The following Questions were addressed by Director of the Super Y-League and current Board of Director of the United States Soccer Federation Matt Weibe on the development of the 2004 SYL season.  Over the past five seasons the Super Y-League has changed many aspects of the league to accommodate each of the divisions throughout the U.S. and Canada.  Each season the league continues to improve its aspects to find the right mold for the clubs and the players. The 2004 season will offer many new opportunities and developments for clubs and players.

Over the last few months the league office has been in several discussions with clubs and the landscape of quality girls programs in the U.S.  Some of the findings indicated that:

• There were fewer quality girls clubs then there were boys clubs in various areas of the country.

• It is typical for a quality girls player to be playing in older age groups

• There was different timing in certain areas with scholastic soccer.  I.e. when the boys played in

   the fall, the girls would play in the spring.

• The same logistics for the boys divisions do not apply to the girls divisions.

What A Difference A Date Makes: Why A Calendar Year Cutoff Date For Clubs Makes Sense
 
By Robert Ziegler, 05.05.2003.

An opinion editorial from the editor of Top Drawer Soccer

 

A potential battle in the fight over the direction of competitive youth soccer and player development in the U.S., may appear at first glance to be about recordkeeping. In truth however, it has much more to do with recognizing the best environment from which to identify and develop the top youth talent in the country.
 
The Olympic Development Program, the poorly-named system by which players are selected for various youth national teams to compete in FIFA international competitions, arranges players by age group, with a player’s age on January 1 of a calendar year determining whether he or she belongs in U17, U15, U12 or wherever. This is in line with the system used by FIFA, and the national teams of every country in the world.
 
With club soccer in the U.S., it is interesting to note that U.S. Youth Soccer, by far the largest body of registration for players in the country, still uses a fall cutoff date that FIFA briefly switched to and abandoned some years back. As a result a top-level player can be considered in one age group for his day-to-day play with a club, and in another for the purpose of his chance to play at a higher level.

This distinction underscored the opinion in many soccer coaching circles that club play and ODP have not been in proper coordination, potentially placing too many schedule demands on players and weakening both genres. The simplest solution would seem to be having U.S. Youth Soccer switch to a calendar year identification system, but as is typically the case in American youth soccer circles, there is no such thing as a simple solution.
 
Philosophical Differences Impede Switch
One main impediment to this for U.S. Youth Soccer is that the organization has a huge recreational base, and the fall date fits in much more nicely with the school-oriented player population that makes up house-league soccer. Recreational soccer is an activity just like piano lessons or 4-H. Teams tend to be made up of kids in the same neighborhoods going to the same schools, and of course there’s nothing wrong with that. In truth, for many clubs and teams calling themselves “competitive” or “travel,” the attitude and setup is almost identical.
 
So many of the registrar-types in U.S. Youth Soccer’s 55 state organizations are less than enthusiastic about making such a change for club soccer, given the administrative challenges it could provide them. As an organization, they are entitled to take such a position. The problem is that the truly ambitious player with the potential to go to the highest levels, has had to be subjected to, and potentially held back by, that same mindset.
 
Until recently, U.S. Youth Soccer had a corner on the ODP market. U.S. Youth Soccer was the organization with the resources to put together programs and provide coaching and playing opportunities. U.S. Youth Soccer still has an impressive base of resources, as its member organization bank accounts, along with attractive travel opportunities for state and regional teams, indicate. So if the methods and setup of the state ODP programs didn’t really match up with what the clubs were doing , a player’s only real alternative was to take his chances with not being involved in ODP.
 
Issue Touches On ODP Criticisms
Now, it should be noted that much of the criticism ODP has received over the years, particularly as relates to team selection, is unfair, and more about the rationalizations of disappointed players and parents than any meaningful evaluation of the facts. But there are very real criticisms of the format that serious-minded soccer people, some even from within U.S. Youth Soccer state associations, have been trying to address.
 
Much of this has been about the huge emphasis the state programs place on the tryout systems. A lot of soccer people criticize this roundly because, especially for determining the best of the best, a natural game environment, over time rather than in a one-off look, provides a better forum for evaluation.

Another criticism has been that the schedule for ODP events, since they are completely separate from club play, takes players away from their clubs too often. Coaches as the recent Dallas Cup, perhaps the top youth tournament in the country, repeatedly mentioned they were without certain top players because of an ODP event somewhere. The programs end up competing with one another. More cynical types will argue that the ODP schedule, including the tryouts, is padded in order to provide more money to the state organizations, as participants pay to be involved in most cases.
 
With the advent of the Super Y-League’s (SYL) new Olympic Development Program, clubs and players have an emerging alternative. The SYL, which change to a Jan. 1 cutoff date for its league play, is establishing a player identification system in which coaches evaluate players on their team and the opposition during regular league play. The league will then employ a ratings system based on these evaluations by which players are chosen to participate in regional identification weekends with U.S. national staff coaches on hand to observe.
 
So if club play was sufficient to get a player recognized for possible inclusion with national or an alternative form of a regional team, the way a lot of state programs set up could be in serious jeopardy. There’s no question that Super Y-League and to a lesser extent, U.S. Club Soccer, have risen quickly due in large part to the perception that U.S. Youth Soccer’s policies for player development and club soccer are under too much influence from recreational soccer interests.
 
New Proposals Likely To Cause Tempest
United Soccer Leagues recently submitted three proposals to the U.S. Soccer Federation calling for its youth organizations to use the January 1 date. One version calls for all youth players within the federation to do this, another for all players from U12 and older and the third for all players designated as “competitive” (those whose teams compete in a national cup or national or regional league).

 

Asked to comment on his proposals, Matt Weibe, Director of the Super Y-League, said, “This is not a political movement for the SYL to have the birthdates changed to January 1. Yes, it does help us as a league, but it more importantly helps soccer in the United States. There will have to be some minor administrative adjustment in the short-term, but this will have a positive impact for soccer in the U.S. in the long run.”
 
Now there’s clearly a political and PR element to USL’s motion, as it will serve to illustrate the difference between the two organizations regarding the ODP-club relationship and how each organization is structured. But from a soccer perspective it does push the envelope a bit as to how seriously we, as a soccer nation, will approach the ongoing on mission of developing the best possible players for professional and international play.

USSF Board Adopts Travel and Tournament Rule
 
At it's quarterly meeting last weekend, the United States Soccer Federation passed an important new Policy to assure USYS teams have the right to travel to US Club Soccer tournaments and other events, and to host open tournaments that include US Club Soccer, SYL, and other USSF member teams.  Policy 601-7, quoted below, assures that:
 
1.  No State Association or other USSF member may interfere with a team's right to travel to a competition (i.e. travel permission must be issued, or none required at all) unless a team, player, or coach has otherwise been suspended for legitimate disciplinary reasons (and has had a fair hearing, etc.).
 
2.  Tournaments may be restricted to only the member's of a given organization (i.e. Snicker's, US Club Soccer National Cups).  However, if a tournament is open to anyone outside that organization (international teams or otherwise), it must be open to everyone (i.e. all USSF members).
 
4.  State Associations and other USSF members may have reasonable requirements for approving tournaments, but can't deny approval just because the tournament is proposed to be open to all USSF members. 
 
5.  States are not required to provide insurance for their teams to travel, but a separate Resolution was adopted stating in part that the insurance cannot be applied as a way to discriminate.  The real meaning of this will be known over time, but US Club Soccer will continue to make it's insurance coverage available to USYSA teams to attend a tournament if they can't get it from their state, and will look to streamline the process of obtaining this coverage even more.
 
In all, this is a major step forward in allowing USYSA teams to attend US Club events and open their tournaments to US Club, SYL, and other USSF members.  Please pass this on to your organization members, and see the actual resolution below:
____________________________________________________
 
III. REVISED POLICY
Policy 601-7 -Competition Participation
Section I.
 
(A) Any properly registered team has the right to enter any competition involving Organization Members or their members provided that it is eligible under the rules of that competition, pays all required fees, and is in good standing.
 
(B) No Organization Member or member of an Organization Member sha11 interfere with the opportunity of a player, coach or team to travel to compete in a competition, including a game, scrimmage, tournament or League governed by
 
Section 1 (A) above and shall not deny permission to travel unless that player, coach or team has been prohibited from doing so for disciplinary reasons pursuant to the due process requirements set forth in Bylaw 701. The foregoing shall not prevent Organization Members and their members from having bylaws, rules, or policies that penalize teams or players for failing to meet their previously scheduled game commitments 9r prevent Organization Members from enforcing reasonable notification requirements prior to travel.
 
(C) Any Organization Member or member of an Organization Member, player, coach or individual denied the right to participate in any competition involving Organization Members or their members has the right of appeal and/or grievance through the applicable procedures set forth in Federation Bylaws and Policies.
 
Section 2.
(A) Tournaments hosted by Organization members or their members shall fall within one of the following two classes:
 
(1) Unrestricted Tournament: A tournament that is open to all Federation affiliated participants. Any tournament that allows international participants must be an Unrestricted Tournament.
(2) Restricted Tournament: A tournament that is open only to members of a single Organization Member or a subset thereof.
 
(B) Organization Members and their members shall be entitled to sponsor and/or approve tournaments in and according to reasonable requirements they establish as long as done so in a fair and timely manner. No Organization Member or member of an Organization member shall have a bylaw, rule or policy that prohibits their members from participating in Unrestricted Tournaments. Organization Members may not deny approval to host a tournament on the basis that the tournament is Unrestricted.
 
Section 3.
This policy does not apply to Professional Leagues or Indoor Professional Leagues.
 
III. RATIONALE
To ensure that players have as many opportunities as possible to participate in tournaments and competitions, and to make the policy consistent with U.S. Soccer's organizational structure.

Weibe: What this means is that SYL teams can travel to the major tournaments using the US Club Soccer passes that have been issued to them for the SYL.  They can go off of their SYL Roster (US Club Soccer passes) for these tournaments.  Many of the major tournaments like the Sun Bowl, Disney Showcase, Nomads Tournament, Phoenix Presidents Day Tournament and Dallas Cup are now open to all members.

The word has gotten out to the collegiate soccer coaches that the SYL Finals offer a great environment for them.  Over the last four seasons, we have seen more and more collegiate coaches attend from various areas of the country.