Island Soccer’s Low Bar: How We Cause Our Own Problems, Part One

Over the last couple of months, I’ve written posts about a number of different elements that I believe are important in consistently attaining higher standards. I’m merely one person with one perspective wondering what would help to make the Island culture one of high aspiration instead of mediocrity. And as my perspective is heavily rooted in the sport of soccer, I’d like to spend the remaining four blog posts I am going to write, talking about standards on the Island in soccer.

For over 40 years, I’ve loved very little more than the sport of soccer. It’s consumed my life but it’s also been good to me. It’s taught me so much. Helped me grow and change. Feel accomplished and find my purpose. It’s even been something that I’ve made a full-time living off of. That work has taken me across the country to soccer organisations in four different provinces.

And when you love something so much and you see what could be possible and then you look at what is being done, it’s hard not to be really disappointed and, quite frankly, ticked off at the lack of quality leadership in the sport.

Cheap Babysitting

Let’s begin at the beginning — little kids soccer. Or what used to be called mini-soccer and what is now more commonly known as grassroots soccer. We all know that soccer’s image is that it is a cheap sport. All you need is some grass, a pair of cleats, a pair of shin guards and you’re good to go. At the youngest age levels, t’s also cheap babysitting.

Babysitters keep their charges safe and babysitters make sure they also have fun. What they rarely do is develop the kids they’re looking after. That’s not what they’re paid for. And the parents that pay them to provide that service know that.

Grassroots soccer on PEI does a good job of letting parents get an hour or two a week to sit in their lawn chairs and have a nice chat, while a babysitter (sometimes mistakenly referred to as a coach) looks after their kids on the field. And the majority of parents that put their kids in those soccer programs know that that is what they’re paying for.

Why is the bar set so low so early on?

The majority of clubs running these programs don’t really know what good, developmentally appropriate grassroots programming looks like. To know that, you don’t need to be an experienced soccer player but you do need to pay attention to what good practice is. The problem is a total lack of awareness of what Canada Soccer, soccer’s national governing body, wants clubs to do as good practice.

It’s not really that hard either. All you need to do is go to Canada Soccer’s website and check out the resources they have. And if those aren’t clear enough, you can contact PEI Soccer for more support and clarification. But clubs on the Island don’t do that. They organize their programs the way they did last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. Things only change when change is mandated by PEI Soccer and/or Canada Soccer.

Doing things the way they’ve always been done is no way to raise the bar.

Even the clubs that do have people with technical expertise and/or the motivation to answer the question: what does Canada Soccer want us to do, don’t really put a whole lot of attention into their grassroots programming. They just make sure that there are enough volunteers and the kids are kept engaged for the hour. That’s just well organized babysitting.

PEI Soccer could do more. They should do more. They spend way too much money and time on developing a very small amount of players who are looking to excel in the game. And PEI Soccer doesn’t expect enough from their clubs. They worry far more about the pushback and are not willing to lose some members who would be unwilling to make such changes.

The thing is, PEI Soccer is still losing members because they do nothing except allow things to run as they always have. At least if they did something, there would be short-term loss but long-term gain. They just don’t think that way.

Raising the Bar Requires Strong Roots…Grassroots

If the Island soccer bar is to be raised, then it has to be done first at the grassroots level. When the standards are higher from the beginning the posts that hold the bar in place are solid and this is what allows you to continue to raise the bar higher and higher without losing that stability.

Grassroots soccer programming is the foundation for raising the bar.

PEI Soccer needs to develop the intestinal fortitude to make the changes necessary to completely align with what Canada Soccer wants and what the rest of the provinces have already been doing, in some cases for over a decade now.

We are so far behind and it is because we are too afraid to make the change for fear of what we may lose in the short-term instead of having the foresight and backbone for what will be gained in the long-term.

Here’s something I learned early on in my involvement in trying to do my part to improve soccer in Canada: what’s right isn’t always popular and what’s popular isn’t always right.

TL;DR

I mentioned at the beginning that the title mini-soccer is being replaced in favour of using grassroots soccer instead. However, look at the executive/ BoD for any of the soccer clubs on the Island and you’ll see that the person responsible for coordinating that level of programming is called the mini director or mini coordinator, not grassroots director or coordinator. Why? Because that’s what it’s been referred to since the early 90s.