21 May, 2004

Members from the Schomberg Soccer Club have recently raised questions as to why Schomberg is associated with the King City Royals soccer club.

The association between Schomberg and King City has been in place since the 2002 outdoor summer season, when Schomberg Soccer Club moved from the Hurontario Soccer Association to the York Region Soccer Association.

Prior to this association, Schomberg was rarely able to field youth soccer teams for all age groups due to the lack of players. A regular team is made up of a minimum of 14 players up to a maximum of 18 players.

When there were insufficient players, the club used to merge age brackets, so for example would get an 11 year old playing with 14 year olds or, that age bracket would be dropped. This obviously had a negative impact on the players skill development, could be dangerous and probably wasn't much fun for all players involved.

Since our association, the joint Youth soccer program has actually seen an increase in numbers and an increase in the retention of players as they progress through our system. We also now play inter-town games at the U8 and U10 levels, which make games a little more competitive, more fun and allow the players to develop.

This year we are offering soccer at all age levels from U4 to U16. Without our partnership with King City, we would not be able to field three teams; the U14 and U16 boy's team and a U16 girl's team. An added bonus is that we also have more qualified coaches for the players.

The association benefits King City as well. With our 1/3 additional Youth players, King City and Schomberg can field two full soccer teams whereas King City, if they were on their own would play only one team and possibly have to move excess players up an age bracket.

This year we have the unusual but exciting situation where we have more Schomberg girls at the U12 level than King City, and members are asking why we don't have Schomberg only teams.. The answer is very simple, firstly we have approximately 24 girls, and we can either make up two teams of 12, which could mean that if two girls cannot make a game, that team would have to play short-handed or we try to make one team and would to cut six girls.

Schomberg members have also voiced concerns that they did not know about this "arrangement" and why are most of the games and practices in King City. Firstly, we made it very clear on the registration form that the Youth players would be playing for a combined King City / Schomberg Club, and that home games and or practices could be in any location. At the U12-level there are five teams all needing full-size soccer fields on the same day; Schomberg has one, Kettleby has one, and King City has four. We would like everyone to play as close to home as possible but as can be seen from the numbers, this is not possible.

Before closing, I would like to address one further point. There may come a time where we could make a Schomberg "only" team and a King City "only" team at a particular age bracket - it is my position that the only reason we would split the teams like this geographically would be if both teams are equally balanced and this would be rare. We have tried this with the U12 boys for the past two years, and both times the teams were extremely unbalanced making it is difficult for the players to enjoy - both winning and losing teams did not take pleasure in having huge lob-sided scores!

We know and understand that it can be tiring for all residents to drive the extra 15 minutes to either King City or Schomberg once a week for a soccer game. However, both executive boards feel that we have created a much better soccer environment for our children that will continue to improve and grow over the years.

Signed,

Mark Letheren
President, Schomber Soccer Club