Minutes from December 2, 2001
Classic Council Work Meeting
Attendance: Demp Bradford GYSA, Diana Koenig FVAA, Jay Howell CASL, John Cirillo TRIFC, Chris Brewer TCYSA, Brad McIlwain TCYSA, Tom McLaughlin NUSC, Wally McCaffety MARA, Robert Vranek NMYSA, Brian Peele JASA, Danny Sharpe SSA PGSC, Andy Sherrill TASC, Jim Morse CSA, Ken Foster IRSL, Jane Llewellyn CSC, Mark Moore NCYSA, Rich Winslow NCYSA, Mike Priest NCYSA, Andre’ Burger NCYSA, and Bill Ruffle NCYSA.
Quorum was established
Minutes for September 23, 2001 were approved.
This is a controversial topic and it needs some clarification. Some are rules, and some are guidelines that were created at the state office with help from college coaches, conversations on the phone with NCYSA members, and Internet sites. Ethical recruiting is almost an oxymoron in North Carolina and we would like to change this perception.
1. U11 to U14 Players may not be recruited. Players of this age may not be recruited at all. There is no window of recruiting for this age group. Coaches/parents/players may not call up players from different associations and try to get him/her to try out for his/her team. If a parent/player calls up for information about your club, you may respond with information about the club. This does not give coaches and/or parents and/or players the green light to call up these people and try to recruit them into coming to your club.
**Players that are currently on U14 teams and are currently trying out for their U15 teams are still considered U14 and may not be recruited.
2. Guest Players. Do not call up a player directly and ask if he/she would like to play for your team as a guest player. Contact the coach/manager/official first and ask permission to speak to a certain player for the purposes of being a guest player at a tournament. If you call the player up directly this is considered illegal recruitment. Further details can be found in the Classic Handbook on page 14.
3. Is the player currently registered with NCYSA? If a parent calls you up about the possibilities of trying out for your team, the first question to ask this parent should be: “Is your child registered to another team?” If the parent says “Yes”, then the conversation should end now.
4. ODP events should NOT be recruiting events. Players are at ODP to improve their soccer skills, not to be recruited onto another club team. Parents should not be “working” the sidelines trying to entice other parents to bring their child to the local club team. ODP Coaches and assistants must not take any action that could be perceived as attempting to induce a player to move onto another club team.
5. Offering “options” is recruiting. Coaches not in your association may only return your phone calls. A coach cannot call up a family and offer “options”, or “opinions” on where the player will be best developed.
6. Clubs may not promise college scholarships. There is absolutely no way that any club coach can guarantee such a promise. This is an extremely unethical practice and the biggest problem is that parents actually believe that clubs can do this. College coaches, and ONLY college coaches can promise and deliver college scholarships.
7. Coaches may not say negative things about other soccer clubs. Everything should be done in a positive manner. Our club is great because…(list club strengths). Your association and team’s attributes should be able to bring player(s) to your team.
8. Advertisements in papers. Announcements in a newspaper about your tryouts and club are acceptable.
9. Announcement mailings. Teams/clubs can send out generic announcement flyers in the mail. These announcements can give a description about where and when tryouts will be held as well as general information about the club. These mailings must be sent to ALL players in the represented groups in an area, not specific players. If specific players are targeted, this would be considered illegal.
10. A registered player practicing with another team. This is illegal recruiting unless there is a signed guest player roster allowing this to occur.