Wow! I really didn’t mean to be gone so long! The winter is supposed to be a quiet time for soccer parents! So much has happened, but I didn’t have much time to write about it. So expect a flurry of posts as I catch up…. WAY up!

Our soccer league has been working to become affiliated with our state soccer association for the past year. A lot of work went into articles of incorporation, bylaws, applications, etc. as we tried to bring things up to snuff. Anyone who has been involved in a young soccer league at the start knows things often are done ‘just so the kids can play’ But as the league grows, more organization is needed. We had already started to get things much more organized when we decided we needed to pursue state affiliation. So a lot of work went into our application late last year.

The good news is the day of reckoning is finally here. Our application goes before the state board, made up of a representative (usually the president) of every other state affiliated soccer league in the state. The meeting is this weekend.

Our league is mainly a recreational league, but we do have a few Challenge teams playing under another nearby association. However our coaches decided last year that we should work to get certified at ‘Level 2’ which means we would be allowed to organize Challenge level teams as well as recreational. However, another league within 30 miles of us is opposing our application so things have gotten interesting. The state membership committee recommended we only get Level 1 which really wasn’t where we thought we were. So we’ve had to embark on some lobbying to try and convince the various league presidents who will vote that we are ready for Level 2.

There are almost 100 state affiliated leagues and finding the email addresses of each league’s president was quite the adventure. Google helped a lot, but it took some clever searches to find some for presidents listed on their website with no email. In the end I think I found 95 out of 104 – not bad but it took hours. So we sent our information packet out and have gotten pretty good feedback so far.

Here’s hoping we’re successful. We just aren’t prepared to stay at Level 1 – it just isn’t worth it for us financially right now. Besides, we really would like to see local teams play home Challenge matches on our new fields this fall!

I’ll keep you all posted!