soccermrs: Thanks for the post. I think that your expectations are much lower than mine in terms of what the hundreds of thousands of dollars each year that clubs send to the SCYSA achieve for our children; I'd like to see services and growth and penetration significantly better than other states, you're pleased that there are folks to help team managers. While I may not agree, I understand your position.
Regarding your opening:
"In regard to "Cover the representation", I mean YOU personnaly step up and accomplish what it is that you desire it to be. It's so easy for you to sit on the sidelines and be critical of others. They are not there to be cheerleaders, but to be available to HELP run the tournament. If YOU want cheerleadres, bring them with you to the game."I'm still a bit confused as to how sitting on a golf cart on the edge of the field apparently being bored out of their mind contributes to helping run the tournament -- but perhaps it's all a bit too Zen for me. I guess they're waiting on that emergency call from a team manager needing an extra pass -- got it.
Truthfully, the golf cart stuff is just the trivial outward manifestation of a deeper ill. In a sense, it's like criticizing the blemish of a person with a terminal disease -- the blemish isn't what's going to do you in.
It was superficial of me to repeat the same thing that I heard over and over again at regionals about the SCYSA and the golf carts; what I should have done was to write the SCYSA representatives themselves and note to them respectfully but with candor what was said about them. I know that's not your point -- but if it were your point I'd absolutely concede to it. Okay -- now that I've attributed to you a rational argument, let's go back to your post.
[<- Note: I am really just kidding here with that last sentence.]
I'd agree with you that someone who isn't willing to help with youth soccer in the state might want to first do that before "casting a stone"; however, I'm not in that situation. I've done the parent thing, I've done the volunteer thing, I've done the fundraising thing, I've done the board thing -- not for 1-2 clubs but for multiple clubs and for literally thousands of hours -- both in the USYSA structure and the USCS structure. My advice to someone who wants to make a difference? Help your club.
It's funny -- the club that has helped the SYCSA the most in the past few years was Bridge -- because they were willing to expand beyond the USYSA structure and thus contributed to a situation where in the last year or two you can see increased opportunities for South Carolina teams and players. I think that's where we are in terms of the SCYSA and USYSA; the only thing that's going to get them to offer better services is competition. The only alternative I see at this point is just to write off the fees that clubs have to pay to the SCYSA as "a cost of doing business" (kind of like paying the Mafia for protection) and ignore it.
Regarding your closing:
"As for you shibumi, you need to get a grip and maybe a perscription for some happy pills. Life it too short to get so worked up about the things you do."I always loved the quote from Charles De Gaulle when asked if he was happy -- "What do you take me for, an idiot?"
Leaving aside my own ignorance as to what a "perscription for some happy pills" might be (I was tempted to make some allusion to a Reagan-esque "just say no to drugs" but felt that I have been soundly defeated in terms of triteness), might I make an observation from someone who has posted a lot over the years and is posting less these days? I've noticed that when people engage in "debate" on this message board, that the last refuge tends to be helpful philosophical hints as to how to live life. That -- or an obscenity. They're pretty much the same thing after you've read a few thousand posts...
While I wish that I could honestly believe that $300K+ (from memory, please see pasts financial analysis posts for more detail and accurate numbers) of revenue that the SCYSA receives due primarily to their monopoly on the USYSA regional/national championship series and on the USYSA ODP process was well spent promoting and growing the sport in the state, I've been unable over the years to convince myself of that.
Do I think that the people in the SCYSA are "bad?" No. I just think that they have low expectations on themselves and a vested position in maintaining both their own positions and the interests of their real customers, the clubs. Since only a minority of clubs are interested in real growth in the sport rather than servicing the immediate interests of the parents who pay the bills, we get stuck in the place we are now.
Might I humbly and respectfully suggest that the best thing for all of us, both on the SCSYSA and those who just pay the bills, might be to raise our expectations just a tad? Further, rather than just worrying about our child, or our child's team; instead think through how well these types of organizations are spending the money sent to them and the energy of their people to accomplish their mission.
