EDITOR: For youth and for soccer. This is the motto of the
Orchard Valley Youth Soccer League (OVYSL). However, recent actions
with the Under
–13 (U-13) girls are neither for youth nor for soccer. My
daughter joined the Tornadoes, one of two competitive girls soccer
teams last year.
EDITOR:
For youth and for soccer. This is the motto of the Orchard Valley Youth Soccer League (OVYSL). However, recent actions with the Under–13 (U-13) girls are neither for youth nor for soccer. My daughter joined the Tornadoes, one of two competitive girls soccer teams last year.
The Tornadoes have existed in OVYSL with the same coach for three years. This past season the team had a very successful year resulting in a third-place finish in the District 2 Class 3 League. The coaches and players were proud of the team’s success and were looking forward to a new season as a Class 1 U- 13 team.
Less than two weeks before tryouts for the new season this year, the OVYSL board of directors unexpectedly announced that a new coach had been brought in to lead the U-13 Class 1 team, leaving the Tornado coach behind to form a U-13 Class 3 team. Needless to say the Tornado players and their parents were upset by the OVYSL Board’s decision. All of the girls from the Tornadoes wanted to continue playing with their coach but were given no option by the OVYSL Board.
On Feb. 28, a board member informed my wife and I that the OVYSL Board had gone a step further and removed the Tornado coach from the league because there were not enough girls for two teams. The only option given my daughter to play soccer in OVYSL was with the new coach.
Why are they replacing a well-qualified coach from the Morgan Hill community? Why couldn’t the OVYSL Board have the new coach form a team using the players from last season’s other U-12 team and let the Tornadoes continue? Why has the board made no attempt to communicate with the Tornado coach about the issues regarding this season’s tryouts?
How is it that there are only enough players for one team this year when last year there were two and the girls from both teams went to this year’s tryouts?
It seems that as far as the OVYSL Board is concerned, the Tornado team does not exist. We Tornado parents must console our daughters over the loss of a great team and wonderful coaches. None of this should have happened. So much for youth and for soccer.
I’m a sad soccer dad.
Mike Thatcher, Morgan Hill
