Category: case studies

case studies, youth soccer

Re-organizing Northern Virginia leagues

Posted on by Beau Dure

First, a quick announcement — because I’m writing for Soccer America now and have a book in the works, I won’t have many posts and podcasts over the winter.

But I wanted to take care of something I’ve been trying to do for a while, and it’s a case study of what can be done with a dose of sanity.

The basic idea: There’s no need for artificial divisions between levels of play, and kids/teams should be able to find their levels on their own.

Another basic idea: Quit traveling MORE to play LESS competitive games.

Which leads to this: Like most countries, we’re going to put league play under one umbrella.

You can do club-vs.-club league play IF all or most of your teams are in the same tier as your opponent. No more dragging your U13s 150 miles to lose 8-0.

And this reorganization doesn’t affect tournaments at all. If you have some exclusive league, you can reset it as a couple of tournaments/showcases. (The one caveat: Can we please have ONE State Cup? If you don’t want to enter it, and you want to have a special tournament of your own, fine, but don’t call it a “State Cup.”)

You might think this is just some OCD thing or the narcissism of a lone youth coach who’s sick of seeing lopsided soccer games in which one team has a bunch of kids who are near-elite level and the other has kids who simply can’t keep up physically. But let’s look at a larger issue from that Atlantic article everyone has been reading (“American Meritocracy Is Killing Youth Sports“):

Expensive travel leagues siphon off talented young athletes from well-off families, leaving behind desiccated local leagues with fewer players, fewer involved parents, and fewer resources.

Here’s the cycle I see here:

  1. Big clubs hold cattle-call tryouts at U9, usually taking the more athletic players. (I’m constantly amazed by the coaching gurus who think they can cast players aside at age 8 or 9 when they’re in their growth-spurt clumsiness. It’s almost as if they haven’t spent any time with children other than their selected few. Sure, you can spot someone who’s light years ahead of the rest in terms of understanding the game, but sifting through the other 99.9% is a fool’s errand.)
  2. The players who don’t make it are often discouraged and sometimes quit.
  3. The players who do make it aren’t necessarily those who are really devoted to soccer. They burn out, and they quit, and then the travel teams are left scrambling to grab kids from what’s left of the rec league.
  4. Some players may really like soccer, but when they hit middle school and high school, they have other interests that keep them from making the year-round commitment to travel (related issue: year-round commitments to mid- and lower-level travel teams are ridiculous), so they drop back into those “desiccated local leagues.”
  5. The clubs all band together to form a larger “rec” league that’s basically “travel lite.”

A few years ago, I suggested a way to bring players through the U-Little ranks up through Under-10 soccer, inspired by my local Little League baseball program that brings everyone to the “Majors” at their own pace. Basically, if you’re advanced, you play up. You can also arrange scrimmages with other clubs — putting your top players against theirs, your second-best against their second-best, etc. — and make those distinctions fluid. You don’t need “full-time” travel. You need your advanced players to be challenged, and you need your less advanced players to have the same access to good coaching because they might be great players when they grow into their bodies.

Move up to the older ranks: Middle school has a way of reshaping children’s priorities. If they’re truly elite soccer players and want to pursue it, they’ll be in an ECNL Academy program. (Yeah, we’re merging those two — we’ll get to it.) If they’re pretty good “travel” players but also good basketball players, tuba players, drummers or Eagle Scouts-to-be, they might want to drop their commitment level.

Does that mean these players have to quit playing with their similarly inclined friends? Does it mean they have to play at the lowest level of soccer along with new players or those who haven’t figured it out (or don’t have the physical tools to play particularly well)?

I don’t think so. And what I’ve found by high school age is that the difference between the top half of “rec” players and the bottom half of “travel” players no longer exists. The only difference is that the “travel” players are spending more money on professional coaches and … travel.

Let’s change that. As a model, we’ll use Under-14 boys in Northern Virginia. Our data and the abbreviations we’ll use:

  • YSR: Youth Soccer Rankings for Virginia (no ranking is perfect, in part because teams don’t always play for the result, but this is the most comprehensive)
  • EDP-1, EDP-2, etc.: EDP standings
  • CCL-1, CCL-2: Club Champions League Premiership and CCL Championship standings (which aren’t included in Youth Soccer Rankings — note this is not a promotion/relegation league)
  • VPL: Virginia Premier League standings
  • NCSL-1, NCSL-2, etc.: NCSL standings (this IS a pro/rel league)
  • ODSL: ODSL standings
  • SFL-1, SFL-2: Suburban Friendship League (rec) standings
  • Cup: Spring 2018 U13 State Cup (Play-in is PI, Round of 16 is R16, quarterfinal is QF, etc.)
  • Club Cup: Spring 2018 U.S. Club Soccer State Cup
  • GotSoccer rankings, but more importantly, tournament results. I didn’t want to reward teams for chasing GS points, but I used their event rankings to judge tournament results. Between that and YSR, I should have a good sense.

The result is admittedly subjective, but I hope I’ve accounted for idiosyncrasies in the rankings in which teams are dragged down (or up) by the strength of their leagues.

ECNL DEVELOPMENT ACADEMY (yes, get over it and merge — and yes, YSR’s rankings are muddled here because of a lack of data points comparing these teams to others)

  • Arlington (DA)
  • D.C. United (DA)
  • Loudoun Soccer (DA)
  • McLean (ECNL)
  • Virginia Development Academy (DA)

At this level, traveling a bit farther makes sense. The rest of the current Mid-Atlantic DA  (Baltimore Armour, Bethesda, Lehigh Valley United, PA Classics) and other nearby ECNL programs (Baltimore Celtic, Maryland United) can be reached with an easy day trip.

We won’t have traditional promotion/relegation here because this league will have different standards than others, and each club will have its teams evaluated by a combined U.S. Soccer/ECNL staff. But any team that is clearly overmatched at this level, it’ll be asked to drop down at that particular age group, even if other teams in that club (in other age groups) remain in the ECNLDA. I’ve done this here with Braddock Road, whose results in and out of ECNL do not indicate a competitive team.

We’ll have one more level with medium-range travel.

EDP D.C. METRO REGIONAL 

  • Doradus Barca Elite (#2 YSR, #4 EDP, #4 NCSL-1, State Cup R16)
  • Alexandria Red (#3 YSR, #2 CCL-P, State Cup QF)
  • Lee Mount Vernon Patriots Red (#4 YSR, #6 CCL-P, State Cup QF)
  • DC Stoddert Blue Metros (#6 YSR, #8 CCL-P)
  • Arlington Red (#12 YSR, #4 CCL-P, State Cup QF)
  • Loudoun Red (#9 YSR, #10 CCL-P, State Cup QF)
  • Stafford Soccer Revolution Blue (#15 YSR, #3 VPL)
  • Annandale United/Villarreal Academy (#10 YSR, #2 VPL, Club Cup champion)

Those eight teams will combine with similar teams in Maryland, with yearlong standings. At least, at U14 — above that, you run into the problem of Virginia playing its public school soccer season in the spring while Maryland and most others play in the fall.

The champion is the non-ECNLDA D.C. metro area champion. (Maybe they could even play some games with ECNLDA teams in the spring season.)

No club can have more than one team in this division or the one beneath it. We want to encourage clubs to use club passes, and it pretty much defeats the purpose if you have multiple teams in the upper tiers.

The bottom Virginia team from this league is relegated to …

NORTHERN VIRGINIA PREMIER LEAGUE

  • Herndon Ciclones Black (#16 YSR, #16 CCL-P, State Cup R16)
  • Fredericksburg FC Black (#20 YSR, #12 CCL-P, State Cup R16)
  • SYA Cardinals Red (#25 YSR, #14 CCL-P, State Cup R16)
  • Capital FC Red, formerly Diplomats (#19 YSR, #1 EDP-4)
  • FCSC United Black (#29 YSR, #4 CCL-C)
  • McLean Green (#26 YSR, #3 CCL-C, State Cup runner-up but may have sent many players to ECNL – Jaime Moreno is the coach!)
  • Great Falls Reston Elite NPL (#30 YSR, #5 VPL, Club Cup PI)
  • NVSC CCL (#36 YSR, #11 CCL-P, State Cup R16)

The distances here aren’t too bad, though we have some 70-mile drives and might need to think about moving Culpeper, Fredericksburg and FCSC (Fauquier County) to other regions, perhaps with the opportunity to move into EDP. Below this level, as we draw the leagues more locally, teams from this clubs won’t be in the NoVa league.

These top tiers will only have eight teams playing seven games per season. That should give them plenty of time to play tournaments and showcases.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA LEAGUE ONE

  • Lee Mount Vernon White (#43 YSR, #2 CCL-C)
  • Arlington White (#38 YSR, #1 CCL-C)
  • Vienna Red (#31 YSR, #6 VPL)
  • Virginia SA NPL (#32, #9 VPL)
  • Barca Academy NoVa Blue (#28 YSR, #9 EDP-1)
  • Loudoun Black (#42 YSR, #6 CCL-C)
  • DC Stoddert Red Metros (#35 YSR, #7 CCL-C)
  • Doradus Barca Premier (#36 YSR, #4 NCSL-4)

The Barca team is tough to judge because it has been routed in its league games, and it has also chosen too high of a level in tournament play so far. Its ranking reflects the strength of opposition. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt in placing it here.

The Doradus team is one of those that plays low-level league play but does quite well in tournaments.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA LEAGUE TWO

  • Cougars Youth Club Olympiakos (#53 YSR, #1 ODSL)
  • Chantilly YA Purple (#44 YSR, #8 VPL)
  • FC Virginia United Elite (#48 YSR, #10 VPL)
  • Team America Academy (#49 YSR, #9 NCSL-1, State Cup R16)
  • FPYC Blue (#51 YSR, #7 NCSL-1)
  • FC Dulles Gold (#53 YSR, #5 NCSL-4)
  • McLean White (#58 YSR, #1 NCSL-3)
  • Burke Fusion Blue (#64 YSR, #3 NCSL-3)

The FC Dulles team is another tournament overachiever.

I happen to have reffed a game with Olympiakos. They’re one of those teams playing in (and dominating) ODSL because the club isn’t in a higher league, and they’re doing well with an ambitious tournament schedule.

One more eight-team division …

NORTHERN VIRGINIA LEAGUE THREE

  • DC Stoddert White Metros (#73 YSR, #10 NCSL-1)
  • Annandale Villarreal Yellow (#61 YSR, #1 NCSL-4)
  • NVSC CCL II (#63 YSR, #5 CCL-C)
  • SYC Lions Blue (#55 YSR, #12 VPL)
  • PWSI Pre Academy NPL (#59 YSR, #11 VPL)
  • Real World FC Scorpions (#65 YSR, #8 NCSL-4)
  • Premier AC Navy (#86 YSR, #3 NCSL-2)
  • Leesburg Infinity (#79 YSR, #4 NCSL-2)

As mentioned above, I’ve started skipping teams from farther out — in this case, Fredericksburg SC Vasquez Academy and Winchester Orange.

We’ve now accounted for all of the CCL Premiership and VPL teams. The remaining CCL-Championship teams, EDP team and ECNL team might disagree, but we’re getting to the point at which most of these teams have smaller ambitions, so we’re going to have more league games on the assumption that these teams will not go to as many tournaments. This should create a cheaper price point.

I’m going now by league affiliation rather than rankings, which are splitting hairs at this point, and I can attest there’s still a gap between the typical NCSL Division 2 team and NCSL Division 5.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA LEAGUE FOUR

  • Braddock Road ECNL
  • Barca Academy NoVa Yellow (EDP-4)
  • Herndon Ciclones White (CCL-2)
  • SYA Cardinals White (CCL-2)
  • Alexandria White (NCSL-2)
  • VSA Select Red (NCSL-2)
  • Arlington Blue (NCSL-2)
  • Chantilly Gold (NCSL-2)
  • SYC Lions Orange (NCSL-3)
  • Great Falls Reston Napoli (NCSL-3)
  • Vienna White (NCSL-3)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA LEAGUE FIVE

  • Loudoun White (NCSL-4)
  • Sterling Black Lions (NCSL-4)
  • Lee Mount Vernon Patriots Blue (NCSL-5)
  • SYC Lions Blue (NCSL-5)
  • Alexandria Blue (NCSL-5)
  • Chantilly Black (NCSL-5)
  • Vienna White (NCSL-5)
  • FPYC Gold (NCSL-5)
  • Premier AC White (NCSL-5)
  • Braddock Road United (ODSL)
  • PWSI Challenge (ODSL)

Now we’re going to get regional and “recreational,” though we’ll still have promotion and relegation opportunities. We’ll start adding in the SFL (recreational) teams here as well as teams from the two non-SFL clubs — Arlington (15 teams) and Vienna (five — they have 10 in a combined U13/U14 league, so divide in half).

SFL has two divisions, with the top one smaller than the second.

NORTHERN VIRGINIA DEVELOPMENTAL 1-WEST

  • Loudoun Gray (ODSL)
  • Virginia Revolution WLFC United (ODSL)
  • PWSI Classic (NCSL-6)
  • Loudoun Silver (NCSL-6)
  • Great Falls Reston 1 (SFL-1)
  • Herndon 4 (SFL-1)
  • FPYC 2 (SFL-1)
  • NVSC 6 (SFL-1)
  • NVSC 5 (SFL-1)
  • Sterling 1 (SFL-1)
  • PWSI 3 (SFL-1)
  • Herndon 1 (SFL-1)

NORTHERN VIRGINIA DEVELOPMENTAL 1-EAST

  • Alexandria Black (ODSL)
  • Capital FC White (NCSL-6)
  • Annandale 1 (SFL-1)
  • Springfield 1 (SFL-1)
  • Annandale 2 (SFL-1)
  • Gunston 1 (SFL-1)
  • Top four from Arlington
  • Top two from Vienna

Beyond that, we have:

  • 11 more from Arlington
  • 3 more from Vienna
  • 10 more from SFL-1
  • 32 from SFL-2

So that’s probably two more tiers of three regional divisions each.

Over time, some of the SFL teams would probably work their way up into League Five. Other teams would be relegated — and this might keep them together. It’s frustrating to be the bottom team in a travel league with nowhere to go but splitsville.

The teams at the top divisions will always have an eye out for good players. Clubs will promote from within — perhaps a player on the FPYC Developmental 1 team will move up to League Five or even League Two.

Beyond that, kids can play with their friends and find their level. All without breaking the bank.

(Now all we need is field space.)

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case studies, youth soccer

How Norway dominates the Winter Olympics

Posted on by Beau Dure

Sure, it helps to have a lot of snow and ice. And it helps a little to have a social democracy in which the government is happy to help with anything that makes children healthier.

But it also helps to have a “Sport for All” ethos that stresses participation over winning. And no specialization at early ages.

Those are certainly values we can consider in soccer, aren’t they?

Tom Farrey explains.

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case studies, youth soccer

Youth soccer case study: England (yes, they pay, but less)

Posted on by Beau Dure

This is the first in a series of “case studies” examining how a particular club, country or other organization runs youth soccer. It’ll be limited a bit because I, like too many people who’ve come through the American education system, don’t have a lot of foreign language skills.

So, of course, we’ll start with England. Common language. Relatively easy to find information. Somewhat. Actually, I’m happy to crowd-source here. This is based on deep dives online and a couple of conversations, but if you can point me toward other information, I’ll update this post.

I’m trying to get beyond what’s supposedly obvious. We all “know” professional European clubs have academies, and the smaller ones make money selling players to the larger ones. And there’s no “pay to play.” Right?

Well, maybe.

Here we go …

THE EPPP

That’s the Elite Player Performance Plan, which changed everything in 2012. It’s a joint project of the FA, the Premier League, the Football League and the ever-popular “other stakeholders.” The major leagues stem from this plan, as do the three defined “phases”: Foundation (U9-U11), Youth Development (U12-U16) and Professional Development (U17-U23). It also defines the four academy categories — a Category 1 academy needs a full-time “Coach Developer” and sport scientist, while a Category 2 academy can make its Coach Developer part-time, to give just two of many examples.

Want more rules?

Training compensation is also spelled out in vivid detail, and please note the following: “in all the above cases, the Training Club held a valid licence to operate an Academy in accordance with these Rules (or to operate a Football Academy or Centre of Excellence in accordance with the Rules pertaining to youth development which these Rules replaced)” (ENPP 275.6). So if I’m reading this correctly (and my reading matches what I’ve heard elsewhere), clubs only get training compensation if they operate an Academy.

What’s an Academy? From my reading, it’s a club with a license to operate in one of the four categories mentioned below.

Which means, if the same standard applied (however inexactly) to the USA, Crossfire Premier might have trouble getting money on the Yedlin sale.

See the ENPP documents in 100 pages of glory from one of the links here.

THE TOP LEVEL

All pro clubs have academies that compete in special leagues.

Almost.

Start at the very top — England has 24 clubs that meet the Category 1 criteria, and they get two privileges:

  1. Wider recruiting. All clubs are limited to players who live within an hour of the club at U9 through U11, and they’re not limited at all from U17 onward. From U12 to U16, clubs are limited to players who live within 90 minutes — except if they’re Category One. These clubs have no geographic limit on full-time academy players.
  2. These clubs are in “Premier League 2,” a two-tiered (yes, with promotion/relegation) league for mostly U23 players. The Premier League site has a good page on the league format that includes the current two tiers: 15 Premier League clubs and nine Championship clubs. Also, their U18 clubs play in the U18 Premier League, which is divided regionally instead of by pro/rel.

Premier League clubs are also responsible for the education (school, not soccer) of all full-time scholarship players aged 16-19.

Category 2 clubs — most of the rest of the EPL and Championship along with a couple of League One and League Two clubs — play in the U23 Professional Development League and the U18 Professional Development League. One major exception: Huddersfield is moving to Category 4, which means it’s shutting down everything below U17. Also, Bournemouth as of a couple of years ago was the only Category 3 club in the EPL.

Category 3 has most of the rest of the clubs in England’s traditional top-four League tiers, plus a couple of fifth-tier (National League) clubs and even one from the sixth (York). Category 4, as mentioned above, is only U17 up. But both Category 3 and Category 4 play in the Youth Alliance.

I found three League clubs — Wycombe (returning?), Crawley and Brentford — that have closed their academies and, as far as I could tell, not re-opened them. It’s hard to say, though, because some clubs seem to close and re-open academies frequently. See Torquay, currently a fifth-tier club.  Clubs with no full-fledged academy may have “football education academies” for people age 16-19 looking to go to university in the UK or USA. Yeovil, now in League Two, closed its academy for a couple of years.

I only found two Category 4 clubs — Newport County and Dagenham & Redbridge. The latter moved to Category 4 after being relegated from League Two. The country certainly has more than two, but others don’t seem to advertise it — “Hey! We’re Category 4!”

Younger leagues

There’s also a “games programme” for U9 through U11 teams from Category 1 and Category 2 academies, then a separate one for Category 3 academies. Those leagues will not have published league tables, and travel should be (but isn’t always) less than one hour. Futsal is a big deal in winter. (ENPP 123-125)

In this “Foundation” phase, players may still play for school teams.

At the early “Youth Development” phase (U12 through U14), they still don’t produce league tables. Travel time is roughly limited to two hours.

At U15/U16, the games programmes are split into Category 1 and Category 2, and they still don’t produce league tables.

Another note on these age groups: The maximum number of players in each academy drops through the years: 30 in each year from U9 through U14, 20 in U15 or U16, then 15 per year. So a club could cut players and still have a U18 group developed entirely within the club. (Given the scope of recruiting, that probably doesn’t happen often.)

THE NEXT LEVEL

There’s also a National League U19 league for clubs that are non-League — in other words, not in the Football League but rather the National League.

Let’s try that again: There’s a National League U19 competition for clubs in the fifth and sixth tiers. Some clubs have multiple teams; some have none. I also counted 10-15 first- through fourth-tier clubs that entered a team either directly or through an affiliated program (“West Ham United Foundation,” etc.). The competition also has more than 20 teams from seventh-tier clubs (Northern Premier, Isthmian and Southern top tiers), more than 20 from the eighth tier, eight clubs from the ninth tier (Wessex, Hellenic, Spartan South Midlands, etc.), one from some sort of youth academy (FootballCV Reds) and one college team (Manchester Metropolitan University).

The latter shows the goal at this level. A handful of players will get a shot in a pro academy as a young adult. Others are aiming for education, perhaps with a scholarship in the USA.

One sample program here: Dartford FC, currently in the sixth-tier National League South. They’ve partnered with a school that’s literally next door to their home ground, Leigh Academy. They also have a pre-academy that reaches down to U7, with some players still playing for local club teams and others signed exclusively for the pre-academy teams. The site mentions prices — £30-50 per month plus playing kit costs for 1 1/2 to 3 training hours per week.

THE NEXT NEXT LEVEL

The Junior Premier League has an ambitious goal to be a bridge between the grassroots game and the pro game. Its clubs are a mix of pro academy affiliates and independent youth organizations.

REC-PLUS

It’s not quite the Wild West as it is in the USA. Leagues can apply to be recognized as an FA Charter Standard League. One interesting criterion: An FA Charter Standard League must be “linked” to another league — youth-to-adult, mini-to-youth, adult-to-vet, adult-to-adult (promotion/relegation).

To find a place to play, there’s a “Full Time” site with searches for leagues, clubs and teams. Then the clubs can try to find each other for friendlies through a non-FA site.

These clubs are diverse. You have Essex Road Giants, which was founded in 2013 to “get young children into football and off the streets” and planned a four-day trip to see all 20 Premier League stadia. Then Crown and Manor FC sounds a bit like Boys & Girls Clubs — “a safe haven for boys and young men” offering football, table tennis and other activities, where football players are required to go to at least one educational activity per week and parents better behave if they go to games. A more Americanized entry is Soccerscool FC, where you can get a franchise or take a “free taster class” before talking about prices. They use the “play-practice coaching method,” attempting to have the freedom and creativity of street football (soccer?) while developing technical skills.

Can you be in an academy and play in one of these leagues? Camden and Regent’s Park Youth League says if you’re with a Premier League or Football League academy, you can’t play, but if you’re with an academy in Steps 1-6 of the league system (fifth tier on down), you can.

Also note from that league: The age group cutoff is August 31, NOT birth year. That’s also true in the FA Youth Cup (see section 15j). So that argument that U.S. Soccer had to change its age groups to birth year because the “rest of the world” does it that way? Yeah, not so much.

“ORGANIZED PICKUP”

“Just Play!” is a national effort to do what more local U.S. clubs should do — reserve some field space, send out a coach just to organize things (and maybe identify some talented players), and just let players play in a low-stress environment.

The site is a searchable directory of these pickup sessions and local clubs. So it’s marvelously open-ended. I did a couple of different searches and came up with some youth clubs in Highbury and an organized weekly kickabout in Torquay.

COST

A couple of costs are already mentioned above. Here’s a sample of a few others that contribute to what a youth player is paying:

  • Pitch rental: For a “3G” pitch, rental is often anywhere from £50-180 per hour. If you have multiple small-sided games going on, you can split that cost. Those fees — plus league fees and referee fees — are unavoidable.
  • A grassroots team with a parent coach might max out at £15-25 per month, so you could play most of the year without breaking the £200 mark.
  • Some grassroots teams might charge a little more than £25 and/or have a sponsor, enabling them to pay a small amount for a coach.
  • The top end of JPL clubs might charge up to £60 per month.
  • Semipro (National League, not Football League) clubs may have their own ground, saving on one expense. But they may not pay all the coaching costs, so families may still be paying.
  • Independent training centers may charge around £40 per month.

All of this is obviously much lower than the cost of a typical U.S. travel soccer experience. The main mitigating factors appear to be (A) geography and (B) low pay for coaches.

Next case study: How can I do this more efficiently?

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