House Survey Comments 2010

Section 1: House League Open Text Comments

Issue: Compliments

Comments from SYSL:

Far and away the most common comment found in our survey was, in fact, a compliment to the League. They blew away anything negative. Forty nine of our members went out of their way to say something nice:

Here’s a sampling:

“Well run, worth the money, wholesome. Just right”

“This has been a wonderful experience for both of my children!!! In addition to learning the game, they have learned about good sportsmanship, how to work together and how to have fun while exercising. You have a wonderful program!!”

“League leadership was extremely responsive to concerns we had initially and did everything possible to meet our requests. Overall a very positive experience”

“Our overall experience was great. The Coaches were patient and made our son involved with the game, which increased our son’s love of the game. We will definitely recommend this program.”

“It was my child’s first experience with soccer and he just loved it. He would miss anything else but soccer practice. So I think it had a very positive effect on his overall personality.”

“I was very impressed with the SYSL. It was a great experience for the kids and was a very well organized league.”

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to say thanks.
_____________________________________________________________

Issue: Communication

Comments from SYSL

One of the significant areas of comment was communication: between the League and families… and coaches and team families. As a whole, communication comments numbered 23 or 11% of the total. We did receive numerous positive comments about good League communication but some concerns were addressed by others.

Website Communication : Eight of the twenty three comments overall referred to the website: that it could be more useful, that some parts had become outdated. Valid criticism.

Our website had long suffered from an ailment common among organizations as large and program-laden as ours….a shortage of volunteers to attend to needed tasks.

Despite that fact the league had been moving along on a revised and updated website for some time under the leadership of Brian Caldwell when we found the answer to our volunteer need…Steve Labkoff.

The new website launched recently with Steve filling the role of a technical web master.
We've already launched three issues of "The Juggler", a newsletter companion to the website, with timely information, photos and videos.

We are confident that many features of the new site and Steve’s expertise will improve the level of communication all around. That said, Steve can always use new writers. If you have a story to tell and photos to show, please send them along to : SYSLWebmaster@gmail.com. Steve reads that inbox and is eager for additional stories, photos and video clips.

Coaches Communication : Eight other comments referred to weak communication between the coach and families especially at the beginning of the season.

Everyone please remember that our coaches are volunteers with as much on their plates as anyone else. However, they have stepped up to provide this additional contribution to our kids. Each one brings different attributes to the table. Some are less comfortable on the communication side than others and others have very busy personal and work lives.

So please consider helping your coach with some aspect of their job…..after all it’s all for your child's experience.

Understanding of the team making process would also help everyone.
As a starting point, the League has a philosophy of providing spots for as many kids as possible without regard to financial circumstance. This causes us to delay the final team assignments as long as possible. By the way, despite a late fee added to our registration (designed to encourage earlier registration by our members) we still see 25-30% of several divisions sending in forms after the deadline. This puts us behind the curve.

Now we don’t accept late registrants for our benefit to be sure. It has always put a tremendous burden on us to continue accepting registrations while trying to do all that is needed to organize a season: order uniforms, find coaches, decide on field or building schedules, secure permits, schedule referees, make teams etc.

The area most affected by late registration is the number of teams needed. That in turn determines the number of fields and time slots assigned to a particular division. So until we are sure of the number of teams we will need in Division 1, for example, we won’t be absolutely certain of the appropriate time slot and field needs.

Do we need 2 games at 10:30 and 2 games at 12:00….or do we need 3 games at 12:00?
Should we add one team and a bye to the schedule?...or should we wait a few days to see if we can add 2 teams with no bye? Or should we leave the existing number of teams and have very heavy roster numbers?

This, in turn affects Division 1 Girls who use the same fields (or the reverse) and their schedule.
Since we depend on our coaches and commissioners so much we also have to factor in the time constraints on, for example, coaches who have teams in two different divisions and the time frames of those divisions. Same for commissioners.

Sometimes we have to adjust time slots so a coach can help us in two separate divisions.
Sometimes field conditions cause us to alter our plans as well.

What does this all mean for you?

You will help our overall ability to prepare for the season by registering before the registration deadline.
You would also help to spread the “load” by volunteering to help as a coach (we have plenty of top quality free training available) or to help your team’s coach with communication within the team
When we can’t give you a more specific time slot down to the hour… three weeks in advance of the season understand that we can’t do it without cutting out lots of kids.

Of course we could make it all a lot easier on ourselves in terms of organizing a season by registering like other youth sports during a shorter window of time but then we would end up servicing a whole lot fewer kids.

Despite all of the difficulties associated with organizing a season we still manage to send rosters to our coaches two weeks in advance of the season. One exception would be for teams which have to be organized late to handle an inflow of late registrants. In that case a coach may actually receive his/her roster closer to the season start.

Another situation which occurs on occasion is a team without a coach. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of soliciting on our part to cover certain teams and that might not be successful until we are closer to the start of the season.

Final Thoughts:

To our volunteer coaches: Please be sure to make every last contact on your team as soon as you get your roster
To our members:
- Be sure to write your phone and email address very clearly on hand written forms and be sure that your answering machine has a message which identifies you - when possible, please use our Blue Sombrero Website Registration. That helps us with data entry and gives us much cleaner information.
- Please volunteer to coach

Issue: Field Conditions:

Comments from SYSL

About 18% (35) of our members responding referred to poor field conditions. A couple mentioned the overall poor condition of grass fields.

But for the overwhelming number of them the issue was very focused: goose poop at Cummings Park. It’s a definite negative that has increased as a problem in connection to the installation of an artificial surface at West Beach which deprived the flocks of a favorite watering hole.

“Great program. However the field in Cummings Park for the junior divisions is vile.”

“The coaches and organization are great. The biggest problem is the geese on the fields”

This is one of those issues which is unusually clear cut. There's not much gray area to confuse things. One thing which makes it so is the fact that it affected only the Junior Division, which simplifyied the solution.

The League responded decisively and quickly. We moved the Spring Season 2010 to some northern fields which are currently goose free: Roxbury Elementary School and Scofieldtown MS. The Junior Division now plays its Sunday afternoon games at these two locations harkening back to the “old” days when the Division played at Roxbury and West Hill HS.
We are delighted to have been able to solve the number one issue for our members immediately!!

Issue: Coaching

Comments from SYSL

This subject area was mentioned by 28 members (14%).

Most (15) took the time to make very positive comments about their coaches, often by name. That is a wonderful tribute to our core of volunteers and we second the emotion.

The other 13 had a range of issues that make it hard to categorize them easily.

A couple were comments about the coach’s game tactics or practice routines. Those are in the category of “if you don’t like it, offer to step up and do it next time”. Make your own imprint on the games and practices!

Another was mad because a coach told him to not comment during a game from a specific area. This comment is a tough one to judge. The coach was probably correct since no spectators are allowed on the team sideline or from the “endline” area behind the goal.

A few referred to a coach who was often missing (though it seemed, backed up by an assistant). Can’t tell if it was the same person but keep in mind that our volunteers as much as possible are backed up by assistant coaches. Many folks have been willing to cover teams that need a coach on the condition that they need backup because of commuting or traveling. That is one important reason for an assistant. Were it not for that volunteer your child might not have been able to play at all.

As a league we try our best to pair coaches where possible in a way that provides good coverage for every team but it can’t always be done.

We encourage everyone else to think about this: If you have an issue about a coach, as a few did, who is not always there because he/she was also coaching another team, please see this as an opportunity to not just complain but to step up yourself and help solve the problem. We are a VOLUNTEER league.

Issue: Team Makeup

These 25 comments (about 15% of the total) saw people coming at the issue from a wide variety of angles. Some comments were at odds with each other.

Some people were upset at teams being split up when they changed divisions others were upset because of perceived “stacking” of opponent’s teams, teams that appeared to be together for multiple seasons, one even thought that the coaches pick the teams, another that parents did.

The issue of team makeup is very complicated and merits a fair amount of detail in an attempt to describe the process. The detail may bore folks but if you really want to understand the process better read on. It is there for those who want to understand it better.
It might be appropriate here to first look at the team make up policy as stated on the website for years. Some clarification will follow.

The makeup of House League teams follows these rules:

A. Players whose birth year moves them into a new Division are placed in a pool. The Commissioner of the Division distributes these players among pre-existing teams in the Division. (These existing teams would comprise the older birth year of the Division). This is done without any regard for requests to play with a particular coach or player with the following exceptions:

1. Players in the Junior Divisions may make requests that the Commissioner may oblige at his/her discretion.
2. The child of a Coach, one assistant coach and one sponsor may be placed on the requested team.*
3. Siblings who are appropriately in a specific Division may automatically be placed with siblings (not cousins).

*This means that two people who share a sponsorship fee must decide whose child is placed on the requested team. The other sponsor must use the spot of coach or assistant coach. Again, only three spots can be determined by request. (Outside of siblings).

B. Furthermore, no player may play up in an older Division nor down in a younger Division. Players will play only in the Division with which their birth year associates them. Coaches need to be sure that only players that have been assigned them by the Division Commissioner attend their practices and games. The document of record is the League distributed team roster and not any preliminary rosters, which might be distributed during the team makeup process. Coaches/Commissioners who do not adhere to this policy risk suspension.

C. The League establishes a registration cutoff date for each season. Any forms received after that date are late. The players will not be guaranteed placement with the previous season's team, if they remain in the same division.

These players are placed in a pool and are assigned according to immediate roster needs such as to teams which have fewer players than others or need to be balanced as to ages within the division or other criteria that the League establishes to promote balance and fairness.

Some comments on the above rules in summary:

In general terms, our league philosophy means that we deliberately intend to break up players when they move from one division to another. We want kids to be exposed periodically to a different group of players from Stamford. We are convinced that this is important to a child’s social development and education.

When a child is very young…in the Junior Division….we accept requests to be with friends and try to accommodate them as much as possible for these kids who are just starting out. Signing up by the deadline helps make this possible.

Once children move out of the Junior Division these requests are ignored.
This also has the effect of minimizing the possibility of “empire building“ with teams of players who have been together for years on end. It also gives everyone a shot at playing for the popular or more effective coaches.

Team Makeup:
No parents or coaches make up teams, PERIOD . The League has in recent seasons even moved away from commissioners making up teams for their divisions. Most commissioners over the years have done a fine job but we want to reduce even the appearance of favoritism for a commissioner who is also a coach.

The reason for the restriction on the number of “co-sponsors” for a single team and the number of requested assistant coaches for a single team is the effort to avoid “team stacking”. In the past we had seen occasions where one team had two “co-sponsors”, a head coach and two assistant coaches…a total of 5 players being funneled into one team before the league added any others. Not acceptable.

It is difficult to always insure that teams are relatively even. We go to great lengths to balance the number of players on each team from the various birth years represented in each division.

Example:
If a division’s birth years are 2002 and 2003 we try to have an equal number of 2002 and 2003 children on each team. However, we start on the registration deadline date with an uneven number of 2002’s spread over say 16 teams.

Suppose team A has 9 returning out of a potential roster of 14 players. Then we would have room on that team for 5 2003’s.

Suppose team B has only 3 returning 2002’s. That would create an imbalance of older kids if we assigned 11 incoming (to the division) 2003’s to the team. So we will try to assign as many 2002’s who are new to the league (and therefore not attached to a previous team in the division) as possible to bring the number of older players on team B closer to the 9 on the other team.
This of course means that team A is probably a bit more cohesive at the beginning of the season than team B which has many players who haven’t been together before even though their ages may be similar.

Often the reason that some teams have a large number of returning players centers around the coach. We often find that a coach who has been able to instill a nice team chemistry among players and parents will influence most of the players to register the next season. Parents in their support of the team concept are also critical in encouraging players to re-register.

In some situations that team cohesion is not established and a smaller portion of the players register for the next season. In these cases we try very hard to bring that team up to the level of the other teams in the division by balancing birth years but we may not be successful without the help of a good coach and cooperation and dedication from the parents and players. Remember that the League offers free professional coaching clinics every season to assist our team leaders in developing our players.

Another situation occurs which effects the balance on teams. We face late signups (up to 1/3 of our players each season). The reasons for accepting late signups are philosophical ones and are explained in more detail under “understanding the team make up process”. We have been applying a late fee for registrations after the deadline with marginal success. Its sole purpose has been to reduce the amount of lateness and it has helped somewhat but we continue to have many late registrants. So if you have complained about the slowness of coaches contacting you at the start of the season think about it. If you have ever signed up after the deadline….then you are part of the problem and only you can help resolve it.

Nonetheless, the practical effect is that in some divisions up until the two weeks before the season (when we hand out the rosters to coaches) we are temporarily unsure of the number of teams we will have.

Example: We may have 8 teams of 14 organized and ready to go…with 6 extra late signups waiting to be assigned.

The options are:
-to send those 6 back their registrations…which we don’t want to do
-add them to the already full rosters on 6 teams which impacts playing time
of individuals on those teams
-hold them on a waiting list to see if spots open up during the first couple of
weeks of the season
-form a new team, put a bye game in the schedule, find a coach and hope
that we receive at least 7 more registrants to make a 9th team

The direction we take is guided by our past experience with the typical quantity of late signups in each age group.

If we end up going with a new (9th team) team in this scenario, then that team will tend to be a bit younger on average than the rest and will likely have fewer players who have been together before.

All of this affects the team’s competitiveness at least at first and needs to be overcome by solid coaching and good team spirit. Of course, in its next year in the division this team will probably have a higher than average number of older kids and will be more successful.

INDOOR TEAM MAKE UP
The Indoor Season has its own peculiar set of team make up issues. The Indoor Season is different in two ways.

1. Travel players are encouraged to take part in the house league since they do not have a regular season at that time
2. There are fewer and smaller teams than we have in the spring and fall outdoor seasons. Both of these factors influence team make up.

Travel players:
Our goal each Indoor season is to identify the incoming travel players and distribute them carefully among the teams. Keep in mind that late registration and late-formed teams (due to a bulge of late registrants) will distort that process.

Say 6 teams are essentially formed with the travel players distributed evenly among them and we then get 8/9 forms a couple of weeks before the season. We might elect to make up a new team but don’t have an extra travel player to assign to that team. If you are one of those 8 late folks you’ve created your own problem.

We aim to assign the first 9 players from a fall outdoor team to the same indoor team provided that they have registered by the deadline. Other members of that outdoor team who come in later may or may not be able to go to the same team. Here again, if you are one of them, you have created your own problem.

If the teams are generally full and a couple of late registrants happen to be travel players we may be forced to assign them to short handed teams which already have a travel player unbalancing the teams a bit.

Fewer teams:
The simple fact that an outdoor division with 16 teams might be 10 teams during Indoor. This means that outdoor teams will be combined for the indoor season. If 5 outdoor players from team A and 5 from team B sign up by the deadline they may be combined to form one indoor team. Players from A and B who come in late will then be spread over other teams needing players and won’t find themselves with their former team mates. This is under your control to a great extent. Sign up on time! The earlier you sign up, the more chance your kids will be on the teams they were on in the fall season. The later you sign up, the harder it is to ensure that teams stay together for the indoor season.

Link to Travel Division Comments
Link to Finance Comments