August 23, 2012

NCSL Board Meeting

Westin – Falls Church, VA

7:30 PM

 

President Richard Smith called the meeting to order at 7:45 PM. Roll call indicated the following clubs were not in attendance: Baltimore Bays, Braddock Road, DC Stoddert, FC Frederick, Loudoun, Maryland Rush (Bowie), Prince William, Virginia Soccer Assoc., Waldorf, and Westminster Wolves.

 

 

Maryland Registrar - Mike Basileo - Busy time of year for all the Registrars. MSYSA’s Registration system is working well.

 

Virginia Registrar - Lisa Wilson – Reminding everyone of deadlines. Please try to meet the deadlines and respect the registrar by giving them lead time to get things done.

 

Rules & Discipline- Barry Finkelstein – Fall sit out list has been posted, if you see any inaccuracy let us know. 

 

Sit-out information: The Referees report the player red cards.  Please make sure if a PLAYER has been issued a red card or accumulated points that require a sit-out that the managers fills out the sit out serve card. Do not mail the card, scan and send it via email.

 

If the COACHhas served his sit-out that card MUST BE MAILED. Please be sure to remind the manager of your teams to KEEP A COPY OF THE SIT OUT CARD.

 

It’s also a good idea to check your teams NCSL webpage to be sure scores have been entered correctly. Better to do it early than report a September game in December as being incorrect.

 

R&D decision have also been completed and posted. Last 26 R&D items, only 4 had hearings the rest were settled via the club rep.

 

Administrator - Kathleen Sessions – Schedules are up. If you notice any large gaps in the field loading, please let Kathleen know she will try to fix. Went over coaching conflicts – there were 115 separate coaching conflicts. Did the best she could with the time and daylight restrictions.

 

Suggest you check your NCSL Schedule again on Friday, sometimes the schedules change after WAGS has released their schedules.

 

Secretary - Gina Clapp – New Administrator’s meeting was held this past Monday. I have placed in each Club Reps packet a note if any of your teams who were required to attend to did not. Please review these lists and let me know if there are any discrepancies. Please get back to me ASAP so I can send an email informing the team of the fine for not attending the mandatory meeting.

 

Maryland Commissioner – Claire Filmyr – August 27 and August 30 are scheduled PCA meetings. There is still some room at both workshops, can’t guarantee a workbook since they have to be ordered well in advance. Any Club Rep that would like to attend please do you are all invited to see and understand what the PCA Certification is.

 

If your club is holding a workshop and will allow others to attend that are outside your organization, NCSL will help you pay the cost $15 per person. 

 

Coaches who take the online course will pay $30 to PCA in addition you will pay $25 to NCSL the first time taken online and if it’s the second time $50. We would much rather the coaches attend the workshop in person; they will get so much more out of the workshop.

 

Virginia Commissioner – Maureen Dalbec - TSL Card – please be sure the team managers are aware of the TSL card when they pick up their materials. Someone from the team is expected to wear or have the TSL card on during the game. 

 

President report – Richard Smith- The VP position is open. Several people of inquired.

 

Every U12 and U13 must have a certified STAR. Two adult names must be certified. If the certification class is taken on Sept 4^th – you will get a badge for 2014. 

 

NCSL has a Twitter account -- @NCSL2

 

NCSL is a partner with DC United for a sportsmanship award. Top scoring team in younger age brackets are awarded tickets to a DC United game. The team is brought onto the field and announced. Sportsmanship Night game is Sept 15^th. If you are a club rep with a winning team please be sure DC United has reached out to those teams.

 

Sept 20^th is NCSL night at DC United. There will be a chalk talk before the game with the NCSL coaches – the coach can attend and then report to their teams what was talked about.

 

Stafford Soccer Club made the motion as indicated below. McLean Youth seconded the motion.

 

Proposed addition to Section VII - Exceptions to the Structure Development Procedures

Current wording:

Section VII - Exceptions to the Structure Development Procedures

The NCSL will continue non-results oriented play through the Fall U11 season:

·         No scores or standings will be published for U9, U10 and Fall U11.

·         Every effort will be made to ensure that teams do not play each other twice during these introductory seasons.

·         For U9 and U10, the structure committee will make every effort to have league play regionalized to minimize travel times. This depends on the clubs participating and the number of teams each season. The concept is to have Maryland teams play Maryland teams and Virginia teams play Virginia teams. However, in some cases, travel times will be lessened by crossing state boundaries.

·         For the Fall U11 age group, teams will be placed in divisions randomly; however, teams from the same club will not be placed in the same division.

·         All other rules of league play remain unchanged.

The High School age group (U15 and above) structure will be determined in accordance with the general procedures above. However, it is recognized that with teams opting to sit-out a season due to conflicts with high school play, the number of teams qualifying for a particular division in the Structure may differ from the normal structure policy of ten teams. Therefore, the determination of Structure for high school age groups will be tempered with the common sense and good judgment of the structure committee, filling the divisions from the top down and ensuring competitive play. Placement of a high school aged team in the Structure will be based on the number of teams playing in the given season, the team’s previous NCSL record and standing, age group played in, consistency of rostered players between the team’s current roster and the roster at the time of the team’s last played NCSL season game, state/regional/national cup competition (other tournament play will not be considered), and R&D standings.

Notwithstanding the above, teams that are accepted to play in a Region 1 or National league may reenter the NCSL the following season. Placement in structure for such teams will be based on the team’s previous NCSL record and standing, consistency of rostered players between the team’s current roster and the roster at the time of the team’s last played NCSL season game, record in Region l or National League play and R&D standing.

Structure will strive to limit U19 divisions to eight teams and all games are to be completed prior to the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. 

 

Rational:

Region I and the National league offer incentives to play that the NCSL cannot match. The teams leaving the NCSL to play in these leagues are among our strongest and these leagues are reaching younger than our current high school age exceptions. There are two groups who may suffer from this proposal:

1.       When teams leave, gaps are left in structure which gives some teams an unexpected bump up. Putting a Region I or President’s league team back in structure may mean putting some teams unexpectedly down. 

2.       If there are wait list teams in the age group, these teams may not gain entry into structure as they expected.

Considering teams returning from Region I and President’s League as “new” teams and placing them in the lowest division does not serve any interest. The number of teams this new wording would benefit is not great, but their proper inclusion is important to the competiveness of the NCSL. 

We have had to go deeper in the waitlists than expected this fall season and it is the fall season that would be most affected by returning teams. Therefore, the impact to the waitlist may be minimal. However, for minimal impact, the structure committee may use 11 team divisions to minimize impact where deemed appropriate.

It is the responsibility of structure to provide the best possible competition to our membership. Having the best teams available playing the NCSL, in the most appropriate divisions, is in the best interest of the players, teams and our league. Adopting this new wording will provide an avenue for teams to continue to play with us while pursuing other goals.

Vote was taken, motion passed by majority vote.

 

Mclean Youth made a Motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion was second by Fort Washington.

Motion approved unanimously. Meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.

 

 

Next NCSL BOD Meeting scheduled - The Westin Nov. 13, 7:30 pm; Spring 2013 entry materials distributed

 

Respectfully submitted by Regina Clapp, NCSL Secretary