Matt Weibe defends Super Y League

Sue, the New Hampshire Youth Soccer Association view of the SuperY league is still up on its web site.

I can't give you a direct link because the site is frame based. But go to

http://www.soccernh.com/

then on the left, click

ODP

and then scroll down the page to

NH ODP POSITION RE: THE SUPER Y LEAGUE.

Ian Tourney, the NH director of coaching, is the author of the piece.

It makes for a fun reading.

 

Guard against "burnout". That would be great except that our main competition in the world has their players playing 9-10 months a year!

And the guy tries to play the gender equity card. "Perhaps most controversially, it is also my opinion that Super Y is targeted primarily at boys,"
So what you effing idiot. The girls won the World Cup and the boys didn't. Think that might indicate a greater need for enhanced training opportunities for boys?


Like you said Karl, funny, funny stuff.

 

You know, on the one hand, I sort of understand his postion. Why? Because for most NH players, living in a state with a small population, ODP training and selection may be about as good as its going to get in terms of elite training, and the recognition and "status" such a designation would bring.

Meanwhile, I would venture to say that probably any NH ODP team would have a hard time handling club teams like the Syracuse Blitz or the Rochestor Rhinos youth club.

Of course, good regional players no doubt come out of New Hampshire from time to time, but wouldn't such a player, if he were on a Super Y team, ALSO get identified?

ODP really has the flavor, especially in less populous states, of a cattle call. Even in more populous states. Come one, come all. I happened to catch the first part of a what look like a mixed of '90/'91 girls session not too long ago, and there must have been 75 girls there. As I watched some of them, I thought "WHAT are YOU doing here?" Never mind the dubious aspects of actually TRYING to select a group of ELITE players at age 11 or 12, or calling back those same limited talent players over and over againg to training session.

Then you've got the really goofy things that happen, such as extremely talented U14 U15 players who have made the REGIONAL team a year UP being FORCED to go STATE training sessions in their OWN birth year, and then dancing rings around these players. I am all for lots of training and lots of touches, but really.

Finally, this Torney guys does nothing for his credibility when he

--blurs the distinciton between USYS ODP and Super Y League status

--says that regions of Super Y are "disintegrating," when the Midwest area, for one, is going to have a 12 team league across 6 states across at least 4 age groups (the U19 schedule isn't out so I don't know how that is coming along).

Again, I don't know whether Super Y is the answer to our development issues here in the USA. And I know that ODP coaches and adminstrators, for the most part, try to do a good and fair job.

But from what I've seen in some of the USYSA responses, they have been taking the "low" road in the rhetorical battle.