High School Vs Club ...... part 98

Today in Vermont's biggest daily.......

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/...en-the-door-for-more-questions?nclick_check=1

 

In their comments

Fist things first....
Kudos to our Vermont State Soccer Association for not handing over that roster demanded by the VPA.

“In my 11 years, (soccer) has never come up for discussion,” Johnson said because the sport has enough showcase events in the spring and summer.

While everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion of what enough of anything is, Mr. Johnson's statement quite adequately surmises a well illustrated example of just how entrenched authorities feel they are entitled to make such sweeping policy decisions of great magnitude all on their own. In a tenure for life well paid positions, perhaps it is easy and maybe even natural for malignancy to develop.

Please take note Mr. Johnson....Four years at a D1 college for a student graduating in 20 19 or 2020 could easily exceed $250K U.S. Sitting on a high horse should not entitle one resident of our state to tell other residents that their kid shouldn't have all the chances at that quarter mil as possible. It's also equally difficult to understand why a coach would tell a player they'd be benched all their own like that. An ostrich with it's head in the sand is all the imagery I can muster. While it's much easier to have some form of pity and understanding for a coach not wanting an all year club system and an end to continual 1st place trophies, truth be told club kids are already role models, and there would be another twenty two joining them in their ranks. Pretty important since school town unions eliminated a huge majority varsity positions.

VPA should be sponsoring or awarding these tremendous players with some kind of grant for what role models they are, instead of throwing up roadblocks denying participation of what potentially could be a life changing fixture. What parents have sacrificed for their kids and scholarship players on the club is in nearly all cases been a substantial expense.

Our VPA in it's bias of denying showcase events for boys soccer but not for girls hockey pretty much epitomizes that fact that they are indeed problems needing to be addressed. Issuing a warning on the basis of a name in a roster is not a warning for participating in a (one match,) which would have saved face for all parties, and was likely the better alternative in this instance.

Vermont's elite club players certainly are much better off with a longer season and not playing high school ball primarily because "our" Vermont Principle Association's direct responsibility for such an abhorrent and dismal interscholastic referee system. Besides this clearly antiquated two ref system being wrong on so many levels, assessment of their performance is exception, and not the norm.

With that being said, denying our state's "club rats" that ever so important opportunity to have this "way more fun then club soccer" experience in high school, getting to train every day instead of only three times a week, a whole new comrade of tight friends, games every week against different opponents ever time, those letter jackets, a maybe not small amount of fame, and a chance to win the state championship is crazy. What would high school hockey look like with out their club rats?

Today's social media enables us with such tremendous tools of electronic communication, for our Principles Association to begin addressing issues parents are concerned about. With growing demands and needs for transparency, there are no good reasons why this association doesn't "step up to the plate" and start soliciting and disseminating public input. We as citizens have absolutely zero avenue for redress in dealing with Vermont's sports cartel, and that is something maybe legislature needs to address.