Dear Tony
Thanks for sending issues of "Down The Line." I read with great interest
the stories and articles and realize the challenges that confront US soccer
are absolutely no different from here in Australia.
I am currently chairman of the Central Coast Soccer Association Ltd and have
been involved with soccer for the past 21 years on the Central Coast of New
South Wales, an area that stretches between Sydney and Newcastle.
Soccer's popularity has proven to be it's greatest problem. On the Central
Coast, soccer is played by men, women, girls and boys of all ages and outnumbers
it's closest sport by two to one. We are a typical association with player
numbers of over 10,500 for the year 2002 and growing at a rate of 8% per
year.
Volunteers are no longer able to contend with the massive task of organizing
soccer with the limited resources of playing fields, etc., and the requirement
to contend with liability laws, child protection requirements, new tax laws,
discrimination laws, failing insurance companies, general lack of Government
assistance or interest and ever decreasing numbers of volunteers.
So in 2000 the local clubs made the decision to try and turn the association
into a professionally run self-sustaining business, with suitably qualified
people to take us into the future and help reduce the burden on the volunteer.
We are fortunate to own our own regional facility with four soccer fields,
fully lighted and drained -- all done in the last couple of years. We now
have three very professional people employed to form the core of the soccer
administration on the Central Coast -- a General Manager, Regional Coach
and a Ground Curator.
We have casual employees helping them at the moment, but will need to add
to staff to achieve our aims. So far so good! It hasn't been smooth
sailing all the way, but we are getting there. All this without placing too
much burden on the playing members, who all think the task is so simple.
Without boring you to death, we have recently set up a web site which we
are working on to improve. The website being
www.centralcoastsoccer.com.au
. Our previous web site was with a company, which unfortunately failed last
year. At the peak of the season we were receiving over 30,000 hits per week.
Would it be possible to place a link on our site to your http://www.down-the-line.com
web site, the information is excellent and I think our members would find
it very interesting.
Yours In Soccer
Phil Mead
Chairman
CCSA Ltd
Editor’s Notes: It will be our privilege to link with the Central
Coast Soccer Association. And without trying to burden Phil any more,
I’m going to request that he delegates to his staff and members a request
for updates of how they are tackling the problems of the “professionalization”
of their association. Many US clubs and Canadian clubs are making the
same moves. As far as I’m concerned, the “professionalization” marks
real progress in grassroots soccer. If anyone would like to get hold
of Phil email through me (tw
) and I will forward to him.
Dear Tony,
It’s pretty obvious to me that if we don’t collectively get a hold of this
violence in sport it will go totally out of control. If you look around
the world gangs of youths are going around and beating and kicking, often
totally innocent people, who have done nothing to provoke a group, to death.
The punishments no longer fit the crimes. A rap of the knuckles and
“be a good boy” (or girl) seems to be the norm.
Everyone involved in soccer – player, parent, coach, club official,
referee – should sign a contract (of behaviour) with the conditions of punishment
spelled out and agreed to. It won’t stop the violence altogether,
but I believe it would greatly reduce the chances of it happening.
Jeremy Falcon
Editor: Have a look at the letter in the Boot Room on the same subject.
Editor:
I have tried on several occasions to download the 3 vs 1 animation in Issue
#5 -- without success. What am I doing wrong?
Julia.
Julia: This is what our techie guys say you should do: The 3 vs
1 animation file should automatically start downloading when you select it.
If it doesn't start downloading, then right click on the link and select
'Save as' or 'Save Link As'. If this doesn't work either, than I would contact
technical support at support
and we will see what we can do, especially since the file is a good example
of using technology for coaching purposes.
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Letters to the Editor