such a young age, should not be as important to a club as the education of a club’s players. They believe most clubs should be committed to educating their coaching staffs, players and parents. The board share the views held by top professional soccer clubs such as ManU, Boca Jrs, Milan, Ajax and Chivas who are unanimous in the belief that consistent training and league games is the key to a successful individual player development program. They point to these professional clubs and their belief that a player’s education should be the primary focus of a club and this is more important than team success. They do not suggest winning or team success is not important or separate ideas – rather winning is less important than education of players, which should be a clubs primary goal. The NorCal Premier and US Club Soccer believe there should be freedom in soccer. The current soccer structure, provided by California Youth Soccer League or CYSA has not allowed new “clubs” to form and compete in their leagues. This allowed for one club to exist in a town or league with no competition from other clubs. The new league breaks down these barriers and allows other people to develop a clubs. When asked about this idea, NorCal President Benjamin Ziemer said,” To think that Hugo Sanchez or Pele could move here start a top club, with top coaches and not have a league to play in is unbelievable. We believe soccer should be open to all sorts of ideas and if someone has an idea of how soccer should be played and how players should be trained we think they should be able to form teams and start a club. We know for a fact that last year Cruz Azul of Santa Rosa or Club America of San Jose would not have had a league to play games. They could have built a stadium, paid for travel, coaches and equipment, hired Jose Mourinho of Chelsea and be rejected from playing in the current league structure. Now with US Club Soccer and NorCal Premier they have a place to play and we believe it will be great to watch these new clubs compete.” Ziemer added,” We may, in a year or two, ask that teams are part of a club because we think participating within a club provides a better experience and some oversight of coaches. But in the meantime, as the old system of one club per league is breaking down, we are allowing individual teams to participate. If we do require club membership we would set the requirements low and assist people in forming their clubs. In Holland a club needs three teams, a board of directors, rules and a field. In Germany the requirements are almost as simple. The desire in these countries is to have children playing sports and if someone can develop a club whom parents and players choose to play for – great!” When asked about future plans for the league Ziemer commented, “That there has been a need for this is obvious. We believe the trend will move towards clubs playing in primarily US Club events. Why? Because we think clubs like to set up their programs with as little interference from the administrative end as possible. Clubs not administrators are closest to players and can best determine how, where and when to develop their players. Our plans are to continue to set up leagues probably expanding into other times of the year gradually offering clubs a chance to compete year round in leagues. We believe clubs could then concentrate resources on education of players, parents and teams rather than travel – if and when a viable option exists. This is important because it will allow clubs to commit resources to training rather than travel. We believe more new clubs will form and everyone, clubs, players, and parents will be better served in a free system, which provides more options. A few weeks ago, a group of coaches were sitting around watching a game on television discussing youth soccer and we could not stop laughing over the absurdity of the current structure. Last month David Beckham announced he would invest a few million dollars in an academy in London and Los Angeles. We found it unbelievable yet hysterical that had he decided to locate his club in San Francisco or Sacramento his teams would not have been allowed to play in CYSA leagues. Thankfully it is now accepted that our competitive structure needs to move into the new century. The change has begun and clubs have begun to think outside of the CYSA box. The changes will introduce competition, which will make clubs sharper because they are not the only one in town. Clubs will have to develop their coaching staff and their players to insure they can first, attract players and second, keep them. Of course it takes getting used to but it’s the norm everywhere in the world except for Northern California.” When asked about the watering down of clubs talent pool by spreading the players across more clubs Ziemer disagreed,” If there are 5000 players in Danville or Santa Rosa or San Jose but only one competitive club providing spots on one or two teams there will be about 32 to 36 players selected. Some may argue that there are only a limited number of players available for the top clubs but we disagree especially at the youngest ages. If numbers are an issue why does the Netherlands compete at a world level when they are such a small country? A major reason is because they open up the competitive cauldron and they provide an open structure that allows for numerous clubs to compete. Another major reason is that the federation educates the clubs and assists them in providing a top-level education for their players. There is a constant willingness to evaluate their programs and change when necessary. We think change will encourage clubs will recruit more players to play year round at a young age. If clubs develop players passion for the game and keep soccer family friendly we will have more, better players playing at an older ages.” Ziemer continued, “I had a Mexican father tell me the clubs were “loco” because they traveled to San Diego when the kids could not even control the ball or did not even love the game. Imagine moving here from Mexico, signing your child up for soccer and realizing they only played from late August to late October and then most kids moved on to basketball and then baseball. Imagine that same family wanting their child to play more serious club soccer and finding out they had to travel to Sacramento, San Jose, Modesto, Fresno, San Bernardino, San Diego, and when they were older, Idaho, Florida and Phoenix. Imagine then choosing to play for a class III team and beating everyone in your league but not be allowed to compete in leagues against other better teams because they are class I leagues and your team is labeled “class III”. This was the world of soccer before last year. The world moves teams up and down but in our area we give clubs and teams a monopoly. We believe all too often it is a monopoly of mediocrity.” When asked about how thing are improving he said; “We believe the soccer playing opportunities provided in the past were to short – the leagues for most players are 2-3 months. They were too expensive - tournaments costing between $400-1000 per weekend per family. Finally, soccer can be too time consuming - many team traveling out of town 8 -12 weekends per year with few breaks for the players and their families. Tournaments run through the summer and clubs are hesitant to skip them, state cup falls right after the winter break making it difficult for clubs to give time off during a natural break time. New opportunities are being offered to established clubs and new clubs which allow them to limit their tournament attendance. To their credit many are taking advantage of this. New clubs are forming and they will challenge the status quo, which accepts traveling as a necessity. Now, if a club wants to offer limited travel, focus on training more often at a young age, or if they want to play an 8-1-1 they can – as long as players and parents choose to be a part of their club. The time factor along with the cost and travel are big reasons families with young children decide against club soccer. The irony is CYSA, who has a checkered past of supporting club soccer bemoans the competitiveness of soccer at such an early age. Yet they have created this system of short leagues, tournaments – which are only about winning, state cup frenzy – which is only about winning. Finally they had provided a monopoly for the clubs competing within the system that drove many families away by requiring an unbelievable financial, time and family commitment. Our goal is to provide an alternative to that system and to assist clubs in educating parents on the positives of year round league play versus tournament play.” The NCPL board requests the coaches and managers of the teams participate with sportsmanship, a spirit of cooperation and civility – all of which were evident in the first year of the NorCal Premier League. They recognize soccer presents challenging situations but their hope is the team and coaches, recognize the opportunity this league provides and cooperate and compete in a manner honoring the game of soccer. They strive to set aside any considerations such as club or team which may cloud their judgment and think only about what is best for soccer. In the end, they are confident Northern California Soccer will, one day, present an example for the rest of the country. The NorCal Premier League just closed registration for its Spring 2005 Season with over 240 team’s ages U10-U13. They are still accepting applications for older teams ages 14-17. The NorCal Premier League cost $200 per team. In addition, teams must register their players with US Club Soccer, which costs $10-14 per player but is valid for an entire year. Most registration is done online although teams may register through the mail. The web address is: norcalpremier.com. |
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