March

NCSL Meeting Minutes of March 26, 1998

Meeting called to order at 7:30 PM by Jim McGoldrick.

Roll call showed a quorum.

Clubs not attending: Columbia, Falls Church, Fairfax Police, Montgomery, Savage, and Vienna.

Motion to approve the minutes of the last BOD meeting was passed.

Jim McGoldrick reported on the new laws for referees. There is a new law book that is much smaller. A handout with the 7 cautionable offenses and the 7 send-off offenses was also included in the packet. Major changes:

  • Thermal shorts must be same color as predominant color in shorts.
  • Goalkeeper shirts-if there is a conflict with referees, goalkeeper must change,
  • Bleeding or equipment check-if leave field the center referee is the only one who can give them permission to return.
  • Coin toss-winner selects which goal it will attack.
  • Substitution only at mid-field.
  • 4 step rule enforced on goalie-also must release the ball within 5 to 6 seconds after gaining control of the ball.
Treasurer-no report.

WAGS Administrator Patty Freeman spoke about the difficulty in scheduling 3500 games by hand. It took over 250 man hours to do the schedule for spring. All requests were honored except for the coaches coaching multiple teams. There were over 150 requests and it could not be done this spring.

Jeff Skigen took over at this time.

Commissioners-no report.

R & D Ray Greenberg reported that since a list of sit-outs was mailed on December 21st, the list will not be included in the packets tonight. There is a new postcards for coaches to use when reporting a sit-out. The new cards are zeroxable and all coaches are urged to zerox the card before you mail it in case it gets lost.

Maryland Registrar -- There is a simplified form for out of state players that both states can use.

Virginia Registrar-no report.

Scorekeeper-no report.

John Ellis informed us that there will be a D-license course during the one week from June 29-July 3. He will also have a adult camp this year for coaches interested in learning how to play.

Mike Newman read a press release from Va. State Referee Administrator Scott Meyer about no more hand ball fouls. He also read a letter about the treatment of our young referees and showed a graph of soccer referees by ages. There is a big drop off in the 20 and 30 age group.

Kathleen Sessions expressed a thank you to Kay McGoldrick, Jay Baker, Mike Newman and Bill Sessions for their help in getting the schedule together. Check schedules carefully. Blue games cards need both game # and team #. No yellow evaluation card any more. Completely out of patches. Remember there can be no screw in shoes at Bull Run fields.

New Business

An amendment was made and seconded that:

NCSL will sponsor a mini-season in the spring for the purpose of qualifying U19 teams for State Cup competition. This division will consist of at least 4 teams and all other league rules will apply except that teams may play less than 9 games. This mini-season is open to current or former NCSL teams in good standing with their respective State Associations.

An amendment to the admendment was made to make this part of the rules so that we do not have to do this each year and the add the words "each year" after the words "in the spring". This admendment was seconded and passed. The amended amendment was passed.

President-Jeff Skigen
Mid-season meeting choice:

  • May 11 at United Park
  • May 13 at RFK with free tickets to game that evening.
A motion was made to amend the calendar to change the mid-season meeting from May 11 to May 13 at 6:00 at RFK. Motion passed.

If teams are scheduled to play on May 30 and wish to attend the national team game, let NCSL know before April 15 and they will move a scheduled game and not schedule a make-up game for that day.

Structure. At the beginning of each season 12-14 people meet to do structure. In the high school age group there is always a huge problem because the high school seasons can occur during the spring or fall. Structure is forced to choose between teams that sat out the last season and are coming back and teams that played the last season. Structure goes out and people review it for errors and then grievances are allowed. A much smaller committee looks at the grievance and can overturn the work of the larger committee. A committee was formed of the club reps from Stafford, Vista and Stoddard to look at possible changes to the grievance rules and possible changes in the rules so that they are clearer for the high school age groups.

U11-Division 5 has 13 teams and 12 games. This was established so that at the end of the season when 4 teams are dropped, they had all played each other. Extra fees will be assessed for referee costs.

An amendment was made to forgive the fees for U11 teams that get extra games. Amendment passed, the fee for the U11 Division 5 is waived.

During the season Jeff will be talking to Jay Baker about web pages, perhaps to have schedules posted, official standings, etc. Please fax a note to Jeff if you have imput.

Ray Greenberg would like everyone's E-mail address.

Meeting adjourned.