NCYSA Challenge Council

Meeting Minutes

June 4, 2000

Holiday Inn Airport, Greensboro

• The Challenge Council was called to order by Grant Underhill at 10:10am. In lieu of taking roll, an attendance sheet was signed by all participants. This sheet has been included as a separate attachment.

• It was established that a quorum was present to conduct business- a record 19 associations were represented.

• A motion was requested (Grant Underhill- VP, Challenge), made (Bob Singer, GYSA), and seconded (Bryan Meredith, CACYSL) to accept the minutes from the March 5 Challenge Council meeting. The motion passed unanimously. (Let the record show that Mary Ann Dunn of the New Bern Area Soccer Association was present at the March meeting, although her name was not included on the attendance sheet.)

• Challenge State Cup Recap :

• Burlington Area Youth Soccer Association (BAYSA)- Even Year Site- Frank Gavigan and Lee Pardue reported that 117 teams played at their preliminary site. Overall, things went very well, with just a few incidents regarding weather late on Saturday. They received much support from their surrounding community (Parks and Rec Dept, Elon College, Alamance School System) which helped the success of the tournament.
• New Bern Area Soccer Association (NBASA)- Odd Year Site- Jimmie Davis and Mary Ann Dunn reported that 61 teams played at their preliminary site. Heat was the biggest problem that they had to deal with, but the referees did allow water breaks halfway through each half. They were very impressed with the caliber of the participants- very few cards issued, teams left the sites very clean, etc.
• There was a discussion as to why there was such a difference in the number of even-year and odd-year teams. Possible explanations included that many challenge associations, especially in the eastern part of the state, field 2-year teams (even-year); and that same teams may have chosen not to travel to the distant location of the odd-year site.
• The sites were asked if they made a profit from hosting the tournament. They don’t yet have the final numbers yet as they are waiting for some invoices.
• Wings of Wilkes (WOW)- hosted the Final Four Site- Terry Carroll and Susan Christenbury reported that 46 teams participated in the finals weekend. They had been told by a previous final four host site to order 150 Final Four t-shirts. They ordered 200, and those sold out by 11:00am on Saturday. They did take orders for 280 more, and those will be mailed out the week of June 5 th. A photographer was on site to take pictures of the Challenge Cup Champions for the NCYSA newspaper, as well as any Champion or Finalist team that wanted to place an order. Terry Carroll wanted everyone to take down www.strikealert.com- this company produces a lightning detector the size of a pager that can detect lightning strikes up to 40 miles away. He feels this is a must for all soccer fields. High School players served as field marshals during the finals weekend and took notes on the matches for the awards presentations. Coaches, goalkeepers, scoring and assisting players’ names were noted. A copy of the team roster (without the personal information such as home address and phone) were attached to the stat sheet.

• Challenge Cup Play- What might need action?

• Mike Sweeney (Lewisville Soccer Assoc) had a bad weather-related experience. His team’s 8:00pm Sat match was postponed until 7:00am Sunday due to a lightning storm. They had to wait until after 9:00pm for a decision to be made regarding play, then travel over 1 hour to get home, and had to be up very early the next morning to play at 7:00am. This same decision affected another match, but one of those teams forfeited, so that match was not played. Grant pointed out how important it was, especially at the preliminary sites, to be able to move teams to other fields due to schedules running behind or delays causes by weather. BAYSA did have alternate fields available, but in this case the lightning stopped play at all fields. Some coaches felt it would be better to play games closer together the following day, rather than play so early that the players do not get a good night’s sleep. There is a USYSA guideline that games should not be scheduled back to back, as the risk of injury increases dramatically.
• It is the job of the tournament committee to make decisions regarding the delay of games and shortened matches. A match is considered complete (as stated in the Challenge Cup tournament rules) when it reaches the 4 th quarter of the established game time. The weather guidelines, however, state that any semi-final match shortened by a referee due to dangerous weather conditions will stand. What do we want to do at Challenge Cup? There was discussion regarding a match that was suspended due to weather or other conditions prior to reaching the ¾ mark- is the match re-started the next day at the point from which is was suspended, or is it started over the next day? The referee simply suspends the match; it is the tournament committee’s job to decide what to do. If a game is suspended and started the next day at the point of the suspension, it would be important to have the same referee crew at the match if at all possible. It was pointed out that it is important to protect the integrity of the schedule and the match results. This discussion was tabled.
• How do we advance teams from the preliminary weekend? Particularly in a 24 team bracket. As the tournament rules state, advancement is based on points (3 =win, 1=tie, and 0=loss). In a 24 team bracket, should the 4 th game be considered a quarter final, or is the 4 th game treated as all other preliminary games where a tie stands and teams advance on points. This item was tables as well.
• Grant expressed a concern about having the proper medical personnel on hand at the tournaments. New Bern stated that they had notified the local EMS, called parents who were doctors and nurses and asked them to participate in the tournament, as well as communicated with walkie talkies and cell phones. BAYSA had the EMT’s on call, but there were several other events in the area that weekend and had to be available for those events as well. WOW had volunteer EMT’s on site at all times. Grant feels that there was a gap in medical coverage available at the games and that most coaches/managers are not prepared for minor/major emergencies. Bob Singer pointed out that at Bryan Park, GYSA has contracted with SMOC (a local orthopedic group) to cover the site with trainers. A medical kit is available to NCYSA coaches from Chevrolet, a NCYSA sponsor. Further discussion was tabled.

• Barbara Gephart, NCYSA, encouraged discussion about how league play is handled. Teams now play in the league of their choice. Most people present were happy with the way the leagues are run, although that varies throughout the state. There was discussion that the state could maybe set guidelines for the leagues, and have league contacts available to new teams that would like to participate at the Challenge level.

• Paul James, State Youth Referee Administrator, joined the meeting to see if anyone had any questions for him. Referee fees were brought up and Paul pointed out that the new fee structure giving the payment cap for each level of play will go into effect on September 1, 2000. Terry Carrol (WOW) made a motion to adopt the highest acceptable Challenge referee fee to be included in the Challenge Handbook, motion seconded by Lee Pardue (BAYSA), and the motion passed unanimously.

• The issue of which side of the field players, coaches, and spectators should occupy was again brought up, as the Board of Directors wanted input from each of the Councils. Most in the meeting preferred to have all of one team (players, coaches, spectators) on the same side of the field and the opposing team occupy the other side; as opposed to having player/coaches on one side and all spectators on the other- but this was not voted on and no formal recommendation was made.

• Grant ended with a final statement of how pleased he was to have increased participation at Challenge council and that over half of NCYSA member organizations now field Challenge teams. He thanked everyone for their support and looks forward to continued growth.

• The meeting was adjourned at 12:30pm so that members could attend the NCYSA Awards Banquet and AGM.

A very special “Thank You” to Billy Helms, KSA, for taking minutes. Super job.

Grant Underhill NCYSA VP Challenge

Hank Flaherty Henderson County Soccer Association

Frank Gavigan Burlington Area Youth Soccer Association

Lee Pardue Burlington Area Youth Soccer Association

Terry Carroll Wings of Wilkes

Jimmy Browning Richlands Soccer Club

Jimmie Davis New Bern Area Soccer Association

Mary Ann Dunn New Bern Area Soccer Association

Marie Shandor Central Carolina Soccer Club (formerly Asheboro YSA)

Wendy Carter Transylvania Youth Soccer Association

Linda Bodfish Burke County Soccer Association

Sean Kelly Charlotte Soccer Club

Billy Helms Kernersville Soccer Association

Bryan Meredith Charlotte Area Challenge Youth Soccer League

Ralph Wager Charlotte Area Challenge Youth Soccer League

Ron Knott Fuquay- Varina Athletic Association

Bob Singer Greensboro Youth Soccer Association

Rachel Jones NCYSA

Mike Sweeney Lewisville Soccer Association

Mark Todd Yadkin County Soccer Boosters Club

Kevin Connell North Meck Youth Soccer Association

Mike Smith Catawba Valley Youth Soccer Association

Fred Kull Durham/Chapel Hill Strikers

Tim Kepley Carolina United Soccer Club

Barbara Gephart NCYSA