2011 Regionals

[Unregistered]

does sound like fun, and unlike you, i'll be in hershey as the proud parent of a state champ...not locked in my mom's basement with a bottle of maddog watching nick at nite--enjoy the holiday

what's wrong with nick at nite? And it's Boone's Farm, not Maddog.

[Unregistered]

does sound like fun, and unlike you, i'll be in hershey as the proud parent of a state champ...not locked in my mom's basement with a bottle of maddog watching nick at nite--enjoy the holiday

enjoy the crowded park, the packed chain restaurants and getting yout butts kicked champ

[dpm333]

enjoy the crowded park, the packed chain restaurants and getting yout butts kicked champ

the restaurants won't be as good as your pigs in a blanket from mom, but we'll make do--thanks

[Just My Personal Opinion]

enjoy the crowded park, the packed chain restaurants and getting yout butts kicked champ

Been to regionals last two years in WV. Two years ago as U11's playing U12 8v8 and last year playing U12 11v11. First year was an eyeopener as far as the level of competition and girls really struggled. Last year we did a little better but still no playoffs. Anyone who thinks that going to regionals, regardless of your chances, is a waste of time just doesn't get it. Just having your child march in the parade of states at opening ceremonies is worth the price of the trip. These are memories that very few get to experience and will be with my child for life. Seeing all the RI yellow shirts opposite you in the stadium next to the colors from the rest of R1 and knowing that your kid is one of those yellow shirts is pretty special. I congratulate every single team and player who is going, regardless of how they made it there. If this is your first trip, enjoy every minute of it and take it all in because as you all know you may never get to go again. there's no shame in being the current state champion.

[Unregistered]

Been to regionals last two years in WV. Two years ago as U11's playing U12 8v8 and last year playing U12 11v11. First year was an eyeopener as far as the level of competition and girls really struggled. Last year we did a little better but still no playoffs. Anyone who thinks that going to regionals, regardless of your chances, is a waste of time just doesn't get it. Just having your child march in the parade of states at opening ceremonies is worth the price of the trip. These are memories that very few get to experience and will be with my child for life. Seeing all the RI yellow shirts opposite you in the stadium next to the colors from the rest of R1 and knowing that your kid is one of those yellow shirts is pretty special. I congratulate every single team and player who is going, regardless of how they made it there. If this is your first trip, enjoy every minute of it and take it all in because as you all know you may never get to go again. there's no shame in being the current state champion.

Exactly and most RI teams I have seen have played some of their best soccer at regionals because they go with no expectations. yeah they may lose 0-5 but you won't see another game during the year where they try harder. Their games go to another level playing against the best.

If anything, I've seen more top teams choke than lower teams completely fold.

[Unregistered]

I believe the best teams from RI are NOT going to Regionals. Only 5 teams signed up for the playoffs for the Girls U12. How can a team consider themselves state champs when they only had to play 3-4 games? As for Bayside, their parents complained when they lost their first game. They were saying "the other team has 12 year olds on it and we are only 11 years old." These will be the same teams you will play next year, so what will their excuse be then. I believe town and premier teams should finish their season, the best in each division should go to a round robin. This should be the deciding factor on who goes to regionals, not that you happen to be 1 out of the 5 teams that knew about signing up for the state cup. I think other teams in RI should be considered for this or at least had the opportunity.

[Unregistered]

I believe the best teams from RI are NOT going to Regionals. Only 5 teams signed up for the playoffs for the Girls U12. How can a team consider themselves state champs when they only had to play 3-4 games? As for Bayside, their parents complained when they lost their first game. They were saying "the other team has 12 year olds on it and we are only 11 years old." These will be the same teams you will play next year, so what will their excuse be then. I believe town and premier teams should finish their season, the best in each division should go to a round robin. This should be the deciding factor on who goes to regionals, not that you happen to be 1 out of the 5 teams that knew about signing up for the state cup. I think other teams in RI should be considered for this or at least had the opportunity.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Most premier clubs will play their U11's in the 8V8 division. Because Superliga does not offer 11v11 in the U12 division, most town teams have their anchor teams playing in the U12 small size division which in this case is South County. The best town teams did applied and play in this bracket and they did play very well but against the U11 premier teams. Smithfield which is a town team decided this year that Superliga does not offer enough competition so they went and play in MAPLE where most of the premier clubs play. Bristol is a very good team but most of their top players play for Bayside U12 team that won the U12 11v11 State Cup. The only other teams I thought should play in the State Cup were Lincoln and Portsmouth but for what ever reasons they decided not to play.

[COL]

See early discussion (not sure in this thread or not) about the concerns that SRI, in contrast to other states' soccer association, appears to downplay or deemphasize the State Cup.

Although previous posts make good points that the relative size of RI obviously puts RI clubs at a disadvantage to the larger states, the overall organization and policies in RI do not help mitigate that inherent disadvantage. Although posters like JB make good points that market forces should dictate the number of premier teams, the fact remains the market is not "competitive" in the economic theoretical sense. SRI rules and policies inherently bias the market toward the formation of more teams. For example, VA has 8 times the youth population as RI, but VYSA has only 3 times the number of clubs (incl just travel only) as RI. More teams competing for limited resources -- in a freer market, we would have clubs leave (in the absence of the price rising to reduce the demand side of the market), leaving the more "efficient" clubs to invest more in their product. There are just too many examples of the better performing teams in Region 1 tournament that are from multi-town/county/regional clubs (not just a team with kids from a handful of different towns in programs that only need 4 teams total to be recognized as a club) to say we are better off with the highest (my hypothesis) club/player ratio model in Region 1.

Add the fact these forces often cause the top RI players to jump to MA/CT organizations, you are left with the hope of getting thrown into a draw with possibly VT/ME/NH/DE/WVA and have the exception to the norm team that had continuity with an initial mix of talented players and coaches in order to get beyond the initial round.

It's like the issues with the state and municipal governments -- the problems and reasons are not that complicated to recognize, it's just the process is designed to protect the status quo and the will is generally lacking to do anything about them until a crisis forces action.

[Unregistered]

I believe the best teams from RI are NOT going to Regionals. Only 5 teams signed up for the playoffs for the Girls U12. How can a team consider themselves state champs when they only had to play 3-4 games? As for Bayside, their parents complained when they lost their first game. They were saying "the other team has 12 year olds on it and we are only 11 years old." These will be the same teams you will play next year, so what will their excuse be then. I believe town and premier teams should finish their season, the best in each division should go to a round robin. This should be the deciding factor on who goes to regionals, not that you happen to be 1 out of the 5 teams that knew about signing up for the state cup. I think other teams in RI should be considered for this or at least had the opportunity.

If your team doesn't know how/when to sign-up for State Cup - chances are they are not going to contend. Day 1 of practice in August my daugher's coach set an expectation that winning state cup was their #1 goal.

[Unregistered]

I believe the best teams from RI are NOT going to Regionals. Only 5 teams signed up for the playoffs for the Girls U12. How can a team consider themselves state champs when they only had to play 3-4 games? As for Bayside, their parents complained when they lost their first game. They were saying "the other team has 12 year olds on it and we are only 11 years old." These will be the same teams you will play next year, so what will their excuse be then. I believe town and premier teams should finish their season, the best in each division should go to a round robin. This should be the deciding factor on who goes to regionals, not that you happen to be 1 out of the 5 teams that knew about signing up for the state cup. I think other teams in RI should be considered for this or at least had the opportunity.

Every SRI team had the opportunity, every SRI team knew about the sign-ups, deadlines, etc. It's been published, discussed at SRI meetings, posted on the website for a year. Trust me - it's not a secret.

The teams that didn't sign-up CHOSE not to sign-up - simple as that.

Just for curiosity sake - name one team that didn't particiapte in state cup tournament that would have won it if they had participated. I'm dying to hear this one.

[Just My Personal Opinion]

See early discussion (not sure in this thread or not) about the concerns that SRI, in contrast to other states' soccer association, appears to downplay or deemphasize the State Cup.

Although previous posts make good points that the relative size of RI obviously puts RI clubs at a disadvantage to the larger states, the overall organization and policies in RI do not help mitigate that inherent disadvantage. Although posters like JB make good points that market forces should dictate the number of premier teams, the fact remains the market is not "competitive" in the economic theoretical sense. SRI rules and policies inherently bias the market toward the formation of more teams. For example, VA has 8 times the youth population as RI, but VYSA has only 3 times the number of clubs (incl just travel only) as RI. More teams competing for limited resources -- in a freer market, we would have clubs leave (in the absence of the price rising to reduce the demand side of the market), leaving the more "efficient" clubs to invest more in their product. There are just too many examples of the better performing teams in Region 1 tournament that are from multi-town/county/regional clubs (not just a team with kids from a handful of different towns in programs that only need 4 teams total to be recognized as a club) to say we are better off with the highest (my hypothesis) club/player ratio model in Region 1.

Add the fact these forces often cause the top RI players to jump to MA/CT organizations, you are left with the hope of getting thrown into a draw with possibly VT/ME/NH/DE/WVA and have the exception to the norm team that had continuity with an initial mix of talented players and coaches in order to get beyond the initial round.

It's like the issues with the state and municipal governments -- the problems and reasons are not that complicated to recognize, it's just the process is designed to protect the status quo and the will is generally lacking to do anything about them until a crisis forces action.

So, are you saying that more is not necessarily better?

[COL]

I may be off, but for other possible teams

In Boys U12SS --

East Greenwich -- on top of U12 Superliga anchor and Portsmouth..both ahead of the SC team that made it to the finals..and I believe played Bruno competitively in indoor leagues

In Girls U12SS --

Bristol or Portsmouth -- both beat the runner-up SC team that only lost 2-1 in the finals..


Yes, I believe if the market was "freer", we would have less premier clubs..and probably less "town" clubs..as you would pick up more clubs that comprise 2 or 3 towns and share multiple facilities as well as achieving more economies of scale with their resources. You may actually have more teams as some of the current programs that only put 1 team in an age group might now have the ability to join with other programs in the same position. That's the model you see in more of the states that win at regionals.

[Just My Personal Opinion]

I may be off, but for other possible teams

In Boys U12SS --

East Greenwich -- on top of U12 Superliga anchor and Portsmouth..both ahead of the SC team that made it to the finals..and I believe played Bruno competitively in indoor leagues

In Girls U12SS --

Bristol or Portsmouth -- both beat the runner-up SC team that only lost 2-1 in the finals..


Yes, I believe if the market was "freer", we would have less premier clubs..and probably less "town" clubs..as you would pick up more clubs that comprise 2 or 3 towns and share multiple facilities as well as achieving more economies of scale with their resources. You may actually have more teams as some of the current programs that only put 1 team in an age group might now have the ability to join with other programs in the same position. That's the model you see in more of the states that win at regionals.

I agree that this model is followed elsewhere. I'll go a stEP further and say in most of the Country there is no Town soccer, just Mega-clubs that run their own Rec programs. If the Premiers around here can ever start their own Rec programs and start to let all younger players play regardless of ability, contrary to the current A Team-B Team model followed by most towns at even the U7 level, the town programs will be in trouble. Little kids , and their parents, hate to be on B teams, but the towns keep rolling out the same system year after year, alienating all but the 11 or 12 "best" young players. Trouble is, a kid who leaves at U7 or U8 because he/she doesn't want to be on a B team, might (and usually is the case) turn out to be better than the "a" players. Once they're gone though, they're gone forever.

[Unregistered]

[QUOTE=Bristol is a very good team but most of their top players play for Bayside U12 team that won the U12 11v11 State Cup. [/QUOTE]


my daughter played against that team in super liga anchor division and they had 8 bayside players on it. how dos that happen? they should have entered there town team in the state cup. i think they only have 9 or 10 on the roster but they could have played 8v8SS.

[Unregistered]

my daughter played against that team in super liga anchor division and they had 8 bayside players on it. how dos that happen? they should have entered there town team in the state cup. i think they only have 9 or 10 on the roster but they could have played 8v8SS.

That is a good team. They would have done very well in regionals. It would have been good to see a strong RI town team competing in PA.