Meeting Called to order: Caleb Miles (VP Classic)

Members in attendance: Mike Rottjakob (ABYSA), Jay Howell (CASL), Jim Braswell (CFYSA) Tim Hubbard (CRSC), Steve Limentani (CSC), Jeff Thomas (CSC), Sean Bubb (CSC), Bill Finneyfrock (CUFC), Gerry O’Donnell (D/CHSS),Don Strein (FCCA), Mark Oats (FVAA), Milton Morgan (FVAA), Steve Crane (GUSC), Steve Allison (GYSA), Ed O’Keeffee (GYSA), Fay Binning (HCSA), Ron Murphy (JYL), Gary Olive (KSA), Dave Johnson (LNSC), Jim Hoffer (NBASA), Carl Sorensen (NMYSA), Todd Herman (NMYSA), Mark Cockman (NUSC), Joe Pata (SCSA), Tim Comb (TASC), Steve Halstead (TCYSA), Marlow Campbell (TRIFC), Dewan Bader (TRIFC), Bryan Setser (USA); Debbie Morton (NCYSA AD Classic), Kim Zimbal (NCYSA AD Challenge), Andre Burger (NCYSA VP Tournaments), Ed Eubanks (NCYSA Secretary), Keith Price (NCYSA VP Challenge).

Quorum was established.

Approval of October 17, 2004 Classic Council Meeting Minutes.

Motion: Steve Halstead (TCYSA)

Seconded: Steve Crane (GUSC)

Amendment explanation for Boys First Division Scheduling Meeting

The Boys First Division scheduling meeting (to be held January 9, 2005) will include ALL First Division teams, both Men and Women. On December 14, 2004 Executive Board members amended the June 12, 2004 motion regarding First Division teams to do their own scheduling, to take out the word “statewide” when referring to First Division teams who will do their own schedule, to include the Men’s First Divisions, which have both East and West brackets.

Proposals made by Andre Burger, NCYSA VP Tournaments:

Proposal :   That the teams identified as candidates for the Region III Premier League (RIIIPL) U-14 spring program be (listed in order of selection, top to bottom):

• U-13 East and West First Division champions from prior spring program (based on State Cup seeding chart)
• U-13 USYS State Cup champion from prior spring
• U-13 East and West First Division runners up (based on State Cup seeding chart)
• U-13 USYS State Cup finalist

Note that each RIIIPL age bracket is dependent on each participating NSA supplying a minimum of two teams. For those National State Associations (NSA’s) that cannot supply the minimum number of teams, the age bracket can be made up with additional teams from other NSA’s.

Explanation: Potential RIIIPL teams are selected based on criteria voted on by Classic Council for the U-15 through U-18 age groups. Criteria are required for the U-14 age groups.

Amendment #1: Make “U-13 State Cup Finalist” the third criteria

Motion: Steve Allison (GYSA)

Seconded: Jeff Thomas (CSC)

Amendment #2: Change the fourth criteria to “U-14 Fall Premier Division Champion or Runner-up if necessary”

Motion: Jay Howell CASL)

Seconded: Steve Limentani (CSC)

Proposal: To permit prior year Region III Premier (RIIIPL) teams that are not eligible to participate in the current years program re-entry to the NCYSA Premier Division. Said teams will be added back into the current years Premier Division. To maintain an even number of teams, the lowest ranked/seeded team in the Premier Division (prior to adding the prior years RIIIPL teams) will be relegated to the First Division.

Explanation: Due to the new selection criteria voted on by Classic Council at the 6/12/04 meeting, a NC team that participated in the RIIIPL during the past year may not be invited to participate in the RIIIPL program in the current year. Therefore such teams should have a path back to the NCYSA Premier Division.

Amendment: Take out the last sentence in the proposal. (Discussion led to this amendment: The Council felt it wasn’t fair to penalize an NCYSA Premier division team when one of the RIIIPL teams does not get invited back to play RIIIPL the next season.   If the resulting Premier division has an odd number of teams, it will remain odd for that season and be evened out the following season if necessary.)

Motion: Jay Howell (CASL)

Seconded: Steve Limentani (CSC)

Vote: Passed unanimously

Proposal : Propose that the NCYSA policy regarding exemption from NCYSA play if participating in Region III Premier League be extended to U14 age groups, both boys and girls and U15 girls. The policy of having the two NC teams seeded #1 and #3 respectively in the NCYSA State Cup will also apply for all NC teams participating in Region III Premier League play. U15 to U18 NC boys teams participating in Region III Premier League would not be exempt from NCYSA league play since the Region III Premier League is normally played in the fall and should not interfere with the normal NCYSA Premier league play. Should Region III Premier League for the U15 to U18 boys be extended to spring play, then those boys age groups would also be exempt from NCYSA league play, but would be seeded #1 and #3 respectively as all other Region III Premier League participating teams currently are seeded for NCYSA State Cup. For instances where three teams from NC participate in Region III Premier League in an age group, the 3 rd team participating would be seeded #4 in the NCYSA State Cup. If for some reason, 4 teams from NC would participate in the Region III Premier League, then   NCYSA State Cup seeding would be made on a case-by-case basis by the NCYSA State Cup Committee.

Explanation:   This expands the existing rule covering U16 through U18 Girls to other age groups that will be participating in Region III Premier League and makes it consistent for all NC teams participating in Region III Premier League.

Vote: Tabled

Motion: Fay Binning (HCSA)

Seconded: Steve Allison (GYSA)

The decision to table this motion was determined after discussion regarding the way teams are invited to play RIIPL. Due to the fact that some age groups have two teams playing RIIPL, while others have three teams, it is difficult to create a rule/policy that dictates promotion/relegation guidelines. For example, in the U-14 women age group, there are 8 teams. If three teams are selected to play RIIPL, there will only be five teams left in the NCYSA Classic Premier Division. In this case, three additional teams would need to be promoted from First Division, to get the Premier Division back to eight teams. However, if only two teams were selected, the Premier Division would have 6 teams, which would not necessarily require additional promotion.   One solution that was brought up suggests that the Premier Division be expanded to ten teams for the fall, so when the RIIPL teams leave the division to play in the spring, there will be plenty of teams leftover, without having to promote mid-season.   The other solution suggested that the Classic Council recommend to the RIIIPL Selection Committee that only two teams be allowed from each state.   Andre Burger agree to bring this idea up to the RIIIPL committee, and the Council voted to table the above motion until after the next RIIIPL committee meeting.

Readdress U-11 proposals from 10/17/04 Classic Council Meeting

For Classic play, should a three-man referee system only be used as written in the current Classic Council rules?

Survey results: 14 yes, 7 no

Discussion: Some of the ‘cons’ to having three referees included the comment that at U-11, having three referees may not be necessary, since offside calls are fewer at this age. In addition, the referee pools in some associations are small and finding three referees for every game can be difficult, and more expensive. Furthermore, referees who have to officiate a U-11 game as the only referee will improve their abilities, since they won’t be relying on the linesman.   It was also noted that if there were consistency across all levels of play (Rec, Challenge and Classic) this issue could be dealt with more efficiently. It is difficult for coaches and parents to understand why a Classic match only has one referee when Challenge matches have three. The referee assignors should be involved as well, because they are the ones who actually assign referees to these games.

Decision: No change for spring. Bring idea of consistency across levels of play to the AGM.

• For Classic play, should there be consequences for leagues which are not compliant with the proper modified fields, which include NCYSA not scheduling any home games for that association until they can comply?
• For Classic play, when NCYSA does not know that an Association has fields that are not in compliance with the modified requirements and teams show up to the field for a match, the match will be played as scheduled, (and will not result in a forfeit) and cannot be protested.

Survey results:   Question 1) 16 yes, 4 no.   Question 2) 16 yes, 5 no

Discussion: The question was asked ‘How many times were fields called in as being non-compliant?” Debbie Morton responded that she was notified at least twice by a team with a complaint about a field. The consensus of the Council was that it is very difficult to determine which associations have fields that are in compliance. However, no decision was made regarding what the consequences should be. Debbie Morton noted that it is difficult to assess fines, because many associations have trouble paying a fine as little as $100, and if the $3,500 fine that has been established in the Classic Handbook were to be assessed, the associations would probably be forced to fold their teams, which is of no benefit to the players. On the other hand, by just taking away an associations home games, are they benefiting from not having to provide those fields, while other associations fields will suffer more wear and tear?

Decision: For this Spring, if a U11 field is not in compliance, NCYSA will take away the rest of their home games until they can comply. This issue will be readdressed.

How should the season end for U11’s this spring (and U12 in 2005-06)?

Survey results: 11 State Cup, 3 Festival, 1 No season-ending event

Reasons to keep State Cup

• Teams are not required to go. Teams that want to be ‘developmental’ can play the season, and go to tournaments, but not participate in State Cup. Those that want to play for the State Championship should be able to compete in the State Cup.
• Teams go to competitive tournaments even if they are ‘developmental’ so what is the difference from those tournaments and the State Cup?
• This is a competitive world. If NCYSA doesn’t hold a State Cup tournament, some association will. Taking away State Cup to remove the “competitiveness” won’t eliminate the extreme influence of the parents, or the sting of losing a game. Losing is still a life lesson, even at 11 years old.
• Recruitment isn’t going to stop just because there is not a State Cup.

• Let players develop at this age. It’s true that teams who want to develop will go to competitive tournaments, however, they are competitive to develop the player, not to win trophies.
• State Cup causes teams to “steal” players from other associations, so they can win. A Festival would still be competitive, but there wouldn’t be that “crazy” competitiveness that accompanies the drive for a ‘State Cup Champion’ as well as pressure from coaches and parents.
• State Cup benefits bigger associations. When teams keep losing, their players gravitate towards associations with better teams. Festivals could be seeded into groups (similar to the Kepner Cup) so teams would play other teams more competitively balanced. This would decrease the number of high scoring, unbalanced games that aren’t beneficial to either team.

Discussion: After much discussion regarding the pro’s and con’s for a U11 Festival instead of a State Cup, the Council decided that because many associations and teams want to keep State Cup, while others think that a Festival would be better for player development, a compromise might be the best solution. The compromise would be to change the format of State Cup, so that there are multiple group winners, as opposed to one ‘State Champion’. By changing the name, there is a reason to educated the parents and players as to why it’s important to be more developmental at this age.

Proposal: Based on the proposal from the Classic Council on 10/17/04, it is proposed in the interest of player development, that the USYS NCYSA State Cup and the USYS NCYSA Director’s/Kepner Cup only support ages U12 and above for 2004-05; and U13 and above for 2005 and beyond. The U11 for 2004-05 and U12 for 2005-06 and beyond will play in a ‘State Festival with Flight Winners’.

Motion: Jay Howell (CASL)

Seconded: Joe Pata (SCSA)

Vote: passed

This proposal will be address at the AGM for a final decision.

New Business:

Match Reports: NCYSA Classic League Match Reports have been updated, and there are a few changes, including a place for both coaches to sign the match report next to their team’s score. This is to avoid coaches signing match reports where the score was reported incorrectly. There will also be a box to check if the match was a forfeit. Referees will still record the score as a 1-0 win to the non-forfeiting team, but it will be clear as to the forfeit.  

Forfeit Rules: It was noted by NCYSA that some rules/guidelines for forfeits need to be established. This issue was tabled until the next Classic Council Meeting, due to the many proposals that are being sent to the AGM.

Classic Council dates for 2005: Caleb Miles proposed the idea of having Classic Council Meeting in conjunction with both Challenge and Recreation meeting. It was suggested that all three councils meet, and then ‘break out’ to discuss business pertinent to each level of play. The VP’s of each level will discuss this possibility, and the issue will be readdressed at the next Classic Council Meeting (TBD).

Meeting Adjourned:

Minutes respectfully submitted by Kim Zimbal (NCYSA Asst. Director Challenge)