SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Mt. Pleasant's Fight

The Rec Department has historically reported very little about soccer. Three years ago when the MPSC found a DOC, the head of the Rec Dept (recently retired) told MPSC that there would never be a "soccer coach" paid more than him. Apparently the Rec Committee of council claims they never heard about this. A review of the minutes of the Rec Committee of Council shows a few mentions of soccer issues over the past few years. Gary Santos will always report on the success of a baseball, football or basketball team but has no idea that there were over 40 MPSC teams last year that were Champions or Finalists in tournamnets around the Southeast. The Rec Dept staff also tried to dictate what information the MPSC presentors showed to the Rec Committee after they made MPSC take information off the website. Many times the MPSC board has made presentations about concerns it has to the Rec Dept, and many times the Rec Dept never brought these concerns to the Rec Committee of Council. How can Paul Gawrych claim he doesn't know about soccer issues when Ralph Lundy is a neighbor?

Interesting minutes from the June 2, 2008 Rec. Committee meeting.

6) Soccer Club coaches compensation
Mr. Burdette said the soccer coaches, even though paid by the Soccer Club, are part time employees of the Town of Mount Pleasant. They are regulated by the Town’s system regarding the pay scales. Mr. Burdette said the issue has come up that the Soccer Club wants to pay the coaches more that the Town’s scale will allow. Mr. Burdette said one option is that they would no longer be employees of the Town and become employees of the Soccer Club.

Mr. Swails said the issue is that the Soccer Club wanted to increase the salary of two (2) employees and they were told that could not happen because they were employees of the Town.

Mr. Summerford explained that the Town has a hierarchy of employees and interact with the Booster Club in terms of how they go about hiring the soccer staff. He said it was concluded that they needed a director of coaching who would work under the soccer coordinator. Mr. Summerford said he has expressed to the Soccer Club many times that the Town staff runs the program. He said the Booster Club’s job is to promote soccer and raise funds to offset those things they do not get in the budget process. He said this union was formed in 1998 and the Town staff does the operation, makes the decisions, and controls the finances. Mr. Summerford said staff intends to live within the pay scale. He said there was recently a change of Booster Club presidents and he again explained to them how it works.

Mr. Swails said he has read the agreement with Hungryneck Soccer but has not read the agreement with Mt. Pleasant Soccer. He said he read some of the bylaws and did not see anything in the bylaws saying that they control it. Mr. Burdette said it is now Mt. Pleasant Soccer Club and Hungryneck is one of the elements of the program, the travel league. There was discussion on the contract at this point. Mr. Summerford said they are employees of the Town.

Mr. Burdette said they have three (3) options: 1. leave it like it is; 2. cut ties with the soccer club and they can rent the fields; 3. the Town does the registration and regulates the games, etc. and hires the coaches. Mr. Burdette said it would be a good idea to take a look at all the booster clubs and what their purposes are; and make sure they treat all clubs the same.

Mr. Summerford said they encourage the development and creation of these booster clubs because they help the Recreation Department. He said the Department enables the clubs to make money and then they give it back to the program. Mr. Burdette said they are a support organization just like the Booster Club at Wando High School. Mr. Burdette suggested that they set aside time this summer and look at all the booster clubs. He said the idea is good, they raise money to support the kids and help with travel but there has to be rules.

Mr. Swails said he did not have a problem to just leave it like it is. He said if you receive a couple of comments you do not change the world. He said he was happy with Mr. Summerford’s explanation. Mr. Swails agreed that it is working and they do not need to look at the whole thing or “throw the baby out with the bath water”.

Mr. Gawrych said if they deviate from what they have it may come apart. He said they should hold fast to the government run option. Mr. Summerford said the major concern initially of Hungryneck Soccer supporters was that we would severely dilute the elite, travel teams and cause them to lose the status that so many had worked so hard to attain.

Mr. Santos also agreed that it should remain the same.

One item that Gary Santos slammed the soccer parents was that there was this public meeting on the recration master plan and nobody showed up to comment. They had the public meeting on July 31st. I'm pretty sure many people were getting in their summer vacations before school started. Here are some comments from their August meeting.

7. Recreation Master Plan

Mr. Gawrych brought up the Master Plan for Recreation Meeting that took place on July 31, 2008. Mr. Santos noted that it was not well attended by the public, but our staff was there and they were very well prepared. The staff will give an overview of the plan at Council Meeting. Mr. Burdette commented that it is a great plan if we can execute it.

MPSC made a proposal to hire a DOC about three years ago and Ted Summerford quashed the idea. It's all about power and status. The proposal would not have cost the Town a penny, the MPSC had funds in the bank. The fact that Burdette refers to "Hungryneck" as the travel teams shows just how out of touch that guy is. MPSC has consistently been a donor for the rest of Mt P Rec programs. MPSC would love to run the Premier teams and hire a DOC and still work with the Town to run the micro and rec soccer program, but closed minds have won out. Maybe somebody can ask Gawrych, Santos and Swails..."Why do we need a referendum for soccer fields when baseball fields were already budgeted"? "Why can't MPSC hire a DOC and run the elite program if it doesn't cost the Town any taxpayer funds"?

Obviously not much. The numbers are through the roof from what was said at the night time Recreation meeting that a lot of people went to.

From a recent town Rec. Committee Meeting:

8. Discussion about the possible of separation of the Mount Pleasant Soccer Club and our Recreation Department
Mr. Swails said this was a bad choice of words, he certainly does not want to see any possibility of separation. He then asked where they were with the agreement they were working on.

Mr. Burdette reported there was a facilitative meeting between several members of the (soccer booster) club and several Town staff. He said they got that final report back and it does recommend looking at the possibility of elite (travel) soccer being run exclusively by the club; and everything from developmental soccer down to micro soccer being run by the Town. He said they have not gone any further with it. Mr. Burdette said he talked with Kevin Carter (president of the booster club) about that notion and they both agreed that even if that was to be considered, fields are the issue.

Mr. Burdette said there needs to be a lot of discussion between the booster club and Town Council. He said it certainly can be done and there are elements on both sides that would say that would make sense. Mr. Swails said he is just the opposite. He said he does not like the word developmental in recreation because he does not think we should develop kids, they should develop themselves. Mr. Swails said his point is that they have been talking about this but have not done anything about it. He said it was supposed to be done by May.

Mr. Burdette said he does not know how to solve this except for Town Council and the Board. He said we (staff) is a distance apart as to what they think the booster club role ought to be in the day to day activities of the Recreation Department; and the Board feels differently. He said they will get the facilitative report to this Committee right away. Mr. Burdette said one thing to consider is letting the Booster Club deal with the elite soccer aspects of soccer in Mt. Pleasant and the Town of Mt. Pleasant deal with everything else.

Mr. Mike Bosch, 1698 Wm Hapton Way, Mt. Pleasant, was present to represent the soccer booster club since Mr. Carter was out of town. He said they want to continue the merger agreement discussion that has been doing on for several month. He said they had a meeting with the facilitator and have that response back. He said they do need to get this fixed by May 1, 2009 to come up with a solution as to what they want to do. He said the ultimate goal is to have a merger agreement that facilitates what the Recreation Department wants to do and what the soccer club wants to do to get it. He said things have gone significantly better with the new staff in the Recreation Department. He said some of the frustration and tensions have eased quite a bit which is due to Mark (Hladek, soccer coordinator) being on board. He said this is the prime opportunity to complete that merger agreement and come up with a solution that works. Mr. Santos recognized Mark Hladek. He said he was glad to hear things have gotten better. Mr. Bosch said they need to finish review of the merger agreement and clarify responsibilities.

Mr. Burdette said it is hard for staff do a negotiation unless they know what the club is willing to accept. Mr. Santos said they could put together a draft to bring to this Committee with staff’s recommendation. Mr. Burdette said one key question is if they want to talk about any separation of responsibilities in terms of levels of soccer. He said if they say no, then that is where they start negotiations; but if there is any interest by the board to separate the elite soccer from the other parts of soccer, that would become very important.

Mr. Santos said he is hearing from them that they do not want to do that. Mr. Burdette said he has not heard that. Mr. Bosch said the soccer board wants clarification of the merger agreement. He said if there can be a working relationship then fine; and if they need to go in another direction then they need to look at that. He said, but, this is prime opportunity, for the first time in months they are talking to each other, and he attributes a lot of that to Mark, so let’s take the time now to set a deadline of May 1st and try to hammer this thing out and get some results.

Mr. Santos agreed and said he is happy they are heading down the right path Mr. Burdette said they (soccer club) need to tell us (Town) what they want and then proceed.
Mr. Gawrych said he knew the intent was to hammer out the agreement and he was glad things are going better. He said to help us get to May they need to see the report He said it is not what this Committee or Council wants it is what the people want. Mr. Gawrych asked Mr. Bosch where it was left after meeting with the facilitator. Mr. Bosch said he was not in the meeting but he understands the facilitator took discussions and put together a rough draft, which took a long time. He said the facilitator was going to make recommendations as to what steps both parties should take. He said this has been up in the air for 2 months.
Mr. Burdette asked the Club if they could sit down and determine what they are looking for. He said it would be best to hear from them what they would like to see in the agreement and then respond to that. Mr. Santos agreed and asked that staff meet with them and bring it back to this Committee.

Mr. Swails asked Coach Lundy what he would do. Mr. Lundy said he thought the original agreement was wonderful. He said the resources of the Town of Mt. Pleasant and the soccer population together are the very best. He said he is extremely happy that the process has started working with total cooperation recently. He said, again, they have two (2) documents they need to examine; the original agreement and the recommendations from the facilitator. He said he can tell them as he looks at it that the original agreement gives every kid a chance; a 5 year old who wants to pick flowers on the field, or a 15 year old who has aspirations of playing college soccer. He said if they can work together the original agreement is brilliant. He said he would love to see that work with mutual respect from the Recreation Department and the soccer community.

Mr. Burdette said one of the issues that needs to be talked about is use of fields during tournaments, and the requirements of those fields; and what is the priority of the Town. Is it going to be supporting of the tournament or is it going to be in conflict with other fields requirements? He said what is expected of the Town in providing fields for tournaments is the question. He said if Council says to set aside a certain number of fields for tournaments then staff will know what to do and they will do it. Mr. Burdette said when they have a baseball tournament scheduled at the same time they have a soccer tournament, then they have issues, that is one example. There are not enough fields to go around for everybody’s needs on every day. Mr. Burdette said trying to address the fields (like at Boone Hall) is part of the solution.
Mr. Swails asked how far in advance do they know a tournament is planned. Mr. Ayoub answered about six (6) months and baseball is about the same, although some baseball is locked into a particular weekend every year. He said they have a conflict in the fall which they got confirmation on last November.

Mr. Swails said his understanding is that most of the baseball tournaments do not coincide with the soccer tournaments. Mr. Ayoub answered they do have some in fall and spring. Mr. Burdette said another issue is inclement weather when they have a soccer tournament. He said this is down to communication and discussion. Mr. Burdette said if they are in the position to have to call the tournament because of inclement weather, because of possible damage to the fields, because they are trying to protect the playing surface for the rest of the season for multiple sports, he understands the soccer club is faced with 140 teams who have to go back home. He said that is an issue. Mr. Swails said Mr. Burdette was making a mountain out of a mole hill. He said they have already discussed that and all they have to do is use common sense on the field.

Mr. Swails asked if they could go back to the original agreement, get it worked out by May 1, and get things working well? Mr. Burdette said he would ask them what changes they want in the original agreement.
Mr. Bosch said talking about tournaments and when they are announced, they have been talking with Mr. Ayoub since December to try to clarify dates on their fall tournament. He said as a frame of reference they are looking at 9-10 months ahead of time, and hope they can get an answer on October pretty quickly. He said they need to know what they can do for the fall. He said they have been waiting patiently on some answers.

Mr. Santos said one of the things in the fall is they have football going on also. He said they don’t know the numbers until registration. Mr. Burdette said the Children’s Day Festival is in the fall also. Mr. Gawrych asked Mr. Swails if he just wanted a discussion of where they are now. Mr. Swails said he agreed with Mr. Lundy that this is meshed well together, and they just had a couple of hiccups, and said lets get it back on the road. Mr. Gawrych said, for the record, that this item on the agenda is incorrect, they are not here to discuss the separation of soccer (club) from Mt. Pleasant (Recreation Department). He then asked Mr. Bosch what they could do to help them by May 1.
Mr. Bosch answered that they need to clarify responsibilities and accountabilities. He said field issues and the ability for the soccer club to set the mission and goals of the club within context of the Town of Mt. Pleasant so they can do their job and get ready for the summer and fall seasons.

Mr. Gawrych said it is coming down to who is controlling things. He asked if the soccer club wants to be able to have the responsibility to make those decisions, is that what they are seeking? Mr. Bosch answered yes and said they would like to be able to do it with the Town and come up with a solution that allows the soccer club to grow and in turn grow Mt. Pleasant and the Recreation Department and the reputation of the Recreation Department.

Mr. Gawrych said where they are heading is obviously a change of policy. He said they have made changes in baseball and basketball and they have an incredibly well run government recreation program. Mr. Gawrych said he has not heard from Recreation staff. Mr. Ayoub said if you go back to the original agreement, it is specific in saying that the Mt. Pleasant Recreation, the Town of Mt. Pleasant, runs the program. He said that is what the original agreement is. Mr. Ayoub said this draft has come back and suggested that the soccer club run the elite program and Mt. Pleasant Recreation Department and the Town run everything else, from developmental on down. Mr. Gawrych asked Mr. Bosch if he agreed with that and Mr. Bosch answered that he had not seen the draft. Mr. Burdette said that Kevin Carter acknowledged that.

Mr. Santos said he liked the comments made by Coach Lundy and he liked the original agreement. He said he felt they could hash this out and not have to change it.
Mr. Gawrych said he wanted them to feel like they are getting somewhere instead of just making comments.
Mr. Lundy said he had not heard a problem this morning. He said we are blessed because they are talking about taking care of 2400 of our kids. He said they are talking about tournaments that bring 145 teams to our Town and he bets Sticky Fingers and Hampton Inn do not see that as a problem. He said we have a great opportunity here and just have to work together. He said he is encouraged by recent developments of cooperation. He said Mr. Burdette’s points are the areas they have to work together and solve. Mr. Lundy said leaders solve problems for the good of the kids and this is a great opportunity to keep building and developing programs for our kids.

Mr. Gawrych asked Mr. Ayoub, based on the rough draft where the elite is controlled by the soccer club, where he was with that on responding to this Committee, and if he was prepared to respond to that now? Mr. Ayoub answered that he always likes to get input from staff. He said they are flexible; and one concern is making sure both programs go in the same direction. What the Town offers needs to coincide with what is offered at a higher level. We can work either way and will take what is handed to us.
Mr. Burdette said no doubt elite soccer needs to be handled differently. He said the question is how will they write an agreement that allows some level of oversight by the soccer booster club and what level of oversight will be allowed to the staff? He said they are talking about what level of oversight the soccer club will have as a result of the agreement, overall, and particularly what will be the respective roles of the Town and the soccer club over elite soccer, and how do they resource that need. He said that means fields.

Mr. Gawrych said he is not hearing complaints from the baseball world. Mr. Burdette said numbers makes a difference. Mr. Ayoub explained that in baseball the booster club’s mission is simply to provide funds and support the program, that is all they want to do; they have no interest in controlling the teams. He said that has changed over the years with soccer. Mr. Ayoub said the Recreation Department has been at blame to allow some of the things to occur in the past couple of years that fed that desire, so to speak. He said one of the things that staff would like to see, and their concern, is that when you have parent groups running sports is the inconsistency that follows those sports. He said that changes as parents leave then they have inconsistency occur. He said we feel we are consistent in how we operate programs and that is our strong point.

Mr. Gawrych again asked about the baseball and Mr. Ayoub answered that numbers do play a big part because of fewer teams. Mr. Ayoub said the numbers in soccer do require more hands on with the number of staff. Mr. Gawrych asked Mr. Lundy to help with the concern of kids getting axed when they have a special program. Mr. Lundy said first of all, the people he is lucky enough to share this booster club with have no intention of axing any kid. He said the number one priority is to have kids play ball. He said it makes very good sense to have the soccer program in one room when people make decisions. He said right now 9 year olds are on the coaches minds every day. He said the involvement is not just elite soccer or the older age group, micro soccer is important for their development in all ways, sportsmanship, attitudes, growth and development. He said they cannot say elite is the focus of their professional staff.
Mr. Gawrych said he understands everyone here is committed to our children.

Mr. Lundy said what he just gave them was insight into what the soccer community looks at. He said originally there was an advisory committee and it was eliminated by the Recreation Department. He said that the advisory committee was supposed to be people who are not in the parent cycle. He mentioned Dr. Bill Conway and Steve Ballentine, and said that advisory committee was to advise the Recreation Department on continuous policies that are great for our children. He said he heard Mr. Ayoub was looking into an advisory committee. He said they have a win-win here and all they have to do is work together. He said Mr. Burdette’s points are absolutely valid. He said the tournaments are wonderful now, it means he does not have to drive to Atlanta or Greenville and it means the Hampton Inn and Sticky Fingers are very happy with them.
Mr. Gawrych asked Mr. Burdette if there was anything in the rough draft about the advisory committee being put back in. Mr. Burdette said they talked about communication a great deal and that was a key and the advisory committee is part of that. He said Mr. Ayoub did not want to reappoint the advisory committee until they see the changes in the agreement. Mr. Gawrych asked that staff and the soccer board get together with a final draft. He said they need to pin down a date. Mr. Santos said he could call a special Recreation Committee meeting for any time. He directed Mr. Ayoub to sit down and hash this out and get it over with. He said he wanted to pick up on the positive going on. Mr. Burdette said if the (soccer club) can set a meeting for later this week, staff could also meet. Mr. Lundy suggested next Monday since Mr. Carter was out of town this week, Mr. Burdette agreed. Mr. Santos said he was happy to hear they are moving in a positive direction.

Maybe someone can clear this up for me, but isn't Coach Lundy technically affiliated with Bridge? I seem to remember hearing his name associated with BFA teams.

Is he also involved with MPSC or is he just answering questions as a CofC entity or just from his Soccer Academy or what?

I belive his daughter plays in the academy program at MPSC, that may be the connection.

Coach Lundy was very involved initially with Bridge FA, both player training and assisting the organizers in discussions with Mt P. His involvement lessened over time, and in the end the Lundy's made a family decision similar to mine. I believe at that point, he pretty much stepped down from any involvement with Bridge, approximately 2 years ago. He and I didn't necessarily always totally agree, but, there was enough mutual respect between us that we could disagree, yet both still work together. That continues today, and, we often talk of what it could have been. To me, it's no surprise that he's still involved in trying to assist and improve the opportunities for the kids in Mt. P, even without being involved with Bridge.