Reply to Pro/rel, club-centric -- how should youth leagues be organized?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad][quote=Anonymous][quote=RantingSoccerDad]So if I'm hearing correctly, the argument here is that you can never have balanced games, so why even try?

Because common sense dictates you'll get more balanced games with pro/rel than you will with a fixed set of teams. Unless you do a really, really good job picking the teams in that fixed set. [/quote]

Common sense says exactly that but I’ve just posted the results of last place teams in two age groups over 34 different teams in pro/rel age groups and leagues. The reality is, such a structure did little to curb blowouts at every competitive level in the age groups.

In my cited examples the last place teams won just 10 total games over 34 teams. That is about 10 wins over roughly 306 games. There is a reason why at the professional ranks Leicester was a 5000:1 shot to win the Premier league. Promotion rarely sticks and promotion rarely leads to continued growth and development. The team centric nature can hold some kids back from changing teams because the coach wants to keep his winning team together. There is little to no vertical movement within the club and the only pyramid that is developed is parents looking over the standings to identify the specific team they should tryout for next.

This type of model simply turns players into free agents simply looking for winning teams and not quality coaches or programs.

I get that you want to reduce travel and there is enough quality teams in the region to do so but pro/rel is not the ticket for that.

[/quote]

This is a thoughtful response -- thanks.

I think it's safe to say, though, that most clubs and most teams will have a few parents looking elsewhere. The top players on top teams may be looking at the DA or ECNL. If you're on a last-place team in CCL or VPL, you'd be foolhardy not to look at other options.

I'm glad you see reducing travel as one of the goals here. But let's say we put all the non-DA teams in Northern Virginia in one big pool. Wouldn't we want to have some sort of tiering system so we don't have a State Cup champion playing a team that struggled in ODSL Division 3?

My issue with the club-centric leagues is that they create artificial tiers. CCL can at least argue that it has a lot of the traditional powers -- though now a lot of those clubs are entering their top teams elsewhere. With VPL, there's simply little evidence that the overall strength of the league is better than anything around it. EDP at least seems to offer some discretion -- at the very least, teams come and go depending on their needs. [/quote]

Keep the leagues as they are. Introduce open dates, like DA does, to schedule 2-3 "external games". Have the top four teams in CCL, VPL, NCSL play each other as a sort of Champions League style State Cup. the difference is a State Cup birth is earned not just applied for.

For U15 Girls there are likely over 80 teams in the greater metropolitan area. This is just to many teams to really tackle via pro/rel anyways. BUT the top teams should face each other more often than the occasional Jeff Cup 2 hours away when here they might be neighbors.

This should also cover any competitive discrepancies as well. The reality is the difference between a middling CCL , VPL and top Division NCSL team isn't that great anyways. [/quote]

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