SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Soccer Players in SC Drop (Again)

Faith-based, or Christian-oriented youth clubs are really gaining in popularity in York County. ROAR (Rock Hill) and Victory Christian (Fort Mill) are expanding rapidly and are now attracting hundreds of kids to their soccer programs.

Ironic that a few years ago, the Charlotte Eagles (a Christian-based professional soccer organization) decided to get out of the business of fielding competitive (NCYSA) club teams. Certainly now, at least at the rec level, faith-based soccer is on the rise.

I can't speak for any other clubs, or officially, but from knowing a lot of the developmental kids at Mt. Pleasant and my involvement with the club, I know a few of the concerns of people who have left, or seriously considered doing so, the sport or club.

Of the players, aside from kids simply losing interest, the parents'/players' main concerns were a program change at the club, increased costs (usually no desire to pay for a child who's not 100% committed to three tournaments + fees), and coaching changes.

As for coaches, I know some teams lost true licensed coaches due to a club decision to use Coerver full time for some levels instead of having coach-run practices (the ones I know, including myself are all at least "D" licensed), so coaches weren't asked back for the next season. I know that some coaches were getting frustrated too with lack of communication between the club and themselves such that some considered finding another club or quitting--whether they did or didn't, I have no idea.

Like I said, I can't say anything about any other clubs or even if this has any effect on the number drop in the grand scheme of things, but this is stuff I've noticed here in Mt. P.

Hurst66: Isn't it interesting that not a single faith-based soccer organization has chosen to affiliate with the SCYSA? (Note: If I'm wrong on this, I hope someone will point that out.) A few years ago I looked at the costs -- and I'd guess the reason that the SCYSA isn't that successful with many recreation organizations is that AYSO and USCS are so much less expensive and so much less bureaucratic.

I believe the Greater Columbia YMCA's numbers have been pretty steady in downtown Columbia, with between 900-1000 players each season. Enrollment at the Lexington and Irmo branches has been a good bit lower, but there has been more growth. Most are between u6 and u12. Enrollement drops of sharply after that. The Y has its own insurance, and is not SCYSA affiliated. I doubt they believe it to be cost effective. Also, the Y coaches are not licensed, and requiring even minimal licensing requirements would wreak havoc. However, the Y has stepped up training with clinics etc. lately.

One Saturday morning last fall I had a chance to observe several CUFC Polo Road rec games and the level of play was similar to the Y's. The fields were a little bit nicer and of more appropriate size, but the level of play and coaching seemed similar. Overall, it appeared that CUFC did a good job for its rec level players. Still, I think these rec leagues would do well to move towards some uniform training curriculum, although the SCYSA framework may be a little too cumbersome.

Coach P: I don't have the data -- and I could be wrong -- and finally, even if I did have the data, I'd have to get permission because at the time I was collecting and analyzing it on behalf of a club doing affiliation planning.

However, here's what I vaguely remember. AYSO was less attractive than USCS because AYSO cost more and had a 50% playing rule. AYSO was closer to USYSA/SCYSA on registration fees but the supporting fees brought it in lower. USCS was the lowest priced option. Also, both AYSO and USCS tended not to nickel and dime clubs to death with all sorts of fees for coach passes, DOC passes, inter-state travel (not a big deal on recreation, of course), and the like. Tournament costs were tremendously different between SCYSA and USCS with USCS being much lower. The registration costs associated with USCS were ***much*** lower -- the need for a paid registrar with USCS was virtually non-existent while it's a really tough job with SCYSA/UYSA because of the requirements for registration. As I remember, the insurance options were about the same -- but I'm not an insurance expert and their were others that looked at that.

In recreation, a $10 registration fee is big because it represents such a relatively high proportion of the overall fees paid to the club. And of course, recreation tends to be resource intensive because of the number of players -- in other words, you take in more than 10X less than select but your field space requirements aren't 10X lower.

I personally think that all of recreation needs to move away from the SCYSA -- not because those folks are bad, but because we need an absolute rock-bottom lower priced option that we can pass along to the clubs that they can pass along to kids and lower the barrier to entry for recreation as much as possible. Then again, the truth is that I don't think registration fees for recreation are the limiting factors here -- I think what is needed is for some affiliating organization to take those fees and invest them back into growing the sport.

FYI

US club soccer
http://www.usclubsoccer.org/main.aspx?sec_id=15&guid=6fe34b1f-1ed3-45ea-994a-279cde3d2523
cost are:
Registration fees for the 2006/2007 registration year are as follows:

Competitive players, U12 and above: $16/player
Competitive players below U12: $12/player
Recreational players: $8/player
Staff: $10/staff

I believe the U12 and up has gone up from $14

Chico,
It just seems to me that there must be other reasons besides cost that are keeping these primarily rec-based clubs away from SCYSA. The annual registration fees of $8 for U6-U8 and $10 for U9 and above do not seem horribly out of line with the non-SCYSA-affiliated organizations. The other SCYSA costs you mentioned are for Select teams.

The bureacracy and paperwork required could very well be an issue. Philosopical differences may be another. Any other reasons why these clubs avoid SCYSA? The costs for recreation alone just do not seem that much different to be the primary reason.

If anyone is interested in checking out the specific SCYSA fees, their Registrar Fee Sheet is availble on their web site at http://www.scysa.org/downloads/Forms_RegistrarFeeSheet0506.xls

Chico & Coach P,

Don't you think the "religious hook" appeals to some of these people? Their children may have never been involved with an SCYSA club.....and as first-timers they have chosen to go with a faith-based organization.

Yes, I think that is a big motivator for the faith-based organizations.

There are, however, non-faith based groups that have also chosen to avoid SCYSA. The girls rec club in Lexington is one example. The YMCA is another unless you classify it as faith-based because the C stands for Christian. When I, as a first timer, registered my daughter for U6 YMCA soccer 12 years ago, I certainly did not view it as faith-based.