BC Soccer sanctioned USSL Summer Leage

[4_the_kids]

Canada is a hockey country, USA is not. Your comparison is apples and oranges. I am comparing apples to apples.

You'll note that in my post I said basically the population of Surrey basically gives them a stronger chance at winning by default. Higher population of good players compared to others. Then I said basically look at Canada vs. USA. Then I said look at USA vs. Chile, as USA has a much larger pop than does Chile. My argument being a smaller place can do better than a larger place if they are doing things differently. Chile clearly has the culture, exposure, and development models that USA and Canada do not. Canada and USA are essentially identical, but USA has a much larger pop. Thus I compared them, as reference to comparing Aldergrove and Surrey. Essentially the two communities do the same thing but Surrey just has "more."

Comparing hockey to soccer makes no sense. But, it does give insight into where your perspective is coming from.

Surrey has many great players, Newton based clubs are 95% or more Indo Canadian. There are many excellent players among the Indo Canadian community, there should be more achieving greater results than there are, why? Simple the politics around soccer within the community. SFC and CCB often have excellent Metro teams , why ? To generalize the reason is because the majority of their top players do not go on to play BCSPL , whether they are over looked, don't go to the tryouts, being kept by coaches, parents manipulated by coaches, it really doesn't matter it all exists .

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to measure success of programs from these clubs due to strong influences from the community that are negatively affecting development. We are a full generation or two away from seeing that community mature and understand the greater picture, youth soccer is ALL about development not RESULTS. There are some within that get it, and there has been a slow change unfortunately right now the team must win or the parents will move on ...even at U8 or U9 this happens

There needs to be a major shift in mentality from the community that feeds the Newton based clubs. Everyone is to afraid to face it, so instead the clubs try to accommodate while creating programs but it isn't working. The clubs need to stand up to coaches and parents, select teams need to be club selected not coach. It will never change until this happens, unfortunately the people on the boards, are part of the problem.

disclaimer: I coached in this community for 6 years, I lost two development ( as selected by the club through evaluations) teams to summer soccer coaches because i didn't participate in summer soccer. I have seen coaches placed by clubs on select teams to try and change this, only to have those coaches ousted by the parents. The clubs are helpless. I can tell you that one group trying to stand up to this and another not wanting to split the board of BC Tigers which lead to a split board at CCB. There is more of course but this issue is part of it.

Sorry I am ranting , this is a big issue. Much bigger than this forum. And if you haven't been in it, it is hard to understand just how awful it is.

lastly for argument sake, for the three BCSPL closest to Surrey, Coastal, SU and FV the U13 boys based solely off of names is roughly 30% Indo Canadian. This is by far the largest %of all the age groups, and mainly because the top 2003 CCB team which was really good fed 8 players into these teams, and those players required some convincing to come, the garbage with CCB over the summer helped in that cause. ( or so I am told) Hopefully this is a start of a trend but for now its the exception to the norm...Id be surprised if more than 2 or 3 04's from CCB or SFC make BCSPL , this is by far the most dysfunctional age group in the community.

 

[TKBC]

I acknowledge now and have previously that Surrey has some top players and coaches. My argument is that they have more onfield results is due to population, not that they are doing anything better or different development-wise than is any other community around here. I've seen enough nightmare practices, warm-ups, and playing styles come out of Surrey to know this. The difference is they have a larger population from which to draw strong players and coaches.

 

[WTF]

I acknowledge now and have previously that Surrey has some top players and coaches. My argument is that they have more onfield results is due to population, not that they are doing anything better or different development-wise than is any other community around here. I've seen enough nightmare practices, warm-ups, and playing styles come out of Surrey to know this. The difference is they have a larger population from which to draw strong players and coaches.

Totally agree the lg soccer playing population in Surrey/Newton that plays all year round is a big factor in the success of USSL and the performance of the Newton teams in the SMSA District Cup. There are good coach,s at every club but mostly volunteer parents , many who have no knowledge of the game but still run teams with help from other parents - its just that due to the bigger soccer population Surrey has more of them good coach,s and parent coach,s and the results of player development should be far better for this area. Problem is the politics , backstabbing , player poaching , constant movement between teams/clubs is holding back the development.

 

[easoccer]

I would venture to say the players in newton are a bit better early season because they play year around. I have found that other clubs (mostly caucasian) would rather do other things when the season ends. So surrey teams get a bit of a head start with some wins while the other teams play catch up.

 

[LFC]

USSL still expected to start in April , field allocations already allocated for USSL from April 1. Whatever differences the clubs may still have should be discussed and sorted out and i would recommend they call in respected members from the local soccer community , people who have knowledge and care about Football [soccer] .
There,s some great soccer parents, some older guys who stepped back and many other neutral guys who should be brought in .