BC Coastal Soccer League

[southsloper]

The BCCSL website & Operating Guide specifically mention U13-U18 only. That being said, the BCCSL GotSoccer schedules *do* show U11 & U12 divisions but they all show "West" in their division names. It appears they are the U11-U12's from 4DL districts...

Fraser Valley u11-12 did not join BCCSL, so it wasn't all - just to nitpick.

Has anyone explained what the rush was?

 

[LosBlancos]

With my boy hitting that age group next year, this kind of makes me worried. He's right on the fringe of being an BCSPL player but would probably be better for him to play Metro to be a leader and get more touches. The cost is a factor for BCSPL, what's going to happen with SPL2? Travel is an issue with BCSPL, again this new league, what happens? Trips to PG? I still don't understand BC Soccer and their desire to have the BCSPL, it's still not a best of the best league, players slip through the cracks and there are always a few Metro teams that would easily compete in this 8 team league. It seems to become very intense and almost a job, is this the right call for 12 yr/13 yr olds? Many of my sons friends who are first year SPL seem to have a little less passion for the game since this whole thing fired up last February, is that burn out already taking seed? So many questions and worries, it really should be about having fun, letting your creativity flow and not worrying about the stress of performance and having a job at this age.

 

[LosBlancos]

The BCCSL website & Operating Guide specifically mention U13-U18 only. That being said, the BCCSL GotSoccer schedules *do* show U11 & U12 divisions but they all show "West" in their division names. It appears they are the U11-U12's from 4DL districts...

And they couldn't even nail down the U11-U12 schedules for the smaller West group. Names still missing from contacts and only 3 games posted. Makes me worried that the whole season will be a sh*t show and when teams need to be tiered, it won't happen and groups will remain woefully unbalanced. Looking at results, only a few games seem to even have been reported at this point.

 

[Fil66]

With my boy hitting that age group next year, this kind of makes me worried. He's right on the fringe of being an BCSPL player but would probably be better for him to play Metro to be a leader and get more touches. The cost is a factor for BCSPL, what's going to happen with SPL2? Travel is an issue with BCSPL, again this new league, what happens? Trips to PG? I still don't understand BC Soccer and their desire to have the BCSPL, it's still not a best of the best league, players slip through the cracks and there are always a few Metro teams that would easily compete in this 8 team league. It seems to become very intense and almost a job, is this the right call for 12 yr/13 yr olds? Many of my sons friends who are first year SPL seem to have a little less passion for the game since this whole thing fired up last February, is that burn out already taking seed? So many questions and worries, it really should be about having fun, letting your creativity flow and not worrying about the stress of performance and having a job at this age.

It's not much different than hockey, kids slip through the rep, major midget and junior a and b cracks all the time. Andrew Ladd and Shea Webber are both examples. Both were released by junior a/b coaches at different times in their lives and now both have had successful NHL careers.
Coaches, technical directors, etc, all see things differently and pick sometimes on what the team needs, not necessarily the best player. With the way soccer tryouts are done, more kids are missed than not. Soccer tryouts at the spl and metro level are pretty much a joke. 60 kids on a field scrimmaging in front of 3-5 coaches, there's no way you can properly evaluate a players skill, soccer sense, etc like that. I've seen that many times with my son now at the U15 level and having gone through many spl/metro tryouts. Only Fusion does it right that i've seen. Kids with less skill but they were bigger or taller were picked over smaller kids with more talent, only to have them get cut when they realize their skill level wasn't there.
Also, there is many gold 1/div 1 level teams that can compete at the metro level, just not metro to spl. My sons gold 1 team last year played a tournament in the metro division and lost one game out of four to metro teams. The whole BC Soccer system is broken and needs a huge overhaul from the top down.

 

[Olivia]

We had one day's notice before our Vancouver game- This week ... we have a bye! Not impressed so far! Soccer parent and former coach.

 

[TKBC]

My understanding metro will be phased out allowing a more fluid movement of players between spl1 and 2.

that would make the most sense. SPL2 limited teams (12?), SPL1 (8), and then Gold/Div 1 more regionalized (but with a limit of 12 or so in SPL2 you will see Gold/Div 1 standard raise (which should also limit to a certain number of teams - this would then increase the silver/div 2 standard).

 

[TKBC]

With my boy hitting that age group next year, this kind of makes me worried. He's right on the fringe of being an BCSPL player but would probably be better for him to play Metro to be a leader and get more touches. The cost is a factor for BCSPL, what's going to happen with SPL2? Travel is an issue with BCSPL, again this new league, what happens? Trips to PG? I still don't understand BC Soccer and their desire to have the BCSPL, it's still not a best of the best league, players slip through the cracks and there are always a few Metro teams that would easily compete in this 8 team league. It seems to become very intense and almost a job, is this the right call for 12 yr/13 yr olds? Many of my sons friends who are first year SPL seem to have a little less passion for the game since this whole thing fired up last February, is that burn out already taking seed? So many questions and worries, it really should be about having fun, letting your creativity flow and not worrying about the stress of performance and having a job at this age.

BCSPL doesn't play in PG, so there's no concern there. Is BCSPL too intense at 12/13? Maybe, I can't really say. Is it the best of best? No. Kids are eliminated from contention day 1 due to costs/time. But, having a 8 team BCSPL is the right idea - not sure how else to do it, really. 8 teams is about right, having more waters the league down too much, IMO. But costs are too high.

Some have suggested BCSPL shouldn't start until about age 15. I'd agree with that. By that age you've got a clearer picture of who the top players are, who the most committed are etc. Have a league for ages 12-14 similar to USSDA does with it's pre-USSDA league. Standards based league, regionalized.

Are kids burning out of SPL? If they are, it will be a collection of factors creating those feelings not just the league - it'll be the coach, parents, travel, amount of training, type of training etc.

Something that is not helping the league are the coaches honorariums. They are exorbitant, which means parents demand results and development all at once. They expect the coach to be a professional, when most are talented hobbyists.

 

[TKBC]

Coaches, technical directors, etc, all see things differently and pick sometimes on what the team needs, not necessarily the best player. With the way soccer tryouts are done, more kids are missed than not. Soccer tryouts at the spl and metro level are pretty much a joke. 60 kids on a field scrimmaging in front of 3-5 coaches, there's no way you can properly evaluate a players skill, soccer sense, etc like that. I've seen that many times with my son now at the U15 level and having gone through many spl/metro tryouts. Only Fusion does it right that i've seen. .

Indeed they do see different things.

The days of massive tryouts have to be done away with. You simply cannot evaluate players in that setting accurately - a few players will stand out as dominant or very poor, sure, but the rest are all lumped in the middle. One kid has a cold, another hurt his knee, another just lost his dog, another was grounded right before trials, another just had their sister admitted to hospital - all of this affecting performances.... Whitecaps FV academy trials had 100 kids turn up, at the same time, for 4 teams (2 boys, 2 girls u9/10, u11/12). The Caps staff had 75 minutes or so to pick 12ish players per team. Of course their selections largely relied upon feedback from the coaches of those players (mostly from the TD's who have seen the kids over a year or more). The trial was PR.

For me, pick the teams at the end of the current season. Leave 2 spots per team up for grabs - inform the players who are on the bubble that new kids may turn up, and may be determined better and take their spot. Or, when the new season comes around a player from a level below (or above) turns up as an option for the team.

How does Fusion do their trials?

 

[Fil66]

Indeed they do see different things.

The days of massive tryouts have to be done away with. You simply cannot evaluate players in that setting accurately - a few players will stand out as dominant or very poor, sure, but the rest are all lumped in the middle. One kid has a cold, another hurt his knee, another just lost his dog, another was grounded right before trials, another just had their sister admitted to hospital - all of this affecting performances.... Whitecaps FV academy trials had 100 kids turn up, at the same time, for 4 teams (2 boys, 2 girls u9/10, u11/12). The Caps staff had 75 minutes or so to pick 12ish players per team. Of course their selections largely relied upon feedback from the coaches of those players (mostly from the TD's who have seen the kids over a year or more). The trial was PR.

For me, pick the teams at the end of the current season. Leave 2 spots per team up for grabs - inform the players who are on the bubble that new kids may turn up, and may be determined better and take their spot. Or, when the new season comes around a player from a level below (or above) turns up as an option for the team.

How does Fusion do their trials?

When my son tried out for fusion two years ago they did a mass tryout but instead of 60 kids scrimmaging for an hour and a half they split the kids up into to groups of roughly 6-8 or so and had 5-6 different stations that they ran through. They had things like fitness where they were timed doing short sprints, ladders etc. then they moved on to a juggling station, passing station, small net scrimmage and half field scrimmage. There may have been one more but don't remember. Each station had at minimum two coaches watching/evaluating.
It was done really well, unlike the Mountain United where it was 6 teams of 10-12 scrimmaging for the whole session with maybe 6 coaches watching/evaluating in total.

I come from a hockey coaching background where tryouts are done over a week with a proper practice and scrimmage a day. That way you can properly see each kid doing different skills and see how they work with teammates etc. and get a proper evaulation of each kid so you're not just guessing. I know in soccer, especially at the metro/spl level, they're evaluating all season but still, no excuse for the poor system they're using to figure out who the better kids are.

 

[TKBC]

all levels can be evaluated over a season, not just the MLS/BCSPL levels. Teams don't generally change very much, so typically only looking for a small handful of possible changes each season anyway.

 

[Soccer-dad-NV]

My understanding metro will be phased out allowing a more fluid movement of players between spl1 and 2.

So the latest news in the merger saga is that the chairman of the league has resigned....

http://nvfc.ca/upload/doc/BCCSLUpdatePOST.pdf

 

[TKBC]

A technicality but someone should tell NVFC that Fraser Valley u11-12 did not join BCCSL.

 

[TKBC]

BCCSL is a good idea. Drastically increasing travel for the teams is not. Nor was the idea to rush into implementation this year.

 

[southsloper]

With the Thanksgiving break coming up, let's hear if any BCCSL teams (at least those on this forum) have to report, i.e. scheduling or travel issues? Good or bad experiences to talk about?

On the travelling topic, after 4 weekends of league play, my U14 daughter's Div 1B team hosted Squamish (week 1) and travelled to Chilliwack (week 3) - 1 hour drives for the visiting teams. Squamish has played in Chilliwack once in their division. Longest drive for my U16 Div 3W daughter's team was a 45 minute drive Burnaby to Ladner this past Sunday. Other away games for both my girl's teams have been 30-40 minute drives.

 

[TKBC]

Chilliwack-Squamish should never have to play each other - there's always enough teams to avoid that match-up.

 

[Fil66]

We've been lucky, two home games and a bye. Depending how the re-tiering goes, we could end going out to Mission and Abbotsford from Burnaby but looks like we won't get Chilliwack.

 

[Soccer_dude]

Does anybody know what the process with re-tiering goes? I'm under the assumption that say for ex there's a G1a & G2b & both groups have 10 teams, that teams 1-5 in both groups will form 1A & teams from 6-10 in both groups will form 1B? But who can really judge after 3 games?

 

[TKBC]

Does anybody know what the process with re-tiering goes? I'm under the assumption that say for ex there's a G1a & G2b & both groups have 10 teams, that teams 1-5 in both groups will form 1A & teams from 6-10 in both groups will form 1B? But who can really judge after 3 games?

Your Technical Director should be gathering information from each of their teams with additional info on how your team has done regardless of results. Did your team compete well, but lose all 3? Did your team have injuries or kids away? Did you win all 3 but clearly played teams that were quite poor? etc etc....3 games is brief. My team fortunately had 4. 6 would give a better picture.

It's not a perfect system, but that it isn't based solely on results is the right decision.

 

[southsloper]

I guess that might be true for Boys, but Girls teams are fewer in number...

Chilliwack-Squamish should never have to play each other - there's always enough teams to avoid that match-up.

 

[easoccer]

I guess that might be true for Boys, but Girls teams are fewer in number...

If they are matched up rather than not play they could meet at Burnaby lake or similar. They both entered the same league and should be prepared to face anyone within their groups.