Section 2: Travel League Open Text Comments

This is a summary by category of the most common comments


Compliments:
Mirroring the House League open text responses far and away the largest group of people who took the time to write a text comment (24 of 48 or 50%) chose to provide the travel program with a compliment.

Here’s a group of typical comments:

“This is really a standout organization, and I am so glad we did it all these years (12 years) for the most part”

“We find the travel experience to be a good one-the team is tight knit, and the team largely stays together year on year. The training is significantly better than in the house league. Communication is good, and the team manager stays in touch on all issues”

“The travel program has been a very positive experience for my daughter. The environment that has been established for the girls has been very good.”

“All in all, it is a fabulous step above the house league and we are pleased with the experience. We must also say that the whole soccer community appears to offer a welcome environment which also enhances the overall positive experience for both our daughter and the parents as well”

Thanks from the League for your expressions of approval. We know that there are still shortcomings and we constantly examine our policies and habits and work to improve the program further.



Issue: Quality Touch Soccer Academy
As the provider of training for our Keith Segovia Developmental Program Quality Touch and also trainers for many older travel teams received a total of 8 comments: 3 positive and 5 negative.

The negatives fell into two groups: issues with specific coaches’ styles and a desire for feedback on players.

The request for feedback has already been addressed. Quality Touch in recent seasons has begun providing back to the players information tailored to them as individuals.

Issue: Coaching
Closely tied to the Quality Touch comments were general ones about other coaches: 3 positive and 3 negative.
In the bigger picture, with about 300 kids playing travel during the spring or fall, a total of 8 negative comments about coaches between the two categories is a pretty satisfying record

Paid Coaches for Older teams:
The only other category which attracted a number of comments was the idea of expanding the use of paid coaches/trainers to teams older than the developmental stage (9-11 years). Five people (11%) suggested that SYSL extend the paid coaching concept to all of the older travel teams.
SYSL does not support the idea of paid coaches. We have always believed that the volunteer coaches bring a higher level of commitment to their teams.

Recognizing that some coaches need technical support we endorse the idea of paid trainers whenever a travel team decides that it wants to follow that path.
 
We find that many teams currently struggle with the cost of paid trainers. In fact, many of our families are already being subsidized by the league and by the individual travel teams. We believe that the decision on whether or not to increase the families’ financial commitment by paying for a trainer is best left to the individual teams which are more closely aware of their families’ situations and interests.


Link to House Division Comments
Link to Finance Comments