(Chronological Order - Newest segments are towards the bottom)

 -- April 2005 -- At the KUS organizational meeting held on Monday, April 18, '05, many voices were heard in favor of going forward with creating a new club to be named Kingsway Premier Soccer.  Of those in attendance who voiced undecided or even negative sentiment, it was determined that the main reason for their dissent was the prevailing fear that in creating a premier club, the township clubs may be dealt a severe hardship in not having enough players remaining to field viable teams for their recreational players.  While this may or may not be true depending on the actual numbers of registrants for each team at each club, this fear was taken very seriously under consideration, and a compromise was proposed that may alleviate everyone's fears and yet still provide a venue where the committed, serious player can go to and accomplish his or her desire to pursue the sport at a more competitive level, teamed with players having similar goals and interests on teams that they can count on being around for both the fall and spring seasons, or all year long.  

-- April 2005 -- Officials of both East Greenwich SA and Logan Twp. SC took this compromise proposal to their respective Boards for review and possible implementation.  This proposal was basically vetoed for this year by both Logan Twp SC and EGSA memberships, but provisions to consider and implement the proposal would be discussed and reconsidered for 2006-07.  This  proposal, if adopted, would have made the formation of Kingsway Premier Soccer moot. 

The basis of the proposal consisted of a possible merger of the full-sided travel programs of East Greenwich, Logan, and Swedesboro-Woolwich under one organization - Kingsway United Soccer - and each member would have still been able to feel like they were playing for a "home town" team, since all are members of the Kingsway Regional High School sending district.  This would in effect regionalize our travel soccer programs, giving three to four times the numbers available to any one organization individually.  Add to that an extended invitation to players from South Harrison (now playing for Harrison Twp., a Clearview school district, because there is currently no youth soccer program in South Harrison Twp.) to join Kingsway United, clubs having problems filling rosters would no longer have had those problems, and having to search for and interject incompatible players just to make up one team to have any complete teams in any particular age group, like we have had to do for years as small township organizations, would have been a thing of the past.  Teams could have been constructed based upon player goals, skill, and commitment level, and with a theoretically possible four plus teams in each age group, a compatible competitive level could have been attained for each team, increasing everyone's enjoyment of their soccer experience.

This was not to be for this year.  In view of the fact that we made every effort to take the township club's numbers problems to heart and proposed a plan to alleviate those problems that was unacceptable to them, we are left with no alternative but to either forego our plans for a combined, KRHS area club for teams of our more serious players from each township, or go ahead with them.

-- April/May 2005 --  Wednesday, April 27th, the KUS Organizational Committee met to discuss the facts from each individual club's Board meetings and to decide what to do from this point.  This meeting was  held at the East Greenwich Municipal Bldg on Democrat Road as advertised, but, the turnout was fairly light by comparison to the first meeting from outside EG.  Whether or not this was because many figured the issue was put on hold after the township club merger meetings failed to produce a merged travel program for this year, or the time frame was too close to the EG meeting, is not yet certain.

However, the Organizational Committee went ahead and selected an Interim Board of Administrators to conduct the business of establishing the club as a legal non-profit entity with the State of NJ, to be followed by registration with the IRS, and league applications for admittance.  Because turnout was light from Swedesboro-Woolwich (alright, light is an understatement) and Logan Twp., those present agreed to put together an interim Board just to conduct the background business necessities for starting the club, and also agreed to hold permanent elections at the Annual meeting proposed to be held in June.  We hope to enlist the support and participation of those from other districts who were in attendance at the original organizational meeting held April 18th.  Without those people, this club would not be as representative as originally conceived.  It was resolved to field as many teams (one per age group) as possible that coming fall, which depended totally on the number of applicants in each age group desiring to try out.

Initial By-Laws were adopted. The name was changed from "Kingsway Premier Soccer" to "Kingsway United Soccer" for several reasons.  KUS would seriously like to keep the doors open for future incorporation of the local full-sided travel team programs into one strong organization, where registration numbers would no longer be a detriment but provide "strength in numbers" to our travel teams.  Choosing the "united" title most aptly expressed the desire to unite youth travel soccer in our KRHS district.  Our web address was changed to reflect this change in direction.

Also established was to establish target teams in ages U11 through U14, and try-out dates and times.  Tryouts would be held, rain or shine, on Saturday and Sunday, May 14 and 15, and the following weekend, May 21 & 22.  Both independent "paid" and "volunteer" evaluators  conducted these tryouts.  Parents were urged to "go get some coffee" during these events, as they would not be permitted to enter the tryout areas.  

-- Events of 2005/06 Soccer Year --  KUS forged ahead with two girls teams established by two separate means.  While successful at the Girls U12 level with close to 36 total applicants, not enough applicants for U11 attended the sessions and only one girls team was formed from the tryouts.  Several Logan and East Greenwich players at the U14 level were brought to our attention as stranded players.  We combined these players with the approval of Logan SC and EGSA and formed a KUS U14 team, not from tryouts, but as a means by which to allow these players to continue to play.  KUS was admitted to SJGSL for the Fall of '05.    The Boys tryouts produced no viable teams, as insufficient numbers made it impossible to form any.

The Girls U12 team ('93-'94) 'DRAGONFIRE' played in the Central conference of SJGSL and was fortunate to have a successful season, winning that conference and moving up to the American conference for Spring '06, where they also were able to capture another title, enabling them to move up again to the National conference, the 2nd conference out of 12, 6-team conferences in that SJGSL age group.  This team also won the U12 Indoor championship at Tri-State Sports, in Aston PA, and won several tournament championships or placed as finalists in area tournaments in either the Premier or Classic Club 'A' team brackets of those tournaments.

The Girls U14 team ('91-'92) LADY DRAGONS played in the Southern Conference, around middle of the pack of SJGSL teams in that age group.  They played competitively in their conference that fall, were finalists in the Indoor competition at Tri-State Sports, and continued to play in the Spring.  They won the third bracket of the West Deptford Thanksgiving tournament and were considered successful in terms of what they had set out as team goals.

Tryouts were again held in May for the following year, and despite having better distribution of the announcement flyers through the district school systems, there was not enough interest shown to create viable teams.  The Board determined that we would continue to operate without new teams that year for the benefit of the teams that were previously created and having relative success.

The Board changed its position on desiring to merge with the existing soccer associations to form one large district-wide club, and instead drafted a letter to each Board offering them to take ownership of KUS, to be run as a joint venture, by committee or by whatever other governing device they would agree upon.  The only stipulation would be that Kingsway United would be a combined "banner" name for teams formed by representative membership of all KRHS district soccer organizations.  The existing KUS Board could be disbanded or maintained, whatever the decision reached by all.

-- Events of 2006/07 Soccer Year -- 

KUS provided the opportunity for its membership to participate in professional training sessions.  Former KRHS Boys varsity soccer coach Carl Heil, and several members of his former staff, began training those who wished to participate, one day each week.  For the Spring season, the U13 team was the only team participating as the U15 team no longer practiced, but several members of the LADY DRAGONS attended DRAGONFIRE practices to participate, and the LADY DRAGONS were given a paid tournament as equivalent team compensation.

In the fall season, the DRAGONFIRE, now a U13 team, placed 4th in the National Conference with only two points separating them from the 2nd place team, and only 4 points out of 1st place.  They won or placed as finalists several in area tournaments in NJ, PA and MD, expanding their tournament exposure at either premier or Classic Club 'A' Bracket levels.  The LADY DRAGONS, now a U15 team continued to play as a club team, more recreationally in nature as many of the players now played for Kingsway Regional HS on the freshman team and JV teams.  They did not practice as the LADY DRAGONS, but continued to play games in SJGSL through the spring of 2007.  The team disbanded at the end of spring as most players decided to play high school soccer only for the following year.

The U13 DRAGONFIRE played their first Futsal season at Tri-State Sports as the only girls team in the U14 Boys bracket.  No other girls teams at the U13 level had entered, and TSS allowed the girls to play with the older boys at half price rather than turn them away.  While the girls did not win a game against the older boys playing Futsal, they learned an incredible amount from the game about ball control and off-ball movement by watching what the boys were able to do against them.  Incredibly, this team then went undefeated at the U14 Girls level (as U13's playing up an age) at TSS, going 10-0 and winning the combined U14 brackets championship.  In the SJGSL Spring season, DRAGONFIRE then went 6-1-2 and won the National conference championship, earning them the right to move up to play in the Olympic (1st) conference in the fall of 2007.

This team has achieved playing at a higher level than any girls team from any of our district township clubs has ever played before.  This team was also the first team in our area to be formed through the concept of combining applicants from our high school sending district of Swedesboro-Woolwich, South Harrison, Logan and East Greenwich Twp's. (along with less than a handful of players from our bordering areas who also tried out and made the team) through impartial, blind tryouts conducted by third parties, and should also be the criteria by which all future KUS teams are formed.  The success of this team is a testament to the fact that by combining committed players from our high school sending district rather than restricted local township borders, we can form teams in each age group that can stand competitively with the larger township clubs (e.g., Mount Laurel, Moorestown, Medford, Cherry Hill, CP United, etc.) and even with some of the private, higher cost premier or "academy" type club teams.  This rise in success can easily be attributed to the soccer experience of the existing coaching staff, professional training by youthful technique and skills trainers, the higher level of regular competition the team achieved, and probably most importantly, the participation in Futsal for the first time.  This team played Fall, once a week during the winter, and regularly again in the spring.  Their improvement was dramatic.  Only one player left the team of their own accord during the year, and two new ones joined after the Fall season ended with several others expressing interest in trying out should positions become available.  The team also enters the Fall 2007 season in-tact, with the exception of it's Keeper who moves to FC Delco by invitation (FC Delco is a Nike sponsored, premier club that will provide national exposure for her, and KUS wishes her great success in this dramatic step upward and marvelous opportunity in the world of soccer).

-- Going Forward -- KUS held tryouts again in May of 2007 and will field U11, U12 and U14 Girls teams in the fall of '07.  At a meeting of the Board of Administrators, it was presented that an experimental U10 small-sided team be created at the wish of several parents whose older children are already members of KUS teams and were in favor of the experience for their younger children as well.  Implementation of this offering required a by-law change which was made to allow a younger team than previously sought to be created.

KUS still maintains the position that it does not have to exist independently of the district's soccer clubs.  KUS is still in favor of combining with the three district township clubs to be absorbed by and run as a joint venture, whereby taking ownership of KUS would allow each club to take pride in sending their more committed players to teams of an entity in which they share ownership, with teams that have the ability to perform at levels more elevated than those attainable from a smaller drawing area.  KUS feels that while the local soccer programs do an admirable and plausible job at providing a place for children who want to play the game soccer a place to play, they do not fare so well at the job of teaching the game to the player whose personal goals are greater than recreational in nature.  Why else would so many township Board members' own children be playing in outside premier, or even equivalent programs, not in their own?  KUS is composed of Board members and coaches who have served for years, even decades as board members of our township youth soccer clubs.  We know the problems that arise from trying to serve two masters - the recreational player and the competitive player, and the horrors that ensue when the limited numbers of registrants force both together on the same teams.  These teams rarely last past U14, and often meet their demise sooner than that age because of the dichotomy of personal objectives for playing on the team.  By offering the ability for those who desire to play more competitively the opportunity to do so on a combined 'district team' in each age group, both competitive and recreational offerings can be made and each township club can still run their program how they see fit at the micro, small sided and even full sided age levels. 

If absorbed by the three district youth soccer clubs, KUS as an independent entity could easily "go away" and the competition for players as currently perceived by the district township clubs would cease to exist.  It is still only a matter of perception, however, as the kids would be the same.  KUS was established, basically, to make the point that greater achievements are possible.  There are benefits to be derived from pooling resources and allowing the greater drawing pool to solve the most debilitating problems we face as youth soccer club administrators.  Both competitive and recreational membership desires could be served, and we would all be the stronger for it, not to mention our high school programs down the road.  KUS continues to welcome the opportunity to sit down and talk rationally about the possibilities with delegates from each district club, should that opportunity ever arise.

-- Curt Trainer, President KUS

Copyright 2005-06, Kingsway United Soccer, Inc.,  572 Kings Hwy., Mickleton, NJ  08056