adult leagues

Discussion in 'Soccer Boots' started by jmeissen0, Aug 5, 2002.

  1. panicfc

    panicfc Member+

    Dec 22, 2000
    In my chair, typing
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is a true story...

    This year a team missed the deadline for registration. They had been a long time participant, but had a record for late registration and other problems. The league has slots for 24 teams, and had the schedule drawn up, posted on the website.

    They filed an injunction the day before the first game to keep the league from playing without them. They actually had a judge rule in their favor. This forced the league to draw up a new schedule in less than 14 hours, notify all the team captains, and then players and caused a great deal of work Only the fine lawyers from US Soccer (actually one of the registered players is a lawyer and represented the league) had the ruling reversed and their registration null and void.

    Needless to say it caused a great deal of turmoil and grief. The question is will they register a team on time next season, and what will be the reaction of the other members of the league and the volunteers who run the league.
     
  2. jmeissen0

    jmeissen0 New Member

    Mar 31, 2001
    page 1078
    i would come up with a technicality to drop them like bitches the next year
     
  3. panicfc

    panicfc Member+

    Dec 22, 2000
    In my chair, typing
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I will forward your thoughts to the league officials "drop like bitches"

    That's a good line.
     
  4. jmeissen0

    jmeissen0 New Member

    Mar 31, 2001
    page 1078
  5. empennage

    empennage Member

    Jan 4, 2001
    Phoenix, AZ
    Last year I played in a recreational league, and I saw more injuries in the 12 games during the season than I've seen in my entire life (I'm still in college so this was my first adult league experience). I saw one chick's leg just give away when going for a non-violent 50-50 ball as well as many other injuries. I'm sure you guys have lots of other horror stories as well.
     
  6. jmeissen0

    jmeissen0 New Member

    Mar 31, 2001
    page 1078
    COOOOL

    i have never seen a major injury happen... i broke a kid's arm once, but that was in baseball, and i didn't even know it until he showed up at soccer practice a couple days later with his arm in a sling

    he tried to bowl me over at the plate... :D
     
  7. nsa

    nsa Member+

    New England Revolution
    United States
    Feb 22, 1999
    Notboston, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Hitman said:
    Amen. I have been involved withthe New England Over-the-Hill Soccer League for a many years as a player, team manager, director, and referee. The league started with 6 teams over 20 years ago and has grown to 72 Over-the-Hill (aka over-30) teams, 72 Master (o-40) teams and 36 Senior (o-50) teams. A number of former pros show up on the rosters: foreign, NASL, indoor, A-League, and MLS.

    Weeding out the bad apples can be tough, but it must be done. Nobody wants to play when there is a danger of being taken out without recrimination. Nobody will referee in a league that does not protect them. We take two approaches to this. First is the player's yellow and red card accumulation. In addition to the usual game suspension for a red card, getting three yellows in separate games will result in a suspension for one match. A second suspension in a season results in a two-game suspension. A third and your out.

    The second approach to league discipline is to penalise a team for misbehaviour. In a 10-game season, if a team's players get 10 card points (yellow=1, red=2) then the team is docked two points in the standings. If they get to 15 CPs then they are docked another two points. At 20 they are subject to sanctions by the board including expulsion.

    panicfc wrote:
    The NEOTHSL is affiliated with the US Soccer Federation which gives us some ammunition when dealing with miscreants. It is against the USSF by-laws to take a case such as this to court without going through regular appeals channels. The action by this team would be grounds for tossing them immediately.

    We have a registration deadline, a grace period (which includes a fine) and a drop-dead date (which only means something if there are teams on the waiting list. :) ).
     
  8. pething101

    pething101 Member

    Jul 31, 2001
    Smyrna, Ga
    Club:
    West Ham United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sorry it took a while to get a reply from my friend but he was in Jersey for a bit.

    This is the league he plays in:
    Adult Co-ed Intermediate division of CASL

    and it starts in 2 weeks.
     
  9. nsa

    nsa Member+

    New England Revolution
    United States
    Feb 22, 1999
    Notboston, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I got to talking with the referees at a recent match. They identified a serious issue for leagues, new and established - fields. Do not let a team into your league unless they can show a permit to play on that field in the time slots required by the league.
     
  10. Bonnie Lass

    Bonnie Lass Moderator
    Staff Member

    Lyon
    Norway
    Oct 20, 2000
    Up top
    Club:
    Olympique Lyonnais
    Ah, CASL. I think I may have to hit them the next go round. I don't have med. insurance right now, nor the money to get any as long as I'm jobless. As it is, I'm holding off on rugby practice/games until then.

    Thank you for the info. No worries about the time it took. I just now remembered to check back with this thread. :sheepish:
     
  11. Dr. Boots

    Dr. Boots Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 15, 2002
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    i play in a competitive rec league as well as a semi-pro league and in my area the rec leaguee is 11v11 with full feild and goals as well as an A and B division here there is no real diffrence between the A and B except in B you canot slide tackle its good fun for a sunday morning and it keeps me from getting wrecked on Sat. nights because i dont want to play hung over, the levels of skill very far and wide most people have played but some have the higher level skills that really show on the feild and others can be hacks to make up for not having played at peak levels before i guess it all varies for state to state and county to county
     
  12. pething101

    pething101 Member

    Jul 31, 2001
    Smyrna, Ga
    Club:
    West Ham United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That sucks. RDU is dry as far as jobs go from what I hear. Good luck.
     
  13. microbrew

    microbrew New Member

    Jun 29, 2002
    NJ
    Anyone seen anything like this happen in other adult leagues?

    In my former league, http://www.cactusmouse.com/mens_soccer/, the league management called off the entire summer season due to several incidents- examples here http://cactusmouse.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000027.html and here http://cactusmouse.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000028.html

    When I played there for two seasons, I didn't see anything like that (and my team played some of the teams mentioned above). What really bothers me is that the referees were so vulnerable.
     
  14. JohnW

    JohnW Member

    Apr 27, 2001
    St. Paul
    Hopefully you'll remember your post when you meet another player such as yourself (and invariably you will), and you're the one laying on the ground with the dislocated knee, torn ACL, broken ankle, etc.

    As a long-time player and coach, let me assure you that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING cool when another player is injured--serious or otherwise.
     
  15. JohnW

    JohnW Member

    Apr 27, 2001
    St. Paul
    Anyway, back to topic...

    It's pretty much the same here in Minnesota as in other places--with competitive, recreational, co-ed, over-30, over-40 leagues.

    Something that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere is that in the competitive league there are three divisions and teams actually move up/are relegated to lower divisions.

    Occassionally, in the men's competitive league, you'll see former Thunder players and other guys who have played fairly competitively. But even there, the difference between the top teams and bottom teams varies quite a bit.

    As far as reffing/game control goes, I have played in and coached games with national refs, as well as refs with much less experience.

    Generally, the higher the level of competition, the better the organization and better the refereeing.

    Finally, I agree with several of the previous posters in that it usually isn't that hard to find players who can play. The real problem usually is conditioning and commitment. In both cases, most are playing for fun and exercise so some games you have 20 and the next you can have nine.

    I also think that the lack of conditioning is one reason for a lot of injuries. Players get fatigued and have a hard time controlling their bodies.

    jgw
     
  16. NER_MCFC

    NER_MCFC Member

    May 23, 2001
    Cambridge, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I am in my fifth year of playing in rec leagues around Boston, in spite of the fact that I'm 39 and had zero experience in organized sports at all.
    Both leagues I play in (BSSC and GBSL) use full fields and 11 on 11 (unless too few people show up). Both have multiple division, most of which are co-ed.
    GBSL has voluntary promotion/relegation and the BSSC just puts you where there's room, which is probably why we got hammered on Sunday.

    I also play indoor in the BSSC.

    My biggest complaint, and it's not a constant one, is the refereeing, not about quality but about the occasional refs who doesn't want to work. I am particularly thinking of one a couple years ago. Everytime there was a stoppage in play, he would go down on the ground and do crunches!

    Most of the games I've been in are quite competitive, mostly because nobody likes to lose. I swear I've had team mates who looked as though they worked harder and cared more than a couple of Revs players. A couple of times per season, a game gets almost nasty. On the other hand, I haven't seen a lot of injuries, and they mostly seem to happen to the young whippersnappers rather than us geezers. The worst injury I ever saw at a rec league game involved a collision between 2 softball players on the next field.
     
  17. luxinluv

    luxinluv New Member

    Aug 12, 2002
    Boston,MA
    Where do you play indoor? I know there are places in Revere and Newton, but is there anywhere actually in Boston? I looked at the Revere sports center's website and they don't appear to have a women's indoor soccer league.
     
  18. NER_MCFC

    NER_MCFC Member

    May 23, 2001
    Cambridge, MA
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Nope, they're all in the burbs. I've played in Revere and Acton, and the only option I can recommend is to go to the buildings and see there are any notices on walls for women's teams. It certainly seems to me that there is a lot more out there than what the facilities actually put on their web sites.
     
  19. luxinluv

    luxinluv New Member

    Aug 12, 2002
    Boston,MA
    Sounds like a plan. Thank you!
     
  20. bungadiri

    bungadiri Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jan 25, 2002
    Acnestia
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just finished reading this thread and enjoyed it.

    The question was asked: were most adult outdoor leagues small sided, etc. Don't know about "most" but the one in Ann Arbor, MI plays 7/side. One interesting aspect of this league that I did not see mentioned yet is that teams don't register, individuals do. They're asked to rate themselves (novice, etc.) and the league officials try to assemble evenly matched teams. (I should note that this is all hearsay, I play pickup games in the summer, the only organized soccer I play is indoor, during the winter and my teammates have told me this).
     
  21. jmeissen0

    jmeissen0 New Member

    Mar 31, 2001
    page 1078

    people don't tell you jokes much... do they?
     

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