SOAK NEWS

The following is a letter from Aaron Summers, tournament director for this year’s adult state cup. Soccer Alaska highly encourages our teams to participate. If your team chooses to participate but has a conflict with a league game, the league game will be rescheduled.

Alaska Soccer Players,

Summer is here and that means it’s time to start planning for the 2008 Alaska Amateur State Soccer Tournament. My name is Aaron Summers and I will be directing this year’s tournament for the second year in a row. This is an adult state tournament that is held annually.

The Coed tournament will be held on July 11th, 12th, and 13th. The Men’s and Women’s tournament will be held on August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The tournaments will have A, B, and recreational divisions to accommodate any skill level. Last year we had teams from Anchorage, Fairbanks, the Mat-Su Valley, and the Yukon participate and it was a great tournament. I hope to have even more teams at this year’s tournament.

Please note that the registration deadline for the Coed tournament is June 27th and the registration deadline for the Men’s and Women’s tournament is July 18th. You can obtain registration information at www.aasa-alaska.com. The registration fee is only $350 per team which is the same cost as last year. All teams are guaranteed a minimum of three games. All of the games will be played at the Alcantra Fields located in Wasilla, Alaska. The preliminary games will consist of 35 minute halves and the semi final/final games will consist of 45 minute halves.

Participate in the tournament of the summer for a shot at being the best team in Alaska. Sign your team up today. Winners of each division will receive a free custom tournament T-shirt and bragging rights. If you have any questions regarding the tournament contact me at aaron.alaska@gmail.com.

The Kincaid Park Project Group has been working for the last few years on a comprehensive development project to benefit multiple user groups at the park, including soccer players. The following is the latest news from the organization:

A $ 1million grant for the Kincaid Park Project Group (KPG) was approved this legislative
session in the State Capital budget for Regional Infrastructure Improvements at Kincaid Park
that will benefit Alaskans from throughout the region. If approved by Governor Palin, these
funds will be used toward installation of a water system for much-needed snowmaking at
Kincaid Park and a soccer facility that will provide desperately needed new fields and relief
for other over-used fields throughout the community. If the funding is approved by the
Governor, the artificial turf field could be in use as soon as next year’s high school season,
and for the entire outdoor summer soccer season.

You can find their entire letter encouraging soccer players to write the governor here.

Hello all, 

The last few months have been a busy time for the league and this newsletter will hopefully provide some answers to questions that have been and potentially will be asked. First and foremost, some of you have rightfully questioned the sometime lengthy timeframe between score updates, as well as replies to emails and phone calls. The short of it is that our fearless league administrator Nick is currently on an exchange program in China. To his credit, he has tried to continue to manage league matters from there, but his Internet access has been spotty at best. At times he has asked me to step in, but what Nick does in 15 minutes takes me quite a bit longer. Although Nick still has two more months in China we have worked out a system to make sure league matters are all handled promptly. 

Recently we have been examining the structure of the summer league and many changes are on the horizon. Among them:

1. A new website design.
2. Individual player fees will be limited to the $25 per player AASA registration fee. The rest of the required fees will be collected in a comprehensive team fee (the same as our indoor leagues).
3. We will no longer create picture I.D.s, but rather create picture rosters that are brought to the games.
4. Our fees have been adjusted to accommodate the rising costs of fields in Anchorage.
5. In order to maximize the use of the fields that are playable, we have added two Sunday time-slots at most venues.
6. To increase turf time and allow work to be completed on our grass fields, we are adding the dome as a summer venue.
7. We have limited time on 2 high school turf fields.
8. We have once again added an end-of the season tournament for the top 4 finishers in each division.9)     We will begin aligning our soccer year with that of US Soccer and the United States Adult Soccer Association for the soccer year 2009, which begins September 1, 2008 and ends August 31, 2009 

In an attempt to renew my efforts to improve the communication from the league, we are redesigning the website to make it more user friendly and interactive to simplify both the posting and viewing of information. This new look will go live in the next couple of weeks, please let us know if anything does not appear to be working correctly. 

We have chosen to implement the indoor model of an all-inclusive team fee. This makes our summertime operation more efficient and faster and will also mean players and managers will not have to make as many trips to our registration location to pay for additional teams and pick up cards. Team managers are able to collect from their team members and pay the entire amount online (receiving valuable miles to somewhere warmer.) This system also makes it easier for teams to find a sponsor or multiple sponsors to cover some or the entire comprehensive fee. Players still need to register individually and pay their Alaska Amateur Soccer Association affiliation fee. The AASA is the state entity that sanctions our league and is the local representative of the United States Adult Soccer Association. The $25 covers state and national membership fees, as well as a secondary medical insurance for all participants. Online payment of the $25 fee will be available around May 1. We will continue to provide opportunities for those players that need to pay the $25 fee in person as well as those players who need to have their picture taken. More information about this will be posted online at a later date. 

The picture I.D.s were originally requested by the referee’s association, but in the last couple of years we have been searching for more effective ways to limit roster transgressions and ensure a fair and fun environment for all participants. We have chosen to implement picture rosters, which have been used effectively by many leagues around the country.  Each team manager will have the responsibility of printing off his/her opponent’s roster, which will be available online within 24 hours of game time. Roster adjustments and registrations can take place until then, but players that register for any team within 24 hours of a game are not eligible to compete in that event. Each roster will clearly show suspended players. Any roster conflicts should always be addressed prior to the game. Team managers will be able to manage their roster online (the same as indoor) and view who has and has not paid the AASA registration fee. 

Last summer the maintenance of municipally owned fields in Anchorage was privatized. In an effort to support this program grass field rates, have risen to $30 to $40 per hour. Turf field cost has risen to $50 per hour. This is a dramatic increase over previous years. In the long run having a private contractor maintain and improve the various fields under the administration of the Anchorage District Soccer Foundation is the only viable way to improve our facilities. There will be some growing pains and results of this change may not be visible immediately, but every year we should see improved conditions for players of all ages. These changes have required an increase in team fees, but by running two turf fields all summer long we will have a much greater proportion of our games on turf fields in all divisions. 

The best way to repair a soccer field is to take it out of service for a couple of years, and therefore we will be attempting to use fewer fields this year as part of the greater field rehabilitation effort coordinated by the ADSF. To make this possible we will be converting to a six day week, with games on Sunday evenings (5 & 7 pm, which will allow players time to return from weekend trips and also get ready for the week ahead). All divisions will have games on Sundays. Most of these games will be on turf fields, but an occasional game may be scheduled on grass fields depending on scheduling demands.   

Although at first thought it may not seem very fun to play in the Dome when it is 75 degrees out with a gorgeous blue sky. But this is Alaska and a good portion of the summer is likely to be fifty degrees and rainy and on those days the Dome will probably be much appreciated for its warmth and level ground. Using the Dome also allows us to let an additional grass field rehabilitate. 

Competition for turf time on high school fields is fierce and adult sports are below a number of other priorities, which include school events, community schools, non-profit youth and for profit youth. As it is, we’re lucky to spend some Sunday night quality time at those venues.  Please remember to adhere to turf guidelines, which prohibit any liquid other than water and no food on the turf. In addition, because these are school zones, please have your after-game-toddy somewhere else.  

I’ve always championed the idea of an end of the season play-off, but the logistics are difficult due to team no-shows, the condition of the fields and the fact that dusk often makes visibility during the second half of the late games in August difficult. Recently the need to shorten our season to allow for fieldwork and the attempt to make the AASA State Cup the last event of the summer were contributing factors. This year we will extend an invitation to a play-off for the top four finishers in every division. All games will take place at a venue to be determined over a two-week span. 

In the rest of the United States and most parts of the world, the fall season is the primary one for leagues. FIFA and US Soccer adjusted their fiscal year to match that schedule and begin that cycle on September 1 (soccer year 2009 begins September 1, 2008). Because Alaska did not register players until the summer season, we were granted an exception and allowed to submit our national registration then, covering our leagues retroactively. A change in this policy is necessary because many players only compete during the indoor sessions and never play in the adult summer league. In the past this may have involved a hand-full of players, but today there are hundreds of participants slipping through the cracks. The need to decrease our liability exposure and to ensure medical coverage for all participants, beginning in September of the soccer year 2008/2009 every player will be asked to pay their affiliation fee in the first session they compete. The $25 only has to be paid once annually and ensures your registration and coverage through August of the following year, eliminating that fee from the summer requirement.  In order to ensure compliance with this change we plan to implement picture rosters for all seasons. 

Lastly, there have been rumors that Soccer Alaska is changing management. I was indeed looking for a possible partnership with an entity that can offer full-time receptionist services and a permanent location, where players can register and/or have a photo I.D. taken year around.  The last attempt at such a business relationship was unsuccessful, but we will continue to pursue this matter and are confident to have something in place prior to the fall indoor leagues.  This does not mean however that Nick and I are ditching you. We’ll still be here.  

Information regarding summer team registration is available online now, and more information will be posted as soon as it is available, including the schedule and location for our in-person registration. As always feel free to email us at: feedback@socceralaska.com with any questions or comments about any league matter. 

Klaus,
I am inquiring as to why we do not have an end of season tournament this year. I read in your blog that the tournament was replaced by the State Cup, but you did not explain why. Myself and several of my other teammates (longtime Soccer Alaska clientele) wish to point out that the State Cup is not equivalent to a round robin end of season tournament for many reasons. The most important two reasons being: 1) not all teams are automatically entitled to play and 2) we had to pay an extra $350 to play!!!
Our season is cut about 3 weeks short by the absence of the tournament. We still paid just as much money as previous years anticipating that there would be roughly the same amount of play time. Taking away this tournament greatly reduces play time, takes away about 3 weeks of the outdoor season, and eliminates the fun tournament spirit we all have enjoyed at the end of the season for many years. I hope that you will reconsider this decision for the years ahead and reinstate our tournament.
All of us soccer players, your clients, pay a great deal of money to play year round. Watching fees increase and service decline (poor field quality to the point of being unsafe, unlined andunmowed fields, broken scoreboard for months, decreasing the amount of games, spotty and/or minimally qualified referees) is really pressing the nerves of many.
Please respond to this email. I would like to know the reason the tournament was not scheduled this year.

There are several reasons why Nick and I opted out of the single elimination end-of-the-season tournament, which had been built into our summer offering.

• Primarily, it did not serve the majority of our league. Less than half the registered teams chose to participate in the event and many of the games that were scheduled were forfeited because a portion of the teams that thought they would be able to field teams were unable to do so.

• Although the season was shorter, we increased the number of regular season games by one for most divisions to provide an additional playing opportunity for everyone. What we eliminated to some degree, are long lapses between games (sometimes 2-3 weeks) that were prevalent last season.

• Although your playing time was three weeks shorter, you played the same number of games.

• We lose the turf at the end of July every year and with it our primary playing venue.

• As August progresses the weather and field conditions deteriorate rapidly. Because it gets darker earlier, we are unable to schedule 2 games at a venue, which further stretches our field and referee resources.

• Prior to the start of this season. Soccer Alaska entered into a field management partnership with every soccer club in the city. The Anchorage District Soccer Foundation was chosen as the entity to hire, coordinate and supervise a contractor responsible for the lining and maintenance of the varied venues. Very little improvement work can be done to the fields while we are playing on them, but we felt that if seeding, fertilization and minor repairs could be completed early in August, we may be able to see results as early as next summer season.

• We want to encourage teams to participate in the state cup. It has divisions for every skill level and has become once again a premier event, which we have scheduled on a 4-field complex inWasilla , which houses the nicest grass fields in the state. Teams from the valley league, Fairbanks and Whitehorse participate, which provide alternative competition to the same teams you tend to play in your league. I agree that $350 is a chunk of change for one person to pay, but very often sponsors will pick up the $350 tab, or worse case scenario, it can be divided amongst the team with everyone pitching in $15-$20 (not a huge chunk of change) The event has been moved to the first weekend in August to coincide with our end of the season. It is also scheduled prior to the youth state cup, so we are able to share out-of-town officials brought in primarily for the youth event. We had referees from several states at this year’s tournament. Entering the adult state cup would provide you with the opportunity to play more games and do so assured of an opponent and 3 game officials that are the best in the state. I think if you talk to participants from the past few years you will find that this event also provides the fun tournament spirit you are looking for.

Soccer Alaska’s fees have not changed in many years. Three years ago the state board decided that an additional $10 per player was to be paid by the affiliated leagues (a total of $25 annually). We abided by this vote and raised our rates from $55 to $65. No other increases have taken place.

We knew we would not see a marked improvement in the quality of our fields in this initial year. However, we too were disappointed that in relinquishing our lining and minor maintenance we would be taking a step back. I passed any and all complaints about field conditions (mostly a lack of lines) on to theADSF contractor coordinator, to have the matter taken care of. To date I don’t know if lines were not painted weekly as contracted or if the mowing/lining schedule interfered with each other, causing freshly lined fields to be mowed, erasing that work. I have asked for a review of theADSF summer field maintenance program (scheduled for late September) and will address the above issues then. We will decide whether to renew our annual agreement with the group after that event.

The scoreboard not working was very lame, but alas we are a tenant in the building, not the owner. We asked repeatedly for both an explanation for the delay in the repairs and that things progress more rapidly. (I was told that the clock is antiquated and required difficult to obtain parts for its repairs) Neither happened and unfortunately, without a competitive arena in town, there was little pressure on the Cellular one management to speed things along. I trust that will change with the dome opening in a month.

Finally, we will focus our efforts this off-season to explore various ways to improve both the quality and quantity of our officials. Everyone shares the blame for the current state of affairs. The local and state referee associations aren’t proactive in establishing programs to retain qualified officials and the same can be said for the leagues. There is pressure from the officials to require leagues to provide their own referees to increase the number of adult officials capable of handling their peers. We are exploring various programs that would achieve this goal, such as providing incentives for players to become officials and officiating portions of our summer league in-house. In addition, our web designer, Lisa Short, is finalizing work on a program that will automate referee assigning, tracking and ranking, as well as provide a means to integrate this software with our game reports. All those functions should make the assigning of the available referees more efficient and result in a better use of the existing pool.

Fellow administrators, managers, referees, coaches and players,

For some time now it has been my intention to reinstate a quarterly newsletter, which I created in the APU days of Soccer Alaska, but haven’t distributed in quite some time. After discussing the matter with our webmaster we have decided to write a blog instead, which is both easier to post online and for the players to access. This will by my attempt in doing so. Because of its lengthy absence this initial version will be lengthier than future ones, so I can catch everyone up on past current and future events and general league information. I would like to use this vehicle for you to provide feedback on any and all subjects discussed in this writing. If you would like to do so, please respond to: feedback@socceralaska.com and I will reply to your questions either directly to you, or address them in future issues.

With that let me quickly clear up some confusion. There are 3 people involved in the management of Soccer Alaska. Theresa Reich is the treasurer and handles all bookkeeping and accounting functions. Because this work has grown dramatically in recent years, this function will be transferred to a company called Alaska Accounting Solutions Inc., who has extensive experience in providing accounting services for non-profit organizations. I am Klaus Reich, founder and President of the company. During the indoor seasons, I update the scores and tally the cautions and ejections. I also handle all disciplinary actions necessary as the result of those tallies. The ying to my yang (with apologies to my wife) is Nick Stramp, who is the league administrator and makes sure that the details don’t get lost. I was very fortunate to hire Nick three years ago and his skills have been invaluable to providing much needed structure to the business. Nick manages the registration of teams, creates schedules and relays league information to the teams. He also updates the website with news and information, when necessary.

With nearly 100 teams playing in 3 of 4 sessions, issues will arise almost daily that can either be dealt with immediately, or require time to work through. Naturally there are as many opinions about how to address these concerns, as there are problems. Our philosophy is to create a safe playing environment in which teams and players of all skill levels are able to compete against equally able competitors. In general we are achieving this goal. After jumping from 3 coed, 2 men’s and 2 women’s divisions to 5, 3 and 3 respectively, we eliminated the 5th coed division after one season. Even with the large number of teams, we were unable to support both an A and Premier Division in that league. Since then, those teams involved have settled in nicely between the A and B groups. Both the men and women needed the third classification and have fared well with them. No one likes having 2-3 weeks off during an indoor season, unfortunately sometimes in a row. We are committed to accommodating as many teams as possible and because of the limited indoor availability, to do so we have extended our seasons. The scheduling software Nick uses is not able to ensure that a 3 week layoff doesn’t happen and it is difficult to proof 100 schedules individually. Unfortunately, a handful of teams are hit by this multi-week stretch and if you are one of them and would like to get a game in that stretch, please write: nick@socceralaska.com. Odds are there is another team out there that could switch a game time to help both of you. Having said that, schedule changes are not difficult, but take coordination and can easily result in one team, or the other not being informed of the change. The resulting confusion and possible no-show is frustrating for all parties involved, including the game official. Therefore we try to avoid them, once a schedule has been posted.

With the exception of one or two teams all divisions seem to be fairly well balanced, which to me means game scores are within 1-5 goals. There are always some noted exceptions such as the Brewhouse boys, who seem to relish smacking around B league men’s competition with Premier players. We constantly try to improve our website to guarantee adherence to league participation policies. There will always be some loopholes but we are trying to close them as we speak. In the women’s A league Spinell Homes dominates equally, but doesn’t have an urge to chase around high school aged girls in the Premier league. (Although they did so in the winter session, with success – cheers girls). In coed A the cream of the crop has been newbie AYSC Ajax, who have nowhere to move and can only hope for some new meat in future sessions.

We constantly visit the subject of relegation (forcing winning teams to move to upper divisions, while dropping the cellar dwellers to a lower one), but there are a number of teams that fight the concept. Usually those that would need to move up. Oftentimes a jump from C to B, or B to A can be a huge one in the skill level of players and the intensity of the games. Those teams that moved up spend a season losing in an upper division, before dropping back down the following session to a comfortable competitive level. Very few teams want to advance to an upper level. This program may work on the women’s side, where 95% of the teams are competitive youth teams looking for other high level teams, but on the men’s side, the number of teams registering for the Premier league has dropped every session.

Information for the upcoming session will be posted online soon. The season will start a week earlier than usual this year and will end with the state cup in the first week of August. We will take suggestion whether we should run another short session in the fall, or allow our fields to rest and improve. Please remember that we have implemented a registration procedure that gives preference to returning teams (from the session immediately preceding the on for which they are trying to register), securing their slot, if they register prior to the deadline. I’m sure all of you agree that it is prudent for any business to reward existing customers. If you don’t, feel free to provide: feedback@socceralaska.com.

We continually hope to be able to add restricted division to our offering such as an over 40 men’s league and over 30 coed one. Several teams have expressed an interest in those divisions and we hope to be able to get them up and running this time around. In general, providing age specific divisions is something we hope to be able to do more of in the future, as these markets develop. We modified the high school leagues to primarily interact among themselves, but also get a few games against adult team. This was done as a response to coaches, who wanted to play against a more seasoned level of competition, prior to the outdoor high school season.

We are scheduling Sunday afternoon times at AFS and possibly Dela Vega for our premier divisions. This will maximize our most precious resources, fields and officials. In the future I foresee Sunday afternoon games to be a regular addition to the league.

By starting and finishing early we allow players one month of summer (well, its August, almost summer) while still being able to play our 10 game season. Instead of an end-of the season tournament, the state cup will take its place. We are trying to modify our scheduling software to assure that all teams have at least one game every week of the summer, without fail, except for the 4th of July week.

We constantly try to adapt and update our rules, based on current league play to ensure that the playing experience is a positive one for all parties involved, including the game officials. We recently changed our yellow card policy to include a 4 minute suspension and stopped accumulating them during the season. The goal was to put more teeth into the caution card and stop the need for 3 pages of offenders during a season. At this point the program appears to be successful with minimal cautions and 4 total ejections during the entire winter session. As intended the program appears to be as much a deterrent to players and an incentive to modify their behavior, as much as it has forced officials to use restraint, rather than giving hasty yellow cards. I do not believe that the quality and intensity of play suffered because of the change.

We are currently also reviewing some changes on the substitution guidelines, which now allow a player to step off the pitch on one side, while the sub enters the field from the bench. I have witnessed several times that odd man rushed were created when the fresh player was able to get involved in play immediately when coming off the bench, while the player that is leaving would have been out of position. For now we are considering instructing referees to allow player substitutions only at the bench, or near midfield. Other step-offs will result in an indirect free kick. In addition, the referees feel that a 4 minute yellow card for improper substitutions is excessive and most of them will simply tell a team that they have two many men on the field.

The dome will not have the 3 lines marked to follow that rule and the adults will not adhere to it after this indoor session at either venue.

What are your thoughts? Let me know at: feedback@socceralaska.com

While players lament the quantity and quality of referees, game officials seek clear league rules and guidelines and tougher laws governing offenders. We are currently addressing all of those elements.

The adult competition, with few exceptions requires referees that are accomplished and possess the maturity and to handle adult players. I recently met with the administrators of the youth and valley leagues, as well as the assigner for all our groups, in addition to the President of ASRA the local governing body for referees and the state youth referee administrator. We addressed recruitment of adult players to the ranks of officials, who would make an immediate impact in the number of available referees. A financial incentive for players to become referees is a likely outcome of those discussions. Referee training and retention begins as soon as certification is complete and the recent acquisition of a computer program that assists in the administration and assigning of game officials is a step in the right direction in assuring that referees officiate at the proper levels and are contacted for assignments. In addition, younger referees will receive an adult mentor at specific venues that evaluates their performance on a nightly basis, while assisting in providing a buffer between the parents and coaches and the young officials.