>>[thomaspietras] So much for not paraphrasing me.<<
Re: SparkNotes -- "It was a joke, son, a joke!" [Foghorn Leghorn]
>>I don't believe that I am insensitive to gender bias, nor do I fail to recognize that it exists. I just don't believe that we should perpetual the bias by treating girls differently than boys (when it comes to soccer).<<
After the state championships last year, it was publicized that your DOC had 11 state championships. How many of those were with girls teams? (I honestly don't know the answer here; but my guess is not many.)
It seems as if there's a long way to go to bring the girls program up to where the boys program is. Ignoring this fact doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.
>>Mis-posting on my part. I meant part-time. They certainly are not looking to replace volunteers. If I may be more precise: My understanding is that they are trying to put into place the professional, full-time staff that will be necessary to manage the larger club.<<
Sounds great!
>>Obviously BS, since Chico is the only dog I know that can type.<<
Chico is a rare and wonderful dog, that's for sure [note: I like talking about myself in third-person.] Did you know that greyhounds are the only type of dog mentioned in the Bible? But enough about me...
>>Also, I think "relatively poor" is "relatively harsh" judgement. Could they do better? Sure. Our hopes for the new club are the same.<<
"Could they do better? Sure." Remember when I said earlier: "you tend to say things so generally that while they are hard to argue with, they also fail to shine much light on the subject at hand."? This falls into that category. Any program can do better.
The data near the beginning of this thread shows you specifically why I believe that the term "relatively poor" in relation to midlands-area girls youth club soccer is if anything too polite. Over the last four years, a female challenge/premier player in a midstate club appears to be significantly disadvantaged (-50%) in terms of playing and staying in D1 soccer. A NECSA female challenge/premier player has less chance than that (-73%). In 1998-2000, NECSA had 5, 3, and 6 teams placed as state finalists. Since that time, the average has been less than 1.5 with a maximum number of 2 (median 1). Please feel free to refute this with specifics that have been accomplished that I've missed. Or...as I said earlier...
What strategies? I'm not saying this in the sense of "clubs didn't have any" -- I'm saying this as a parent of a female soccer player who hasn't discerned any at most midlands clubs for years. For example, have there been good female teams at NECSA? Yes. Has there been any concerted effort to improve the women's program at NECSA? It isn't apparent to a midlands parent living in the area who tends to spend time reading and understanding youth soccer. Thus, I'm begging you to spell out precisely what the strategies were for improving women's soccer.
