KUS favors the
establishment of a unified regional soccer club composed of residents
from the KRHS sending district and its surrounding areas. Our
goal, since our inception in 2005, has been to illustrate how successful
such an undertaking could be. We have always viewed KUS as a
prototype club from back in the days when none of the sending district's
township soccer associations were speaking with each other outside of
their own special interests. The founders of KUS have long felt
that as a united club, the membership numbers would be such that we
could field multiple teams in each age group, and compose these teams of
players with similar goals and objectives, or "mindsets." In this
way, all teams would have a more solid foundation.
The teams that
wanted to stay together and play year-round soccer could feel secure in
the knowledge that all of the members of that team were similarly
inclined, and that such a team would not fold come winter or spring,
leaving any remaining players stranded with no place to play. NJYS
rules do not recognize a "fall only" soccer season, but are geared toward the soccer
YEAR. NJYS makes transferring to other teams and clubs very
difficult by limiting the number of roster moves a team can make in any
soccer YEAR, and limiting the number of stranded players any one team can absorb.
Therefore, the composition of each team from the very beginning is of
utmost importance. It is difficult for a small club to assure this
for their players, because the numbers just aren't there to make that
assurance. With increased membership numbers provided by a larger,
regionally oriented club, we could establish a select program, a
recreational or developmental travel program, an in-house or intramural
type league for anyone who wanted to play games but without the time to
practice regularly or seriously due to participation in other sports or
activities, and a really functional training
program for our 4-6 year olds where touches on the ball are of utmost
significance. There are ways to accomplish this, and our current
township program small-sided micro or MOD programs are not necessarily
the way.
Observation of
these problems
and our solutions to them have been made over a long period of time,
spanning more than just one generation of youth soccer players.
Each generation of soccer players and their parents go through the same
things over the course of their involvement in youth soccer, and in
effect, these realizations come after much frustration each time. KUS was
established as an attempt to rectify some of these problems, and as a prototype
soccer club in our area continues to illustrate what can be
accomplished, if only on the "Select level," when we pool our players
and resources. One has only to look at the team's rankings across
the board in the leagues in which we all participate to see that
success. In essence, two of the local clubs' recent attempt to
reform under one banner (the merger rumors that have been circulating)
is the ultimate result of the numbers problem to which we refer above, but even more so, as a defense against the growth and success of KUS over the past three years as well as the prospect of even stronger
Select programs appearing on the horizon these days in the form of
"Soccer Academy" type clubs forming as "for profit" business ventures.
To these township clubs' credit, EGSA and LSC, in the latest round of
club merger talks, invited KUS to participate and provide input.
We whole-heartedly agreed with all participants about the merits of the
concept if undertaken in the proper manner and for the proper reasons.
We have always held this opinion, which is the cornerstone of our club's
founding purpose.
At the same time,
several individuals with rather impressive soccer credentials have also
espoused the creation of such a club in our area and have taken their
time to present a formula, or governing system, that has been proven to
work already in such respected soccer areas of our state as Mt. Laurel
United and the Player Development Academy (PDA) up in the northern part
of our state. The purpose differs from ours only in that it does
not serve to promote the feeder aspect to our high school programs.
KUS can live with that, and supports the open club concept, welcoming
membership by players and families, whole clubs in fact, from outside
the KRHS sending district. With increased numbers and resources
comes power and a greater ability to create an organization that is
truly designed to promote the sport for all levels of its membership.
The main impediment to this, we feel is "ego." Too many adults are
in youth soccer for what we feel are the wrong reasons. Yes, they
give their time to the kids and for the kids, and without many of them,
youth soccer on the volunteer basis would be impossible to provide.
However, when their own personal agendas obstruct something such as the
creation of a organization that would bring so much more to the lives of
the children and young adults of our area in the sport of soccer, there
is really something wrong with that, and we all need to resist any faction
with such intent.
There is a proposal
for creating and running a true soccer club out there that several
members of each township youth soccer association including KUS have
witnessed together and of which they also possess PowerPoint copies of
the club design and structure.
Anyone interested in hearing and seeing this proposal is welcome to
request the presentation. The overwhelming feeling from those in
attendance, including those in attendance from KUS, was that this
proposal is definitely the way to go, as it takes the government of our
clubs out of the hands of those with hidden agendas and special
interests and puts a club in the hands of a neutral entity. The
only way this is possible to achieve is through pooling our resources
and uniting for the greater good of our memberships, as there is a cost
to accomplish this. If we do not do this soon, we all run the risk
of losing many more of our dedicated players than KUS has absorbed in
its limited prototype unification program where we purposely only took
enough players to form one team in each age group from around the
district. The "for profit" academies are the next wave in youth
soccer. If we truly wish to be more than a feeder program for
these entities, we need to really get together as boards and hammer out
an agreement to unite that we can all live with.
This opinionated Q
& A piece was written by Curt Trainer, President of KUS, and I take
personal responsibility for the views expressed its content.
