I have spent the last three months contemplating whether or not to write this article. Being the director of a new Maryland State Youth Soccer Association (MSYSA) club member, I didn’t want to burn any bridges from the get go especially being the new kid on the block. I thought to myself that my club has the ability to reach the ranks of the Bethesda Soccer Club and the Baltimore Bays of the country, so if we stay persistent, consistent, and get things completed in a timely manner we can get there as well. Then the email came out from MSYSA explaining this new Project 100+ for players U-12 and I started questioning is MSYSA a governing body for the 160 clubs that it represents or is it mainly a small business?
I didn’t care too much for the fact that MSYSA sent an email out to market the new program because they have been sending information out to the soccer community since 1977 to promote the Olympic Development Program. But what I did care about was the fact that the email went directly to the 40+ kids/parents in our tiny little first year club. I found this out after receiving many phone calls from parents in the club asking if it would be a good idea for their children to tryout for the 100+ program. I told them sure just as long as it is free because you pay $13 a year to the state, first year clubs pay $187 times the amount of teams in their clubs and annually each club pays $187 - $250 to renew their membership if they have 0-20 teams. Each parent who inquired about the program made me aware that there was a $45 fee attached to the program and I told them that they should not do it because if the state really wants to showcase the best players then they would make all state managed programs free.
MSYSA was put in place to regulate the nearly 160 clubs in the state of Maryland and to ensure that rules and regulations are enforced to provide equal opportunities for all clubs, not to create business for profits. While several clubs get away with many dictator like rules for players such as not being able to play middle or high school during their club seasons, MSYSA turns a blind eye and focuses more on trying to make a dollar. Now do they have any justification as to why they have started the Project 100+ program? Is this program suppose to identify the best boys and girls players at the U-12 level, or is this just the beginning of addition of the U-12 age group under the already failed ODP system?
The Association clearly doesn’t need the additional revenue earned from Project 100+. There are 60,000 children registered to play soccer in the state of Maryland of which each child pays $13 a year totaling $780,000 which is more than enough to operate the Association. Factor in the cost of $187 for small-sided U-9/U-12 teams and $250 for teams U-13 and up for any club with (1-20 teams) and the association brings in an estimated additional total of $35,000 a year from club teams and this number is on the low end. Add the $780,000 in player revenue, plus the cost of the Olympic Development Program and other business ventures (Maryland State Cup - which is now ran by the private tournament organization Elite Soccer Tournaments) and the state rakes in close to $1,000,000 of revenue annually to operate an office with 5 paid staff and 20 “volunteers” on the Executive Board. If you noticed the word volunteers is in parenthesis because I find it interesting how Ray Greenberg, previously a MSYSA board member and now MSYSA President, current National Capital Soccer League (NCSL) President, and Board Member on Virginia Youth Soccer Association (VYSA) can be a volunteer for this many years. His daughter stopped playing youth soccer nearly 20 years ago. The same goes for Mike Baselio whose children also stopped playing soccer many years ago and has held onto the 1 team National Capital Soccer League's Fort Washington Soccer Club located in Prince George's County, MD for over 30 years. The conflicts of interest that many of these so called volunteers are apart of continues to make me believe that yes MSYSA is a small business that caters to the higher revenue earning clubs in the state: Potomac, Baltimore, Bethesda, Freestate, just to name a few. Why does Greenberg have three job titles of which all three are conflicting? How can one person be the President of MSYSA, then operate the most profitable boys soccer league in the area, in addition to being a member of the board of a competitor VYSA?
Of course, Greenberg and Basileo aren’t the only two persons in the Association double and triple dipping in jobs that possesses state power for their organizations. Representatives from Freestate, Baltimore, Frederick, and Bethesda all hold positions on the board and are labeled in someway shape or form "State Volunteers". Due to their positions they have and will continue to maintain and gain more power to ensure that their clubs stay on top. Sounds like the current state of the United States of America to me, the smaller clubs may need to consider "Occupy MSYSA".
The State of Maryland is quiet frankly a small business with no plans or expectations to focus on the development of soccer players in the state and this is because in their mind money comes before service. The politics at MSYSA are unbearable and unmanageable and it is a true reflection as to why the state has produced so little talent for the US Youth National teams over the last 12 years. The State started a Director of Coaching league two years ago to make more money for the Association, yet, the State's Technical Director Bill Stara has never visited any of the small grassroots clubs to explain the benefits and opportunities that the state has for the lower budget clubs and development. Still, the Director of Coaching League won't be any different to WAGS, NCSL, or any of the other recreational leagues that have manufactured recreational players over the past 20 years. Yet, the one business venture that is failing and they don't want to spend time fixing is identifying the best players to play in the Olympic Development Program system. ODP charges $1,500 per player for the season (April – June) and this fee does not include the Rider Cup tournament (Where every state meets and competes) or bus expenses. Still, the Association has the nerve to claim on their website that “[ODP] is a national identification and development program for high-level players.” At the cost of $1,500 there is going to be very few if any high level players chosen, and several pretentious and clueless parents who believe that they can pay their child’s way onto the national team. The ODP system promotes socio-economic segregation and US Youth Soccer and MSYSA must abandon it and stop developing business ventures because they aren’t good at it. If you want high level players make the ODP system free and pay a staff of coaches that aren’t affiliated with a club a stipend to handpick players and bring them into the program similar to the way that it is done in Europe. It really only costs $350 per player to operate an ODP season, let the parents pay their way to travel and lodge, each team will have a $7,000 operating budget to work with and no more than 20 of the BEST players in the state of Maryland will be chosen per age group. There shouldn't be an A and B team because the truth is the ODP system shouldn't be a money making venture like MSYSA and USYSA has made it. Only offer U-13, U-15, and U-17 boys and girls making it 6 teams, make it prestigious, and budget $42,000 to operate the program for 120 of the BEST boys and girls players in the state. Also choose the top coaches in the area even if an additional $18,000 must be added to bring the grand total to $60,000. Have each parent pay an additional $2 from the $13 paid annually, implement this plan and the United States would be a better soccer country. Yet, MSYSA isn't concerned with making the U.S. a better country for youth soccer players, rather, they are focused on being the richest Association in the country.
Talented players play for free all over the world except in America “talented ODP players” are asked to pay $1,500. Latin based programs such as Alianza de Futbol has been founded in order to counter the inept ODP system and having played in the system for two years in the 1990s, the MSYSA should be embarrassed. It just doesn’t make any sense to me why the Association continues to act like a business when it has all of the fees in place to operate and focus on the development of soccer players in the state. So my advice to MSYSA: Get the investors out of these new and old programs, stop operating as a business, and do what you are suppose to do as an Association and that is to provide an environment for Maryland based players where the United States is producing the best.
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