NCSL BOD MEETING- JANUARY 20. 2004

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:30PM.

Roll call shows a quorum.  Clubs not present: Baltimore Bays.

 

Minutes are corrected and approved.

 

Mike Basileo-Md. Registrar-Reminder that Md. Cup play begins April 3^rd and rosters are normally frozen the Monday prior to the first game.  It will be single elimination this year.  U12-U17 will need to check the web site.  The first team a person is rostered on must be their cup team.  Players can transfer within the rules of transfers.

 

John Ellis-Consultant on Player Development-At the last meeting I talked about the USSF coaches license.  Virginia is not allowing any courses to be given in the winter.  If you have a question about the courses, contact John and he can tell you where they will be given.  Each club needs to have a philosophy of training and teaching.  This is the time of year to be doing that type of planning.  John will be available to help the clubs with planning.

 

Jim Fraze- Va. Commissioner-This will be his last meeting.  Jeff Skigen presented a plaque saying:

Jim has been a club rep for 12 years, the commissioner since 1997, served as a registrar for the state of Virginiaand been very involved in the success of the NCSL.  He holds the record for the number of proxies at a meeting.  Thank you and good luck.

 

Jeff Skigen-President-Over the last season or so we have talked about the SIAR program.  It has been a mixed blessing in that in many cases they are being used, but in some cases they are not.  Analysis shows that the participation went down this fall.  We decided to get some statistics for the percentages of SIAR used.  In some cases the assigned coverage of U13 games was 85-90-100%.  On the other side of the scale, was a low of 67% of assigned AR’s.  Very few step-in referees were used in the U13’s.  The U12’s record is better.  We should have 100% coverage in the U12 because AR’s are not assigned unless the game is sandwiched between 2 covered games or the last game in a three game set.  Numbers for the U12’s is about 50% or less for games covered and the cards returned.  We have had some referees continue training and become center referees and we feel that the program is worthwhile.  While we will not make a decision tonight, it is time for the board to make a decision on continuing the SIAR program, or a modified SIAR program.

There are several ways we can go:

We can move it down to U11’s, continue U12’s and make it voluntary at U13.

Modify program so that it becomes less voluntary on whether or not you actually serve as AR’s in a game.  We now require training but do not require that they actually work.

Dump the program.

The course is now a full 10 hours and it certifies them to referee as a center in rec or travel up to U14.  Please go back to your clubs and figure out what we need to do.

 

As officers and commissioners we have meeting throughout the year as things come up.  One problem is that when we wanted to make a rules change, we could not make the motions.  With such a large group of BOD (about 60), it seems more effective if we had a smaller group.  One of the things we talked about is the concept of a representative type of environment.  If we had an active executive and operations committee, we would get more input from clubs and teams.  We would have a more consistent exchange of information, rather than information just going out.  Club reps are turning over at almost 30% per year.  With an occasional meeting in addition to the regular meeting, then these regional people could go back to their clubs.  We could also have the advantage of their participation in structure.  No action is required now, this will be on the agenda again.

 

Ray Greenberg-R&R- All club reps got an e-mail that the sit-out list is on the web site.  Please make sure your teams check the list.  We have an USSF memo on automatic suspension with a red card from the next match.  The memo states as follows:

A one game suspension is mandatory following a send-off (red card).  The suspension may be extended for more serious offenses but it cannot be reduced, no matter what the reason was for the send-off.  The suspension must be served even if it is being appealed.  Under no circumstances can the fact of an appeal be used to suspend or delay the suspension.

All appeals must be decided quickly, before the match is played for which the affected player would be suspended.  If the send-off was erroneous due to an obvious error in identifying the player, this appeal can be resolved quickly because the error was obvious; if the error was not obvious, the appeal will be quickly resolved by rejecting it.

Our rules say that if we have an appeal, the sit-out is in abeyance until after the hearing.  This new rule says we must do the sit-out even if the card is being appealed.  Our process does not work that quickly.  This rules change is not designed for youth soccer and could limit a quick appeal process to mistaken identity or a mistake by the referee.  We could make a sub R&D group that just deals with this issue, and then shrink the appeals time just on red cards to try to get it done that week.  Could possibly be handled with a conference call that hooks in the 2 team members and the referee.  Another option might be to reschedule the next game of the team in question.  We could also raise the protest fee so that we do not get invalid protests.  We need input from the state associations on the timing for this to make the process consistent so that it is done the same in each case.

 

Another issue is the tiebreaker clarification.  The following is an explanation of what happens in divisions that have an odd number of teams:

Tiebreakers

2.   In the case of point ties at the end of the regularly scheduled season, final division standings for any teams involved will be determined on the basis of the following tiebreaker sequence:

a)      Head-to-head result between the two teams or among the three, four, or five teams involved. Using a three-way tie as an example: A beat B; B tied C; C beat A. A is 1-1-0=3 points. B is 0-1-1=1 point. C is 1-0-1=4 points. C is the winner with four tiebreaker points, A would finish 2^nd, and B would finish in 3^rd place. If two teams are still tied after using this head-to-head tiebreaker, than restart with the head-to-head results between the two teams that are tied.

b)      Most wins during the season.

c)      Fewest goals allowed during the season.

d)      Fewest disciplinary points awarded during the season.

e)      Greatest differential between goals for and goals against.

f)       Coin toss by NCSL president.

 

Note: The NCSL structure tries to have all divisions with 10 teams. Depending on the number of teams that apply and last minute drops, some divisions may have an odd number of teams, i.e. 9 teams.  As a result of this situation, one team in the division has been scheduled a 10^th game so that all other teams in the division can be scheduled 9 games. This scheduling ensures equitable competition in these divisions with odd numbers of teams.  The team, which plays the 10^th game, will not receive credit for this 10^th game; however, the opponent team will receive credit since it is their 9th game. The 10^th game will be chosen prior to the start of the season; however, the division will not be informed of which game is the 10^th game. Past experience has shown that if a team knows it is playing the 10^th game and that the outcome will not matter for their team, the team may choose to forfeit or not play to win.  Since this game does matter for the opponent team, the game should be played and the outcome decided on the field.  At the end of the season, the scores and standings posted on the website will reflect that this particular game was the 10^th game for one team and the score will not count for this team.

We need to revise our R&D penalties.  The last section shows how we have implemented R&D for several years.  We would like to make this part of our rules.  The following is the R&D section from our manual:

 

H. Rules and Discipline Penalties

1. Rules and Discipline Committee may impose penalties including but not limited to additional sit-outs, forfeitures, probation, suspension, or expulsion.

2. For teams with serious discipline problems as determined by the R&D Committee, a fine up to $800 may be imposed.

3. In exceptional circumstances, the R&D chairman may provide the appropriate state association - VYSA or MSYSA - information concerning sanctions and suspensions it has levied. The state association may take these facts into account:

·when approving travel applications

·when approving applications to host tournaments or festivals

·when approving application to host foreign teams

·when choosing representatives for regional and national cup or team play.

4. The NCSL treasurer will inform the state association of any club or team not in good standing financially with the NCSL so that this may be taken into account in appropriate instances.

Addition:

The NCSL sit-out requirements for red card ejections and compliance with the accumulated point system is an honor system and each team is responsible for tracking its own cards and serving sit outs for red cards and accumulated points according to league rules. The R&D Committee monitors each team’s compliance with the need to serve required sit-outs and will impose additional penalties against any player, coach, or team for failure to complete required sit-outs in the next NCSL game(s).

Any player or coach required to perform a sit-out is deemed ineligible to participate in his team’s next NCSL match.

The maximum penalty for failure to perform a required sit-out is as follows:

• All games played with an ineligible player or coach are subject to forfeit and will be reviewed by the R&D Chairman.
• A player who fails to serve a sit-out for a red card in the next NCSL match will be suspended for 3 games and the player’s coach will also be suspended for 3 games.
• A coach who fails to serve a sit-out for a red card in the next NCSL match will be suspended for 3 games.
• A player who fails to serve a sit-out for accumulated points in the next NCSL match will be suspended for 2 games and the player’s coach will be suspended for 1 game.
• A coach who fails to serve a sit-out for accumulated points in the next NCSL match will be suspended for 2 games.

The R&D Chairman will review each case of failure to sit-out and will notify the team that the above penalties are being imposed. If a team has more than one case, in any season, of failure to sit-out, the team will be required to appear before the R&D Committee.

 

 

Motion: To put the revised process into the R&D process in Rules and Discipline.

Motion made by Gunston.

Motion seconded by Olney.

Amendment to #2- add: or the team may be suspended or expelled.

Amendment made by Fort Washington,

Amendment dies for lack of a second.

Motion passes.

 

Over past few years, I have had a lot of help in R&D by Dennis Quicker.  He has served on the R&D Committee for a number of years.  He has collected the data from the game report cards for the last few years.  He also served as a club rep from Damascus.  A plaque is presented to Dennis in thanks for his contributions.

 

We also have a plaque to honor Gloria Gallagher who has served as team manager, club rep,  and head league registrar for the NCSL.  Thank you for all your contributions.

Gloria has been working with Lisa Wilson who will be taking her place.

 

Meeting is adjourned at 8:46PM.