Victory, Validation, Vindication

Nearly two weeks after the fairy-tale-like ending at the Region II Championships, I’m still smiling whenever I think about it.  It’s been a long, long road over the course of the past three years, but the girls triumph down in Iowa was well worth all the hindrances, hurdles, and headaches.

Back in 2003 (has it been that long already!) when Jim Niemann and I looked to being the South Washington County (SoWashCo) Alliance (a cooperative effort between 4 east metro community clubs to try and raise the overall level pf play in our area at the younger age groups) there was clear resistance to the idea.  In a nutshell, we were trying to offer high level training to community based teams at the U11 and U12 age groups.  Players would stay with their clubs through the end of the U12 season.  At that point, we would look to form a SoWashCo team at both the U13 boys and girls age groups that would have the goal of regional competition for our top athletes.  All four clubs would feel part of the SoWashCo U13 teams having all had a hand in developing the players at the U11 and U12 years.  The idea was to give the small percentage of top level players in the area, players with the current ability and future potential to do more than just MN soccer, a chance to work with other talented players in a structured training system in a geographic area.  We were hopeful that this model would take off and that the other three districts (North, South, and West) would follow suit.

In my opinion, decision makers, many with no clue of nor desire/aspirations for higher level play, were too caught up in their zip code boundaries and community high school affiliations to affect what I and others thought was needed change in our youth instruction offerings.  Woodbury, Stillwater (St Croix), Mahtomedi, and Cottage Grove were involved, but no one was willing to put in much effort to provide needed resources to make the program work.

As the Director of Coaching for the Woodbury Soccer Club at that time, the main criticism coming from the Woodbury board was that we (Woodbury) were providing all the training to other clubs, why not just concentrate on our club and developing our kids.  If we set up a good program within our own Woodbury structure, other talent would be attracted to us and our top players would then be better served.  Not really what I wanted to accomplish, but I guess we were asking people to believe in a vision with the SoWashCo idea and too many people in decision making roles could not see it.

So, the following fall the Woodbury Soccer Academy was born.  I won’t go into detail about that as people can read about it on their own elsewhere on this site.  Suffice it to say that one of the main reasons the Academy was disbanded after only 3 months was that people did not believe I necessary to pool talent and form “elite” teams at the younger age groups.  The overriding sentiment was that we were trying to do too much for too young of an age.  Why should we be the ones to pilot/pioneer a program like this?  We're fine where we are at.  Let's not ruffle the boat.  Mediocrity, plain and simple, was just fine for many of them, mainly because their own kids were not in the small percentage of players that an elite program would cater to. 

I was obviously in the clear minority with my views when compared with those of the other 15 – 20 board members in Woodbury at that time.  We parted ways in the fall of 2004 and I joined Bangu Tsunami FC where I found the support to let me run with the vision of providing top level training to younger, dedicated soccer athletes in a year round setting.

At that point in my coaching career, I believed that I was right.  I believed that there were younger players who were interested in year-round development, and that the best way to cater to the top level players in Minnesota, regardless from which community program they were affiliated with until then, was to bring them together on one team, provide them professional soccer guidance with the focus on technical proficiency, allow them to be challenged day in and day out in training sessions throughout the year, and help foster and build a deep passion for the game within them. 

Now I know that I was right and that there are Minnesota players who, in the above mentioned system, can compete with some of the best players across this region.

The Importance of Rankings

Currently, we are ranked by National Soccer Rankings (NSR) at the #1 team in Region 2 and the #2 team in the US.  Are we the best team in Region II?  I can’t say that.  Are we the second best team in the US at this age group?  I don’t think so.  I believe there are a handful of teams in our region that, on any given day, could beat us 3-0. I think there are more than a handful of teams across the US that could do the same, again on any given day.

If you’ve been around the game for awhile you’ll begin to understand that rankings are not all that.  It’s just not possible for one ranking service to get an exact picture of where all the different teams and the different age groups are at at a particular time in the year.  The only way to even come close to measuring performance for ranking purposes is by taking the results of tournament events like the four Region Championships.  Regardless of the rankings, many people will argue that the #1 team is not actually the best overall team in the region/country.  However, at a particular point in time, a #1 ranked team performed the best and got the results when they counted.  That’s what I’m so proud of with our current rankings.  I know there are more skilled/more athletic/smarter overall teams than us out there at this age group.  But when it came down to it in the event in which it mattered most, the Goo Girls got the job done when they had to.  Based on that, I have absolutely no hesitation backing/justifying our current #1 in Region II ranking at this time.  How long we hang on to it is another story.

From a club standpoint, current rankings can provide good marketing options.  The success of this team and the fact that they have become the youngest team in Minnesota soccer history to attain a ranking this high through this service, though some may say otherwise, is a clear reflection of the benefits of our Academy concept.  It should help us continue to attract talent to our programs, talent that in the great majority of cases would be better serviced and developed as opposed to having the players remain in a community club setting.  Don’t read me wrong here, there are many community clubs dramatically stepping up what they are trying to do for the younger age groups, either because they see the results of what we are doing or they want to keep their current players happy so they don’t move to our program.  In this way, I feel we are leading the development in our State to the next level.  It’s not Bangu Tsunami alone that is doing this, but there has not been one single greater catalyst to change in MN soccer youth development in recent years than us.  People can disagree with me all they want about this, but I think many others see it, though some may need to look REAL deep within themselves to admit that they see it. 

In a way, the competition to claim to provide the best, most unique product to interested soccer families is cyclical.  We push community organizations to step up what they are doing while this ramping up of community programming forces us to continue to look for higher development options as well.  Right or wrong, the cycle benefits the development of the game as a whole in our area, in our region, and across the nation as the same “battles” of community clubs and entitlement vs elite clubs is waged in almost every area.  Sometimes I ask myself if the kids are being caught up in all this adult bs that occurs, but to this point I have only seen real positive results from the stepped up development in our area.  I guess time will tell if we’re all on the wrong path.