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Post by paterfamilias on Oct 7, 2019 20:01:48 GMT -5
First the board president resigns (Steve Keiss)
Next the executive director resigns (Greg Griffeth)
Could a reconciliation be in the wings?
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Post by soccer3 on Oct 7, 2019 21:18:19 GMT -5
Heard the same thing. Would be the best thing for the players and the game.
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Post by Keeper on Oct 7, 2019 21:31:06 GMT -5
Greg is out too?!?! That’s news! Well now that’ll make things interesting.
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Post by soccerlegacy on Oct 8, 2019 11:29:01 GMT -5
Sorry. Dont know much about either of those people. Can somone explain HOW this makes for a possible big change? What this might mean? How are those two being out changing things?
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Post by slickdaddy96 on Oct 8, 2019 12:59:10 GMT -5
Wishful thinking on the part of the non-Big 6 crowd. The Big 6 will look at this as too little too late. They control much of the money flow now putting the majority of their teams through US Club Soccer, including some that put all their academy and rec teams through there as well.
I don't see any kind of reconciliation happening at this point. That ship has sailed.
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Post by Goalkeeper Dad on Oct 8, 2019 13:11:47 GMT -5
Wishful thinking on the part of the non-Big 6 crowd. The Big 6 will look at this as too little too late. They control much of the money flow now putting the majority of their teams through US Club Soccer, including some that put all their academy and rec teams through there as well. I don't see any kind of reconciliation happening at this point. That ship has sailed. I completely agree with you. The Big 6 have moved a large majority to the SCCL which they have gone all in on Also according to what I am hearing they are trying to add more divisions as the league expands taking away more teams from Georgia Soccer. The sad part is the smaller clubs will suffer because of the lack of teams. I would not be surprised if more mergers happen over the spring/summer time. So glad I only have 2 more years of the bs |
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Post by atlfutboldad on Oct 8, 2019 15:05:58 GMT -5
I will have 5.5 years remaining after this fall.
Would be difficult to reconcile disparate leagues in disparate companies without a merger there.
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Post by oldcoach on Oct 8, 2019 15:31:20 GMT -5
Does anyone know why they resigned? Seems like odd timing.
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Post by atlfutboldad on Oct 8, 2019 16:05:10 GMT -5
The timing is unusual, because there were 2 of them. If it was one, you could assume health/family emergency/something immediate. Its also unusual for 2 people to step down rather than announcing their plans to step down prior to elections.
There has to be a HUGE financial shortfall over the past 2 years with the organization losing 70 and 72 teams in those consecutive years. Really, something drastic should have happened back in the summer of 2018 (or the spring of 2018).
I wonder how many states are going through a similar process, by which a lot of clubs are pulling teams from the USYS state leagues and putting them in to US Club/other regional leagues (SCCL, ECRL, DPL). I think the answer is A LOT. USYS itself is likely reeling.
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Post by paterfamilias on Oct 8, 2019 16:28:52 GMT -5
Greg was the executive director of GA Soccer
Steve was the board president.
There may not be a reconciliation in the wings, but I believe those were 2 of the 3 people that had to go before any serious discussions about reconciliation could happen. The third did not win another term on the board.
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Post by oldcoach on Oct 9, 2019 10:39:12 GMT -5
To me it looks like the board is changing to more of an adult soccer/youth recreational emphasis. Granted I don’t know everyone on the board but that may be the direction GA soccer has to go.
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Post by Soccerhouse on Oct 9, 2019 11:34:02 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with Greg, but my opinion was when he was hired they needed to bring in someone who would look at things differently and was willing to shake things up and rock the boat a little bit. That didn't happen and we are now down the path we are. Not sure if that would have changed anything, because a lot of this is/was bigger than just Georgia soccer, it was happening across the country.
I'm obsessed over the age mandate yes, not because of the change but it clearly showed the incompetence of the federation and the famous wrong age matrix --- GA soccer along with other states needed to come together and take a stand. nothing happened. I'll shut up now.
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Post by slickdaddy96 on Oct 9, 2019 12:14:37 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with Greg, but my opinion was when he was hired they needed to bring in someone who would look at things differently and was willing to shake things up and rock the boat a little bit. That didn't happen and we are now down the path we are. Not sure if that would have changed anything, because a lot of this is/was bigger than just Georgia soccer, it was happening across the country. I'm obsessed over the age mandate yes, not because of the change but it clearly showed the incompetence of the federation and the famous wrong age matrix --- GA soccer along with other states needed to come together and take a stand. nothing happened. I'll shut up now. Selfishly the age mandate change helped my son and teams, so I'm secretly happy it never got changed back. It made the difference between him playing on a lower team or a better team. I do realize other kids had the exact opposite happen to them though. |
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Post by soccerlegacy on Oct 9, 2019 15:19:48 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with Greg, but my opinion was when he was hired they needed to bring in someone who would look at things differently and was willing to shake things up and rock the boat a little bit. That didn't happen and we are now down the path we are. Not sure if that would have changed anything, because a lot of this is/was bigger than just Georgia soccer, it was happening across the country. I'm obsessed over the age mandate yes, not because of the change but it clearly showed the incompetence of the federation and the famous wrong age matrix --- GA soccer along with other states needed to come together and take a stand. nothing happened. I'll shut up now. Nope... you keep preaching... and I'll keep saying "amen". I know nothing can be undone now, but possibly THE worst decision (non-decision) I have seen in my time following youth soccer closely. Shows you what a lack on connection to the people that they were supposed to working for can cause. |
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Post by atlfutboldad on Oct 9, 2019 15:40:28 GMT -5
I bet that the problem was that prior to the age mandate, USSF couldn't figure out what year kids were. It was like they needed some sort of system of record just for keeping ages and years straight. It must have been maddening for them.
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Post by rifle on Oct 10, 2019 6:04:02 GMT -5
I bet that the problem was that prior to the age mandate, USSF couldn't figure out what year kids were. It was like they needed some sort of system of record just for keeping ages and years straight. It must have been maddening for them. They “fixed” what wasn’t broken and yet we still call them all U-something (that changes every year) rather than simply identifying them as “2005’s”. |
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Post by footyfan on Oct 10, 2019 6:31:50 GMT -5
I bet that the problem was that prior to the age mandate, USSF couldn't figure out what year kids were. It was like they needed some sort of system of record just for keeping ages and years straight. It must have been maddening for them. The problem was that we all were birth-year based and then FIFA went to school-year based for two years in the 80s. When they realized it was silly, the world went back to birth year but the US didn't. Should have never gone to school-year based and then should have switched back at the same time the rest of the world did. |
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Post by atlfutboldad on Oct 10, 2019 6:37:41 GMT -5
School year makes sense for the US, because we have a lot vested in school sports. The rest of the world...not so much.
The birth-year system doesn't matter anywhere except international soccer competition. Which is such a small part of soccer as a whole and irrelevant to the US club system.
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Post by fanatic21 on Oct 10, 2019 7:18:37 GMT -5
I bet that the problem was that prior to the age mandate, USSF couldn't figure out what year kids were. It was like they needed some sort of system of record just for keeping ages and years straight. It must have been maddening for them. Funny thing is that almost all the top players, the ones who are candidates for National Camps/National Team, play up anyway. |
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Post by footyfan on Oct 10, 2019 8:40:40 GMT -5
School year makes sense for the US, because we have a lot vested in school sports. The rest of the world...not so much. The birth-year system doesn't matter anywhere except international soccer competition. Which is such a small part of soccer as a whole and irrelevant to the US club system. No one is suggesting High School soccer(and Middle School soccer for those who have it) change from school-year. Stay invested in it. It is a totally different soccer system, governed by different rules and leagues. And as you state, irrelevant to club soccer in the US. |
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Post by atlfutboldad on Oct 10, 2019 9:07:05 GMT -5
But only DA players (primarily...the only ones for whom the birth-year mandate really doesn't change much) don't play in both systems, so they don't care about birth year competing with school year.
IMO, for the rest of the players, it should be grade-year applied to club and school. We've already seen graphs which show that late-year birthdays are VERY poorly represented in top-level youth international soccer, meaning the birth-year system fails those with late year birthdays. A good percentage of kids 6 months behind in physical maturity/development can't compete and are more likely quit the sport. Players have always been able to play up, but the problem is that the system really isn't flexible (unless you're in DA). Anecdotally, on my kid's last 2 years of teams, roughly 25-30% of the team is comprised of kids born August-December (42% of the year).
Ironically, its the USSF that introduced bio-banding, which only applies to DA, and completely throws a wrench into the birth-year mandate system. So the USSF created the birth-year mandate, then said "but WE will be flexible enough to disregard it where we deem applicable".
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Post by footyfan on Oct 10, 2019 12:05:21 GMT -5
But only DA players (primarily...the only ones for whom the birth-year mandate really doesn't change much) don't play in both systems, so they don't care about birth year competing with school year. IMO, for the rest of the players, it should be grade-year applied to club and school. We've already seen graphs which show that late-year birthdays are VERY poorly represented in top-level youth international soccer, meaning the birth-year system fails those with late year birthdays. A good percentage of kids 6 months behind in physical maturity/development can't compete and are more likely quit the sport. Players have always been able to play up, but the problem is that the system really isn't flexible (unless you're in DA). Anecdotally, on my kid's last 2 years of teams, roughly 25-30% of the team is comprised of kids born August-December (42% of the year). Ironically, its the USSF that introduced bio-banding, which only applies to DA, and completely throws a wrench into the birth-year mandate system. So the USSF created the birth-year mandate, then said "but WE will be flexible enough to disregard it where we deem applicable". USSF didnt create the birth year mandate. They just reintroduced the original FIFA standard. |
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Post by footyfan on Oct 10, 2019 12:08:23 GMT -5
And no matter what 1 year span you create, the younger players in that span will be at a disadvantage.
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Post by footyfan on Oct 10, 2019 12:18:28 GMT -5
A problem is lack of communication to the less developed kids (often younger kids) in ANY 1 year span and their parents that being on the second team is ok while they catch up physically in mid to late teens.
I think Belgium solves this issue by breaking it down to half-year increments, but that's a different discussion.
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Post by GameOfThrow-ins on Oct 10, 2019 12:21:31 GMT -5
It would be easier to get schools to change to birth year. Or maybe combine birth year with pro/rel: if you stink as an 05, BOOM, you’re an 06 next year!
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Post by slickdaddy96 on Oct 10, 2019 13:15:13 GMT -5
And no matter what 1 year span you create, the younger players in that span will be at a disadvantage. Exactly. The people that complain about the age change are the coaches, players, and parents that were affected negatively by it, most of which had their kids go from oldest in age group to youngest in age group. My son was a May birthday so it is close to the middle, but still switching to birth year helped him, and screwed over a kid with a December birthdate that really should be playing with his team and not an age above. |
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Post by oraclesfriend on Oct 10, 2019 16:43:56 GMT -5
And no matter what 1 year span you create, the younger players in that span will be at a disadvantage. Exactly. The people that complain about the age change are the coaches, players, and parents that were affected negatively by it, most of which had their kids go from oldest in age group to youngest in age group. My son was a May birthday so it is close to the middle, but still switching to birth year helped him, and screwed over a kid with a December birthdate that really should be playing with his team and not an age above. So I had one kid that went from the oldest to being on the younger end. It hurt her, but I still don't care about it now. I was worried when it happened. It dropped her down a team. She caught up but it took 2 years. It wasn't size or physical maturity that hurt her (she is on the taller end of the spectrum) but losing that one year of experience was what hurt. I just think that someone will be hurt by anything that you change. My younger one would have been on the younger end of the grade year but is as an April birthday it keeps her on the older end of the new system. Since she is small anyway this helped her. Compared to her classmates she is one of the smallest (bottom 25%) but is average to slightly above average for her team so it helped her. |
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Post by atlfutboldad on Oct 10, 2019 18:14:45 GMT -5
Correct, USSF didnt create the birth year mandate, but they made all federation members follow it... well, except themselves because they introduced bio-banding to DA to skirt the problem they introduced.
And besides, who cares what the FIFA guidelines say, we'll do what we want, including ignoring pro/rel in our professional league.
Less than 10% of youth soccer players will go on to play in college or pro, so why not at least keep peers/friends together to make the experience as enjoyable for children as possible? Good players can ALWAYS play UP, nothing ever prevented it.
In the change mine lost a year of academy, gained a year if select. Honestly shes playing at U14 like I had expected her to play at U13, so it basically matches to me that she was behind a bit developmentally last year.
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Post by footyfan on Oct 10, 2019 20:00:25 GMT -5
Correct, USSF didnt create the birth year mandate, but they made all federation members follow it... well, except themselves because they introduced bio-banding to DA to skirt the problem they introduced. And besides, who cares what the FIFA guidelines say, we'll do what we want, including ignoring pro/rel in our professional league. Less than 10% of youth soccer players will go on to play in college or pro, so why not at least keep peers/friends together to make the experience as enjoyable for children as possible? Good players can ALWAYS play UP, nothing ever prevented it. In the change mine lost a year of academy, gained a year if select. Honestly shes playing at U14 like I had expected her to play at U13, so it basically matches to me that she was behind a bit developmentally last year. It was the change that caused the problem and I'm sorry for that for your child. I am happy for the rest of the children that it wont happen again. When I played club with boys from a different grade in school it made us more unified across grades, making our team better and making my group of friends larger. It was just a larger group to enjoy playing with. |
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Post by GameOfThrow-ins on Oct 10, 2019 20:49:10 GMT -5
I just don’t get you pro/rel people! Horrible system! The. Most. Top. Heavy. Sport. Is. Soccer. You think the NFL, NBA, MLB have dynasties? That’s laughable if you know any damn thing about pro/rel!!! But like with politics & religion, nobody can handle the truth. Ever heard anyone write, “thanks, your insightful social media post just changed my mind.” Hahahaha!
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