How could this be??

[Unregistered]

/shrug

I'm not really sure it's MAPLE's responsibility to monitor and dictate what teams play and what teams don't.

There has been an explosion of interest and play in MAPLE - a lot more teams and a lot more "clubs". Which, on the whole, is good, but it leads to these kinds of results until things shake out - usually beginning around U-12 when clubs that carry multiple U-10 and U-11 teams refine them into single teams and cut the weaker players. This continues at U-13 and even into U-14 with the strong teams getting stronger and weak teams weaker (until they collapse).

Anyway, these kinds of results happen at this age level because of the number of teams, which dilutes talent, and finite number of quality coaches. This creates a very real disparity - a handful of strong teams, a few teams build over time and eventually become competitive and then a bunch of weaker teams. The truth is, at this age, 99% of the kids have forgotten the result by the time they walk off the field. Their parents, on the other hand, come here to stew about it and scream about the injustice of it all.

So a Hammer team pounded another. So what. The only thing you should concern yourself with is the quality of the coach and how to make sure your son or daughter (and by extension, the team as a whole) becomes more skilled and more effective player so that when you see that Hammer team in the spring or the following year, you give them a taste of their own medicine. Few things taste sweeter than good old fashioned revenge. ;)

- Odie

Poundings and slaughters are part of youth sports. It is a reality. The only thing that is more concerning regarding the quality of play in this case, is that this is the first division. I would expect that as you descend the lower divisions that variability of play will increase. I would hope that there would be significantly less variability at the top division.

If you say that there is an 'explosion' of interest and an influx in more clubs and teams, then this is where you have to distinguish between the good (more money for MAPLE) and the bad, which is the dilution of quality and variability at the top divisions.

Who knows....maybe the Blazer team is so freaking good.......

[Unregistered]

Maybe Hammer had a real bad day? Either way 10 goals is crazy. No ND to pound a team like that. I hope the Blazers lose a game by 1 or 10 goals. Either way I bet they don't take it well!