News from the ASA District Commissioner from North Alabama

.. a brief report on what went on at the January 2004 Monthly ASA Board Meeting,

       I'll forward you a full report from the ASA board soon but I wanted to get these dates in your hands so you could get them out to folks as soon as possible.

June 1-4 ODP Mini Camp No Tryouts allowed

June 4-20 Open Tryout period

June 12/13 Regional Adult Cup in Huntsville

June 20 Commitment date from Tryouts

Aug 14 Div I and Div II state league games may begin

Oct 22/23/24 Governor�s Cup, Location TBA

Oct 31 Div I and Div II state league ends

Nov 5/6/7 Div II tournament, Location TBA

Nov 5/6/7 Div I prelim matches, location TBA

Nov 13/14 Div I semis/finals, location TBA

Nov 13/14 Adult State Cup

       I didn�t forget the Qualifier. There is no Qualifying Tournament this year. Teams will declare what division they will play in and the chips will fall where it may. Since teams can select which division they will play in we did away with the provision to allow the Gov. Cup winner to enter the DII cup or to allow the DII winner to enter the DI cup.

      All state tournaments are up for bids so locations are all to be determined. More later.

Notes from the ASA Planning Meeting and Board Meeting, 1/11/04

     These notes follow the course of the discussion which tended to shift topics as different people interjected comments. These are only my notes and are not intended to be a full record of the meeting.

     Regional Tournament for Adults will be held in Huntsville Jun 12/13

     Women�s Soccer Showcase is planned for Huntsville, March 27/28. It will feature several Div I college sides, Regional ODP teams, and a couple top level Canadian clubs.

     Dave Stephens addressed problems with Ref. Abuse and singled out NASL�s U10 Rec Plus as a too typical example of the kinds of problems we are experiencing. Stated that clubs and leagues must have zero tolerance for these outbursts if we expect referee support. *NASL should conclude our holdover disciplinary issues from the fall season and issue a policy regarding sideline behavior that would allow us to sanction a coach/manager/team for inappropriate actions even without the referee issuing a send off.

     League play for State Leagues, both Div I and II are 14 Aug to 31 Oct. There will be no qualifying tournament, rather teams will self select into Div I or II and let the chips fall where they may.

Regarding seeding and other state tournament issues:

     DII tournament will have the top 4 teams seeded, all others will be random. The basis for the seeding will be by vote of the coaches in that year-group. They will be asked to rank the top 4 teams (other than their own) in the age-group, the votes complied, and seeding determined.

     In DI, the top two seeds will go to the two Region III teams. Region III teams can only be the past year�s Champ and finalists. No third or 4th place teams will be allowed to play in the Region III league. The remaining seeds will be determined by league standings.

      Region III teams will be expected to play a shortened Div I league schedule but those games will not count in the standings when seedings are determined. Any exceptions to having a Region III team play state league games will be considered by the committee and the SDOC.

     The Div II tournament will be an open tournament for all DII teams only. It will be played over the 5/6/7 Nov. weekend and will likely include Fri night games.

     The Div I tournament will be played over two weekends. It is open to all Div I teams only. The prelim games will be played the weekend of 5/6/7 Nov. The following weekend will be the semis/finals (Nov 13/14) (no third place games)

     Governor�s cup will be played Oct 22/23/24. That tournament is open to Div III/IV teams only.

     Since teams can self select into a division we are dropping the provision to have the DIII winner play in the DII cup and for the DII winner to enter the DI cup.

      Adult State Cup will be the same weekend as DI semis/finals in the same city to better showcase both events.

     There was considerable discussion about shifting the younger age-groups to a spring cup sequence to extend their development season and spread out the tournaments. The idea was not well enough defined to be considered for implementation yet because there are big questions regarding what age to cut it off at, U12,13, or 14, and whether to include DI if you use the 13 or 14 age cutoff. There was a lot of discussion about how this would impact on middle/high school soccer, other sports, etc. After considerable discussion no consensus was reached. One point that I came to agree with is that for too long we have accommodated other sports and school rules, making assumptions about our players and creating self-fulfilling prophesies. A better approach might be to put together what we think is best for the development of our players, make it a quality product, and let them chose. Expect more on this issue soon. Input is welcome.

There is a Sub-regional event planned for Jun 12/13. The winners of our DII cup are invited. Bids are going out to host the event and we expect Montgomery to bid to host the boys and Dothan to bid to host the Girls events. The current DII champs should make plans to attend.

      Illegal Recruiting policy is under revision and is still in a similar form to what I briefed at the NASL Board meeting. Open recruitment would be allowed in the tryout window, 4-20 June while general info only can be distributed before that time. Once the season starts transfers would be limited to players who move 50 miles or more. An open transfer period would be held 15 Dec to 15 Jan. During that time, the only reason a transfer could be blocked would be if the player owed money to the club they were trying to leave. The policy spells out fines and suspensions for each infraction. Holding tryouts, practices, scrimmages, etc with players currently committed to another team outside the 4-20 June tryout period would be defined as illegal recruiting. Contact regarding guest playing must begin with the coach desiring the guest player contacting the players current coach and can not proceed to contact with the player without the approval of the current coach.

      Short sided shift will continue. This fall U9 is 6v6, U10 and U11 are 8v8, while U12 is 11v11. In the fall of �06 U9/10 will be 6v6, U11/12 will be 8v8, and 11v11 play will not begin until U13. The discussion on how this would impact referees tended to think one youth referee could handle the 6v6 on their own and 8v8 would use one center official and require each team to furnish a club linesman. However, we understand that in our area, coaching and parental behavior has not improved to a level where the referee requirements can be so far reduced. This is a serious problem, one that is costing parents a lot of money and making it difficult to schedule and staff games, leading to cancelled matches. And it must not continue.

     The state is going to do more to support rec soccer development. They will also move to more short sided play. There will be more youth modules taught for coaching development and the ASA is planning on conducting a series of soccer camps around the state this summer.

     Coaching training is planned for our area as follows:
6 March Youth Module 1&2
27/28 March Training the Elite player
(in conjunction with the women�s showcase event)
16-18 April E course
23-25 April D course

     ODP: Regional camps will stay in AL (Montevallo for girls, T-town for boys) for the next 3 years. ODP mini-camp will be Jun 1-4 in T-town.

     Adjourned for the Board Meeting

     Received Treasurer's report. It showed a loss for the year. That was anticipated due to changes to items made throughout the year and an accounting shift that shifted an item out of current year income. Draft ODP budget sent to treasurer. ODP is budgeted to be self supporting. Sponsorships are way down, both at the state and national level. Expect the national association to pass on additional costs to states this year.

      Discussed Illegal recruitment but tabled till next month to consider adopting.

      Division Region III tournament bids will be made by Montgomery and Dothan. If another city is interested (Decatur?) contact the state ASAP to get details. Event is 12/13 Jun, 03.

Calendar was presented and adopted. It included:

6/4-6/20 Open Tryouts
8/14 DI/DII state league begins
10/22-24 Governors Cup
10/31 DI/DII state league ends
11/6-8 DII cup
11/6-8 DI prelim games
11/13-15 DI semis/finals
11/13-15 Adult State Cup

      The board also passed this sequence for the 05 and 06 seasons, giving us a 3 year calendar to work from. The only significant change being considered is whether to split out the younger ages to the spring.

      Dan Mikos presented info on Rain insurance that tournament hosts can obtain to pay them in the event of heavy rain during the tournament.

      Empowered the Tournament committee to negotiate bids for all state tournaments and bring back bids to the board for approval.

Upcoming meetings include:

The February ASA Board Meeting will be February 29th at 4PM.
The April ASA Board Meeting will be April 18th at 4PM.
The May AGM (Annual General Membership) Meeting will be May 23rd at 2PM.

Meeting adjourned.

     If you have any questions about any of the items above please contact me at eaton@hiwaay.net. Thanks.

Marty Eaton
North Alabama District Commissioner

Created: 12/20/99
Last Updated: 01/13/04

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