NCSL Board Meeting

March 21, 2019

Westin Tysons Corner

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m.

I.         Roll Call

The following clubs were in attendance at the meeting: Alexandria Soccer Association, Arlington Youth Soccer Club, Bethesda Soccer Club, Braddock Road Youth Club, Broadneck SC, Burke Athletic Club, Calvert Soccer Association, Calverton Soccer Club, Chantilly Youth Association, Culpepper Soccer Club, D.C. Stoddert, Damascus Soccer Club, DORADUS, Epic Soccer Club, Fairfax Police Youth Club, FC Dulles, FC Frederick, Fort Washington, Fredericksburg Soccer Club, Front Royal Soccer Association, Future Soccer Club, Great Falls – Reston, Gunston Soccer Club, Herndon Youth Soccer Association, La Plata Soccer Academy, Laurel Soccer Club, Lee-Mt. Vernon Sports Club, Leesburg Football Club, Loudoun Soccer Club, Maryland Rush Montgomery, McLean Youth, Northern Virginia Soccer Club, OBGC, Old Dominion Football Club, Potomac Soccer Association, Premier Athletic Club, Prince William Soccer, Inc., Severna Park Athletic Club, Shenandoah FC Elite, Soccer Association of Columbia, South County Athletic Association, Southwestern Youth Association, Springfield South County Youth Club, St. Mary's Soccer, Stafford Soccer Club, Sterling Youth Soccer Association, Takoma Park Soccer Club, Team America Football Club, Thunder Soccer Club, Vienna Youth Soccer, Virginia Soccer Association, Waldorf Soccer Club, Washington Capital FC, West Virginia Futbal Club, Winchester Youth Soccer Club, Woodbridge Soccer Club

Roll call indicated that the following clubs were not in attendance: A3, Alliance Soccer Club

Annandale Boys & Girls Club, Antietam United Soccer Club, Arundel Soccer Association, Davidsonville Athletic Association, FCV Ashburn, Fredericksburg FC, Hagerstown Soccer Club, Montgomery Soccer, Real World Futbal Club, Virginia Blackwatch Soccer Club, VISTA, Warrenton Youth Soccer Club

Approval of Minutes

La Plata Soccer Academy made a motion to approve the January 8, 2019 minutes. Fredericksburg FC seconded. All were in favor and the motion passed.

II.        Reports

Ryan Rich – Executive Director: Ryan has been working on the Spring schedule. He worked with the technical staff at clubs to get as much info as possible, which has been very helpful. Ryan revised the process for FLEX Rescheduling. He is looking into the possibility of using Demosphere in order to streamline the process and may have functionality in place soon.

NCSL successfully held a futsal league and college combine event with the St. James. We will likely hold another futsal league from mid-June through the end of July, providing an opportunity for  indoor training over the summer. The league will probably be 11 to 12 games, 2 games per week. We are planning another college ID event in June as well.

Ryan reminded reps that there is a new team admin meeting on April 1.

Maureen Dalbec – NCSL Commissioner: Maureen reminded reps that player names and numbers need to be entered for the spring season. even if they were entered for the fall.

Doug Walls – NCSL Commissioner: No report.

Mike Basileo – Maryland Registrar: No report.

Carol Coulter – Virginia Registrar: Carol noted that players that haven’t been fully released are being moved in the database. Please ensure that players are released by the former team first. The new system isn’t catching some of these errors.

Alan Paez – NCSL Rules & Discipline: Alan reminded reps that the committee is finalizing the sit outs owed list and it will be posted early next week.

There is an R&D “cheat sheet” available for new team managers.

Alison Smith on behalf of Kathleen Sessions – NCSL Administrator: Thank you to the group for its patience with the schedule change process. Kathleen is working on large-sided games and Alison is doing small-sided. There are a lot of gaps that we are trying to close and we are doing our best to deconflict with other teams.

Carol Montoya – NCSL Secretary: No report (not present).

Anne Maynes – Treasurer: No report.

Eric Popiel – NCSL Vice President: Please make sure STARs are entered on the NCSL website. Eric is available to address any questions.

Richard Smith – NCSL President: Kathleen, Alison, and Ryan did a fantastic job on the scheduling this year. It was out much faster and was a much better product than in previous years. Many thanks to the clubs for providing information to NCSL to produce the best schedule possible.

Richard asked reps to ensure field permits are already in place when moving a game, and before submitting the FLEX Reschedule form. The FLEX Reschedule process creates gaps and solo games, which is an issue for a lot of assignors and referees. If a request creates a gap, its possible there may not be referees. The league wants to close the gaps to ensure referee coverage but also wants to be flexible and not change schedules unnecessarily. NCSL will continue to make changes but it would be helpful for reps to discuss with teams the reasons it might not be a good idea to move games.

VYSA is planning a fee increase. They also plan to require rostered adults to pay for their passes. The state won’t approve a roster without at least one adult. Richard expects to hear from VYSA regarding how payment for adults will be handled. Richard is looking for ways to not have every adult pay to register. Conversations are in progress.

Richard noted that we often have trouble in the spring with U13 STARs. They need to re-certify and get a 2019 badge.

The league does not want to issue fines. Richard reviewed the four ways teams/clubs get fined by NCSL: not attending board meetings, not having STARs, not inputting rosters, and not attending the new team admin meeting.

State Cup competitions are coming up. The league will automatically move games if there is a State Cup or President’s Cup conflict, once notified of the conflict. Inform the office as soon as possible so games can be moved.

Kathleen has informed leadership that she will be moving to South Carolina at the end of the month. Leadership is evaluating what this means for the league and is discussing the matter with Kathleen.

The college combine event in January was a huge success. College coaches worked directly with the attendees. Every coach said they were impressed with the talent that was there. As a pilot program, it worked very well and we will hold another in the summer, along with a summer futsal league.

In response to US Youth Soccer selecting EDP to run the Region league, NSCL worked with CCL to explore options for teams to compete at the national level. Working with both US Youth Soccer and US Club Soccer was considered. We are moving forward with arrangements with US Youth Soccer, which will cause the least disruption to parents, teams, coaches, etc., since ODP, State Cup, President’s Cup are all US Youth Soccer programs.

A program has been created within US Youth Soccer to offer three ways to get into the regional championship: (1) win your State Cup; (2) win the Region 1 premier league (accessible via EDP Division 1); and (3) win Division 1 of NCSL or CCL (these two teams will compete for entry into the regional championship). This solidifies NCSL as one of the premier leagues in the country, not just in terms of size, but in terms of the competition available. We want to make sure that the teams at the top of the highest division receive the regional and national opportunities that they deserve. 

There is still work to be done to solidify this program. It should take place in the fall. Please provide any feedback to Ryan.

III.      New Business

2019-2020 NCSL Budget: A preliminary budget was presented for discussion. There have been some changes in the budget, including the addition of the executive director position, increased use of the R&D admin, and increased use of the assistant admin. These changes will result in a net loss for this year, which was expected and previously discussed. A final budget will be presented for vote at the May Board meeting.

Referee fees and employee salary are the largest cost centers. NCSL hasn’t changed its referee pay scale in several years. An increase in referee pay would mean an increase in team fees. So that club reps have information for their clubs before tryouts and can plan expenses for next year, the league will develop a budget ASAP.

Comments on the draft budget should be sent to Ryan and Richard.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 8:43 p.m.