As another season passes by I am once again firmly convinced that Secondary Schools soccer should be played on Wednesdays thus freeing school players to play for Clubs on Saturdays. It is obvious to anyone involved in the game that the welfare and advancement of the players and the beautifull game in New Zealand, would be greatly enhanced by this happening. One only has to look at the recent results of the Premier Secondary Schools Tournament to realise why this should be so. Christchurch Boys High did reasonably well in the latest Tournament. They placed 7th out of 24, principally due to the fact that they had players who are released by the School to play with Club sides on a Saturday at a higher level than the Local Secondary Schools competition can offer. This enables these players the chance to train and play at a higher level. Some playing senior reserves and one, at least, even playing Premier League! They receive training by dedicated and well experienced coaches. Other Christchurch Schools which competed at this tournament did poorly. Shirley Boys high (14th), Burnside Boys High (21st), St. Andrews (24th). These schools in the main do not release players to play with Clubs for Saturday games. At the moment, in the current setup, we are being very negative in the development of our youth players. It is ridiculous that we are holding back the development of our youth! The Super Youth League that the schools first X1 play in, has over the years deteriorated and now plays less games than I believe any other League. This past season only 16 competition games I believe! Players wait a whole off season to play 16 games! It is hardly the way to develop these players and keep them interested and involved in the game! Most Clubs do not enter teams in this League, as their players at age 17-18, are ready and willing to step up and play in the Reserve Senior teams or higher. Sure its hard for them and a learning process, BUT they have the skill to play at this level so why should we hold them back? Look at any of the top Soccer and Football Clubs in the world and it is quite apparent that bringing on youth players enhances the game and opens a wide door of opportunity for them. New Zealand has some excellent youth players developing now and it is time we realised it and assisted them in their development. Federation 6 Soccer now has an ideal setup running under the direction of the Director of Coaching, Fred Simpson, which is greatly increasing the ability and options of our youth players. It is time the Secondary Schools had a good look at themselves and realised that their mission is not only the Academic development of their pupils, but also one of allowing their pupils the chance to succeed in other fields. It is time for a change!! Do you think this should happen?
chch ************ yeah, Those players could play twice a week and add both for club and school, chch rules, CCH united should be strong again!!!! NZ soccer needs to wake up, this sort of stuff goes on all over the country
In each federation, there should be a federation run youth cup where each winter club should put out a youth team that is within the structure of the senior club. Youth being classified as from 15-18 on the current season. This can include Youth Academy sides and also schools sides as long as there are adequately qualified coaches or has paid their fee to progress to properly qualified. The advantages of having a youth team within a club is that a player can be named on the bench for a senior reserve team when the case calls for it, whereas in a school, there is nothing above the 1st XI that has that function. I believe that the school teams should be affiliated with a club and play in that clubs name as well as having access to good coaches. A good relationship will see a strong school team on the Wednesday as well as a good youth team base for Saturday with their youth stars getting to play higher levels and some of the younger players gets a game in their place. Basically you are running it like a club system with weekends and weekday matches with the young players getting 6 days of football (1 or 2 matches plus 4 training sessions with 1 day off). Palmerston North Boys was 3rd this year and they run exclusively as a school and not affiliated with a club and play in the highest local club league in Manawatu not school league. Otago Boys which was placed just above are also stays as a school team but they play in the highest local club league in Dunedin and not school league. In Otago Boys case, the school league is run on a Wednesday freeing the team to play club teams as a team. The Palmy Boys are the same except their lower teams play in the highest school league in the Saturday morning and maybe a few players there goes up for their 1st XI later on. The other schools 1st XI plays the highest school league on that Saturday morning and then release their players to play for club later in the day. The system in Otago is the right call, but it took lots of working with the schools and the clubs to reach there. Most other Otago schools will release their players as their school league is on Wednesday and the club is able to take whatever players on the Saturday. The players is then not tired on Saturday is able to pull their best. The schools has to coordinate the training nights around the clubs usual tuesday and thursdays. Which then places Otago boys and Palmy Boys as advantage because they are doing their sets of training as a team for both Wednesdays and Saturday games. Remember that both of these school teams has also top qualified coaches as well and so there is no need for players to go club. I say that you need top qualified coaches among the teachers if you want things to happen at that level. I strongly believe that school teams with the right qualified coaches will do the job just as effective and some cases better than some clubs. I believe that school teams need to be challenged by playing against club teams and progress from there. Edit: I just realised this is an old thread being brought up.