At the request of the mods, here is part two. New threads will be started by me, the "owner" of this forum approximately every 500 posts.
Okey dokey. Here's a topic: what would you think about switching over 40 league play to five-a-side in Birmingham?
MD 20/20, I understand that the AYSA wants U10 teams to play 6 v. 6. Is that true? If so, I think that it is a fantastic idea. As to the over 40 league. Being over 40, I would hope that it is very small fields. I hope that idea does not come to pass here.
I wouldn't mind if they switched all adult leagues to 8 v 8. That way when teams show up with 11 or 10 they'd actually have 2 or 3 subs. My team has a full roster and we usually had only a few subs and by the end of the season we had usually 11 or less.
True. That's one of the reasons I quit playing in the men's leagues. I got tired of playing on teams that's play games shorthanded or with zero or one sub. I'm in no kind of shape to play 90 minutes and not only are you worn out at the end, you usually get your butt handed to you. Also, having a job where I worked weekends kind of put a damper on the whole thing too.
2005-2006 is the second year of the roll-in to full compliance with the USYSA small-sided games initiative in Alabama. This initiative was adopted at the request of all Region III state DOC's at the AYSA AGM in May 2003. A year's preparation time was set aside, with the phased introduction of the new play formats to begin with the Fall 2004 season. That schedule put us in the middle of the pack in Region III states in terms of adoption. Some states went to the new formats "cold turkey" in Fall 2003. Even with a year to prepare, several stodgy clubs are still whining. Go figure. Before: U9/U10 - 8v8, 7x21 goal, 80x50 field (very few were that size, most were 70x45 or so) U11+ - 11v11, 8x24 goal, full size field In 2004: U9 - 6v6, 6x18 goal, 60x40 field U10 - 8v8, 7x21 goal, 80x50 field U11 - 8v8, 7x21 goal, 90x60 field (again, most were not that size) U12+ 11v11, 8x24 goal, full size field 2005 and beyond: U9/U10 - 6v6 U11/U12 - 8v8 11v11 starts at U13 This is the format required for AYSA affiliates for state-sanctioned leagues (Division I, II, III). Division IV (intramural) leagues can use whatever play format is suitable for the age and skill level of their participants. The presentation made to AYSA by the US Youth Soccer director of coaching development was very compelling. My own experience with the 8v8 U11 format this year with my youngest (94) son agrees with his predictions. I saw better tactical play develop over the year with his team than I ever saw with my 91 son's team.
Streaks team meeting We had our first team/parents meeting tonight. I like the approach that Michael is taking with the club. We are travelling to tournamnents as a club, and we are going to what I am told are very competetive tournaments: Atlanta Silverbacks, Cajun Classic in Layfayette LA (my favorite for the food), Crossroads Classic in Jackson, and of course, our tournament, the Blue Gray. There is talk of perhaps going to PC Beach tournment. We will also play in the league, with 4 home games and 4 away games. Michael is determined to increase the caliber of our play by exposing the team to stiffer competition. I like that approach. Now, I do not see me making it to many UA football games this fall. I guess I will pay for the travel to games and tournaments by scalping my tickets.
Re: Streaks team meeting To be the best you have to play the best, that's a fact. The Crossroads of the South tournament is pretty good. I don't know about the Lafayette tournament, we have never been there. The competition at the Northwest Florida tournaments isn't that great in my experience. Welcome to the reality of competitive soccer in Alabama. You can forget golf too.
Re: Streaks team meeting I'm going to try my best to make it back home for one UA football game this year as I'm having massive football withdrawal down here in the land of Gators, 'Noles, and 'Canes. I saw one game last year (it was a good one though), the LSU vs. Iowa game in the Capital One Bowl. Let me know the dates of your tournaments so I can compare those to Alabama's schedule and I'd be happy to buy.
Re: Streaks team meeting Thanks Nico. I will post the schedule as soon as I get it. I know that I will miss the UF game. I hope that the Tide has a good season also for capitalistic reasons now. With gas prices the way they are, I need a demand for tickets to help defray the costs of the tournament trips!
Streaks meeting The competition at the Northwest Florida tournaments isn't that great in my experience. Probably so, but it is the beach!
Re: Streaks team meeting That'd be a great one to catch. I'm starting grad school in the fall, but will get my schedule soon and I will know shortly if that's a possibility. Also, my dad and some of his friends (and perhaps pvan4) would also like to take some games in, so they're also potential buyers. Just let me know what's available when you know and I will run it through "my people.'
Re: Streaks team meeting http://uabsports.collegesports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/051905aaa.html UAB recruiting gets noticed
Regionals Well, I'm at the 2005 Southern Regionals in the Republic of Texas for the next few days. If you guys don't object, I will post some observations in this thread. My son's team, the American Jets 91 Blue, is here as the U14 Boys representatives for the state of Alabama. All the Alabama teams at the tournament are staying at the same hotel, the Richardson Hotel located (strangely enough) in Richardson, just south of Plano. It's really interesting being in the same hotel with the teams, coaches, and coaching directors from different clubs across the state. I'm sure there will be some good stories there as the week rolls on. So far nobody has gotten into a club-related fight, so maybe there's hope. (I'm talking, of course, about the parents - the kids are all too busy hanging out together at the pool.) The Jets have three teams in this hotel (the 91 boys, the 88 boys, and the 89 girls). We also have another team (the 87 boys) located in a different hotel because they qualified as the Region III Premier League representative. The 87s actually finished second to Vestavia in both R3PL and the State Cup, but because Vestavia is representing Alabama the Jets got the R3PL slot. Yesterday was the day that most people arrived. Some drove the distance (about 10 hours total) in a single go, some split it up over two days by stopping in Louisiana, and one family flew. The hotel lobby was pretty frantic yesterday afternoon, what with 12 teams arriving for a 5 day (and hopefully longer) stay. Luggage cart and elevator space was at a premium. The hotel itself is very nice - I'm not sure they quite knew what they were getting into when they offered to be one of the host hotels. They evidently cater to business executives, and as a result the hotel is very well appointed: marble floors in the lobby, high-class restaurant, soft comfortors and high thread-count sheets on the beds, wireless Internet access in the rooms and a full business center with a color laser printer/copier. We are getting the rooms for $70.00 a day, which I am certain is less than half what they normally charge. They have been very good hosts so far, and they did provide us with a sheet of ground rules (no balls in the building, don't wear cleats in the building, etc.) to help keep everything under control. Today's agenda has most of the teams holding a light practice session, followed by the opening ceremony. My son's team is at the designated practice field in Plano, but the Steamers 90 just took their stuff across the street to the lawn next door to an office building. I think they are going to be equally hot. The forecast is for upper 90's-low 100's for the rest of the week and on through the weekend. The Jets 91 have to play in the hottest part of the day: 2, 4, and 6 PM - that single sub is going to be a real issue. I'm off to check the team in. After that I can start to breathe more easily. I am far less concerned about the actual soccer than I am about getting the paperwork right for Region III. I have heard some horror stories.
Re: Regionals Well, I'm back from what has to be the hottest three hours I will spend this summer. (At least until tomorrow.) The check-in was at the Dr. Pepper/Seven-Up Stadium, home of the Frisco Roughriders minor league baseball team. The stadium itself is pretty cool. It is a lot closer to Turner Field than the Hoover Met in terms of facilities and amenities. (It's also apparently very new.) The outfield walls have embedded video displays along about a quarter of their area, there are multiple air-conditioned club rooms, and it's an all-seater. Instead of having a closed-in concourse like the Met, you enter behind home plate into sort of an open courtyard area flanked by merchandise stores and concession stands. There are different cuisines available (during baseball games, anyway.) There was a little shade, but all of the seats were in total sun. The check-in process was pretty tame. All the teams from a given state check in at the same time, and the states are assigned specific times. In theory this should make it go more quickly, and in fact once we got inside the check-in room the process moved expeditiously. They put us in one of the air-conditioned "club rooms" at the stadium to wait. The air conditioning was a blessing, but the beer taps were turned off, and at the time I could have used a cold one to settle me down. We were about 10 minutes late getting started. They called the teams sort of by age, taking the U16's and older first, then the U14 and U15 groups. I don't quite know why, because once we went into the check-in room itself there was a separate table and volunteer for every age and gender. The horror stories concerning Region III and the paperwork were a little overblown, but I did have to produce two birth certificates to resolve name issues between the blue roster and my supporting paperwork. Word to the wise: always, always fill out medical releases and other forms using your player's full legal name, not what they go by. Always, always ensure that your player signs his player card IN SCRIPT (not printing) with the name that is printed on the card, not what he goes by. If those two things are done right, the rest of it is pretty straightforward. Anyway, aside from the tight document scrutiny, the check-in went more or less like every other tournament check-in I've done. I got out of the check-in room about 11:50 AM to find the stadium overrun with soccer players there for the shirt and pin swap prior to the opening ceremony. It was a pretty cool sight to see, with all the kids from the different state associations in their matching shirts. About half of the states had on polo-type shirts, 40% of the rest were wearing T-shirts (including Alabama) and one or two states had on adidas or Nike kit shirts. The swapping was vigorous, and some of the teams and states had some clever schwag that was highly in demand, including: * the camoflage mesh-back baseball caps brought by Mississippi (their thinking evidently was "why not make the stereotypes work for us for a change?") * the Mardi Gras beads that lots of the girls teams had (but hopefully didn't get in the traditional manner) * electric green T-shirts brought by the Lakeview Thunder The Alabama shirts were very popular, as were the red white and blue "Alabama Soccer" bracelets (in the "Live Strong" style). The only problem the kids had was that there weren't enough of them to trade. Each kid was supplied one bracelet and one pin by AYSA. Our team had purchased some Jets pins and traded several. After the trading, the players made their way to their assigned state section and waited for the opening ceremony to begin. They were supposed to be seated at 1:30, with the ceremony beginning at 2:00. Most of them made it, and dutifully sat in the dark green seats in the full sun for half an hour in the 98 degree heat. I wish that the ceremony itself had been as entertaining as the swapping. About the best thing that can be said about it was that it started and finished on time. It was what you would expect, with a lot of introductions of local VIPs, sponsors, and stuff. The best part for me was when they brought out Lamar Hunt for a few words, but we also heard from Richard Mulrooney. Mulrooney talked about his memories from regionals, especially his memories of losing four times in the regional finals with his Memphis FC teams. (As he was enumerating the losses, he mentioned that his team lost to Florida twice. The Florida section cheered, and Mulrooney turned to them and said, "Hey, thanks for that memory.") The MC of the ceremony was the announcer from the Roughriders baseball club, and while he was very enthusiastic, he managed to mangle most of the names of the teams and clubs as he was introducing every single team, all one hundred and eighty four of them, while we baked in the sun. The funniest from my point of view was how he pronounced "Ves-tahh-via". He managed to get "Jets" right all four times. After the ceremony finished, it took us over half an hour to get out of the freaking parking lot. I sure hope that they do a better job of traffic control at baseball games, or they won't get much repeat business.
Re: Regionals Both Scott and Mark Prizant (the assistant DOC) are here. Mark is actually the state representative for the tournament, and has been very visible and active so far. We had an Alabama coaches and managers meeting last night that Mark led, and he left no doubt about who was in charge and what the state's expectations were with respect to sportsmanship, conduct, and the like. One thing that Mark said last night may denote Alabama crossing over a threshold in Region III. He said that we are no longer the butt of the "will they even score a goal" jokes in the region meetings. That distinction has passed to Arkansas. The schedules and scores are online at www.2005southernregionals.com. Here are Friday's games: Boys U19 0800 NTX U15 1000 TN U17 1200 PLS U14 1400 NC U18 1600 STX PLSU18 1600 LA U16 1800 MS Girls U15 800 STX U19 1000 NTX U17 1200 SC U14 1400 NC U16 1600 GA U18 1800 AR
Re: Regionals They had two, a navy that they wore and a gray to trade, with "ALABAMA SOCCER" arched over the chest, a glittery soccer ball beneath, and either "STATE CHAMPIONS" or "PREMIER LEAGUE SOUTH CHAMPIONS" (for the 87 Jets) underneath. The glittery ball was a key tradeability factor. Understated but attractive was my assessment, but then again I wear blue jean shorts to work and go barefoot on the sidelines, so what do I know about fashion?