League Director Response to Incident

Last night the soccer league director left this response.  Following is our reply.  It’s still far from over but at least they know we are not happy and we have the ball rolling.  Whether it is rolling in a positive or negative direction is still to be determined.

Dear [Us],
 
I will attempt to address your concerns in a manner that may explain the “contradiction” that you feel you found in our league policies and our Constitution.

1.02 PURPOSE

The purpose of the League shall be to develop, promote and govern the game of

soccer (among youth who meet age requirements) within the San Juan Basin. This

league shall offer its soccer program without restrictions to race, creed, sex or ability.

In this statement, we have fulfilled our obligation in that we in no way ask any information that would cause us to exclude any player from participating in our program. Players are placed on teams when registered prior to team formation. Late registrations are placed on teams on the basis of availability. We do not regard their ability or limitations, unless a parent identifies that player as a special needs person, in which we consider the case and attempt to place them appropriately. We do not require any form of skills testing in order for players to participate in the recreational development program. For participation within the competitive club program within the FCYSL, they would fall under the additional guidelines of that club.

3.05.03 LEAGUE POLICIES

Recreational Program Mandatory play rules and substitution:

General: All team players that have reported to the coach by the pre-game time,

(recommended 15 minutes prior to kickoff) must play at least half of the

game. Players that are late to report may play at the discretion of the coach,

but must play part of the second half. Substitution for injuries can be made at

any time during the game with permission of the referee.

Competitive Program playing time shall be at the coaches discretion.

Please note that the first three words of this paragraph indicate that the rule applies within the Recreational Program and is Mandatory within that scope. These rules do not apply to teams when participating in a Tournament, as any tournament, even though open to recreational teams, is still considered to be a competitive situation. Since participation to the tournament requires a separate fee, and is entirely voluntary on the part of all players who attend. Occaissionaly, a tournament may include within their own rules some playing time requirements, but unless the event is promoted as a purely recreational event, this is very rare. The Socctoberfest Tournament is no exception, and was open to both recreational and competitive teams. Teams that identified themselves as recreational were not matched against the more competitive teams, but otherwise are playing by the same standards as any competitive team.

[area director] was correct in the advice she gave the coach, in that she should play the team in a manner that would best improve the teams chances of success. This does sometimes mean that some players may not get much, or even any, playing time. Whether or not we approve of this situation, it nonetheless remains a fact that sometimes these decisions have to be made in the attempt to succeed.

The recreational program that we maintain, and to which our Constitution, By-Laws and Policies apply to, is still intended for the development of all players within our program, and we try very hard to make sure that each player gets an equal chance to improve and perhaps excel. The Tournament format, whether hosted by FCYSL or any other league in the country, is intended as a “testing ground” on the skills that players learn. While we may still hope to have our coaches choose to play every player that attends the tournament, we do not mandate it, nor do we think it appropriate to do so. Perhaps, the failure in the system might be in that your coach did not make this possibility clear to you before you agreed to participate in the event.

If you wish to research the specific rules of the Socctoberfest Tournament, you can find them either through the Tournament link on the FCYSL web site, or you can go to www.socctoberfest.org and you should be able to find the rules at either site.

I sincerely hope that this will help clarify the current philosophy of the FCYSL, with regard to recreational versus competitive playing times. If not, please feel free to contact me again with any additional questions that you may have, and I will attempt to answer each to the best of my ability.

Sincerely,

Chairman, FCYSL

Our response:

Thank you so much for your quick reply.  We sincerely appreciate it. 

I agree that the communication breakdown was in the fact that the coach did not let the parents know that game play would be determined by ability.  If my husband and I had known beforehand, we would have never allowed my daughter to go.  Not because we have an issue with that, we have other children in competitive sports, but because our daughter does not understand or can handle that concept.

Thank you once again for your time and your handling of this matter.  We will be contacting [area director] in the coming week to iron things out.