NCSL Board Meeting

November 16, 2020

Via Zoom

The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m.

I.          Roll Call

The following clubs were in attendance at the meeting: A3, Alexandria Soccer Association, Annandale Boys & Girls Club, Antietam United Soccer Club, Arlington Youth Soccer Club, Blue Ridge United, Braddock Road Youth Club, Burke Athletic Club, Calvert Soccer Association, Calverton Soccer Club, Chantilly Youth Association, Culpepper Soccer Club, D.C. Stoddert, Epic Soccer Club, Fairfax Police Youth Club, FC Charles, FC Dulles, FC Frederick, FCV Ashburn (St. James FC), Fredericksburg FC, Fredericksburg Soccer Club, Front Royal Soccer Association, Great Falls – Reston, Gunston Soccer Club, Hagerstown Soccer Club, Herndon Youth Soccer Association, Laurel Soccer Club, Lee-Mt. Vernon Sports Club, Leesburg Football Club, Loudoun Soccer Club, Maryland Rush Montgomery, Northern Virginia Soccer Club, OBGC, Old Dominion Football Club, Potomac Soccer Association, Premier Athletic Club, Prince William Soccer, Inc., Severna Park Athletic Club, Soccer Association of Columbia, South County Athletic Association, Southwestern Youth Association, Springfield South County Youth Club, St. Mary's Soccer Stafford Soccer Club, Sterling Youth Soccer Association, Takoma Park Soccer Club, Thunder Soccer Club, Vienna Youth Soccer, Villarreal Virginia Academy, Virginia Revolution, Virginia Soccer Association, Warrenton Youth Soccer Club, Washington Capital United, West Virginia Futbal Club, Woodbridge Soccer Club

Roll call indicated that the following clubs were not in attendance: Alliance Soccer Club, Arundel Soccer Association, Bethesda Soccer Club, Broadneck SC, DORADUS, Future Soccer Club, La Plata Soccer Academy, Maryland Rush, McLean Youth, Montgomery Soccer, Real World Futbal Club, Shenandoah FC Elite, Team America Football Club, VISTA

Executive Committee in Attendance: Maureen Dalbec, Howard Kohn, Carol Montoya, Alan Paez, Eric Popiel, Dave Shannon, Richard Smith

Staff in attendance: Ryan Rich, Alison Smith

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made and seconded to approve the August 24, 2020 Board Meeting minutes. There were no objections and the minutes were approved.

New Club Application

Howard Kohn introduced Amine El Hackimi, the representative for King George United. The club is new. Home fields are located about 15 minutes outside of downtown Fredericksburg. The club currently has five teams that can play in NCSL.

Kohn noted that Culpepper is sponsoring the new club.

Amine said the club has an academy program (U5, U7, U9) where players are developed for the program.

Amine left the meeting. Kohn made a motion to approve King George United as a new member club. WBSC seconded. Discussion ensued. The vote was called and votes were submitted via a Zoom poll. A roll call vote was requested and held. After review of the allocation of votes, the motion failed.

Maureen Dalbec – NCSL Commissioner: No report.

Doug Walls – NCSL Commissioner: No report.

Carol Coulter – Virginia Registrar: No report.

Mike Basileo – Maryland Registrar: No report (not in attendance)

Carol Montoya – Secretary: No report.

Eric Popiel – Vice President & Treasurer: There is one club that still owes fees for the fall season. Richard noted that electronic payments should be accepted soon.

Alison Smith – NCSL Administrator: Alison thanked everyone for being flexible with field changes due to weather and reschedules for COVID reasons.

String bags have been ordered for division winners. This was based on the preference of teams from last year, as well as the ease of ordering and delivering the items to the teams.

Applications are open for the Spring 2021 season. Teams can be entered now.

There was a question about whether NCSL could offer a high school season if Virginia does not have a high school season. Richard noted that NCSL is trying to make registration dates and drop dates as late as possible to respond to last minute changes. He noted that teams registered for fall play have paid their state fees for the seasonal year. We would be careful to not compete with high school teams if there is a high school season.

Alison will circulate an email with all upcoming calendar items (deadlines and meetings).

Ryan Rich – NCSL Executive Director: Ryan thanked everyone for their cooperation this past season in maintaining the return to play guidelines and working hard to keep games going. Only about 1% of all games were rescheduled or cancelled for COVID-related reasons.

Ryan congratulated the Fall Super Group winners:

1. U16 Girls: BAC Strikers

2. U17 Girls: FCVA 04 Elite

3. U17 Boys FRSA Rox 04 Blue

4. U17 Girls FCVA 03G Elite

These teams will play the Spring Super Group winners in order to advance to the league championship.

Ryan has reached out to teams that are eligible to play in the Super Group in the Spring. Ryan reviewed the Super Group opportunity.

The college combine events and futsal league are still being held. Registration for the combine is open. Veo technology, which will record video that can be used by players, will be used at the combine.

The league has partnered with Veo to offer clubs a discount on equipment and services. Veo can be used to record games and players can use the footage to produce highlight reels.

Alan Paez – NCSL R&D: Alan suggested that anyone who did not receive a confirmation that sit out documentation was received should receive it. Once all information is submitted for the final weekend of games, a sit outs owed list will be developed and posted. Sit outs will have to be served in the Spring.

Richard Smith – NCSL President: Richard noted that the season went well with regards to providing opportunities for kids to play soccer. He thanked everyone for their cooperative spirit.

We experimented with not having an in-person New Team Admin meeting, with not using blue game cards, and with using electronic rosters and cards. Not having the New Team Admin meeting probably caused more work for club reps and Richard thanked everyone for their help.

We made our full transition to a single referee assignor. We have better coverage and better response to changes with this new model.

We are working with State Cup and the national championship to move the roster freeze date to right before the regional championship, instead of an August deadline. This offers more flexibility with rosters.

Other Business

A question was posed about a mentor program for young referees. New referees need feedback from experienced referees. Richard noted that some referee assignors get to know their referees and can tailor assignments to experience level. There was discussion about how the league manages referee feedback; the R&D committee can be made aware of issues. If there is ever an emergency situation, league staff is available on weekends when games are played.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 9:04 p.m.