Soccer association may take over Portage Trail Soccer Club

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This article was published 16/09/2014 (4393 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Portage Trail Soccer Club (PTSC) is at risk of losing its membership in the St. Charles Soccer Association (SCSA).

On June 19, the executive committee of SCSA, the governing body for youth soccer in west Winnipeg, presented a request for decision (RFD) to the SCSA board asking that the board remove Portage Trail Soccer Club from the association, thus enabling SCSA to take over the premier programs currently run by the PTSC.

PTSC fields boys and girls teams in the U13 to U18 premier divisions of the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association.

SCSA president Shawna Nagler-Neufeld said the association is doing this to adapt to the club head coach model prescribed by the Canadian Soccer Association, whereby one National B certified club head coach is in charge of organizing and implementing the soccer curriculum through all teams run by a club or association.

“It’s a good blueprint or road map of good governance, risk management, quality assurance, and curriculum adherence for organizations to ensure that we’re following the CSA recommendations,” Nagler-Neufeld said.

Portage Trail president Bryan Marceca said the head coach model will create a “capacity management” issue.

“It’s a lot for one person to  run recreational, development league and premier, and be able to represent those parties with the same attention,” Marceca said.

Marceca explained that PTSC uses a technical committee model, whereby a group of volunteer coaches oversees technical decisions for the club.

Cheryl Maxwell, a member of the PTSC board of directors, is unhappy with the RFD because she doesn’t understand why SCSA would want to take over PTSC.

“(The SCSA) basically looks at the recreational side of soccer, and PTSC has always done the premier,” Maxwell said.

“They have zero experience in working with competitive players in the premier soccer end of things.”

Nagler-Neufeld said SCSA is responsible for the premier program because PTSC is a member of SCSA.

“They fall under us,” Nagler-Neufeld said. “We outsourced the premier program to Portage Trail.”

Nagler-Neufeld said the key feature to the change is the implementation of the CSA’s soccer curriculum.

“The Canadian Soccer Association is really striving towards having standardization of curriculum. Their ultimate goal is to breed players for their national programs,” Nagler-Neufeld said.
Adam Dooley, president of the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association (WYSA), said that, from what he’s seen, SCSA’s plan looks “excellent.”

“They’re following practices laid down by the Canadian Soccer Association. I have absolute confidence they’ll do a good job,” Dooley said.

“It’s not to say Portage Trail was necessarily doing a poor job — they’ve fielded a number of good players — but the approach St. Charles is taking is in keeping with the best practices that the soccer community is trying to embrace, and I think it looks like they’re heading in the right direction.”

Nagler-Neufeld also said SCSA’s move will allow for more open communication at the premier team level.

“If (a kid) had a problem — either they didn’t get along with their coach or some other grievance — there wasn’t a point of advocacy for them within the Portage Trail model. The board members appoint the coaches who then appoint the board members,” Nagler-Neufeld said. “It’s harder for the (kids) to get their message across. It’s a little bit more closed.”