In 2008, the Canadian Soccer Association released its long-term development plan: “Wellness to World Cup”. One of its recommendations was to begin considering both the stage of development (page 29 – Wellness to World Cup) and development age when designing programs:
Everyone passes through the same stages of development from early childhood through adolescence, but the timing, rate, and amount of their development varies. This is described as the difference between chronological age and developmental age. Two children may be the same chronological age (e.g. 11 years old), but at the same time they may be four to five years apart in developmental age. Long-term player development asks soccer coaches and administrators to take developmental age into account when they design programs and select players” – (page 35 – Wellness to World Cup).
Peace Arch Soccer Club adopted the recommendations from “Wellness to World Cup” in 2008 as its blue print for its long-term player development program.
The restructuring of the Club’s development program will continue at the mini/micro level. These are crucial years where our players need to inherit a love and passion for the game through their individual successes. This can be achieved by encouraging greater levels of success for all participants.
Peace Arch Soccer Club is providing a unique Prospect opportunity for the U8/U9 players this 2012-13 season. Consistent with our player development philosophy, we are introducing an enhanced Prospect program for our more committed players. The proposed change for the upcoming season will have the Prospect players separated from the regular in-house U8/U9 league. The Prospect players will train all year together and play games together as a unit. The regular in-house U8/U9 season will operate as it did last year with teams of twenty players split into two teams of ten (A & B). For games the teams will be tiered A and B groups, meaning players will be playing with and against other players of similar ability on a regular basis.
In summary, the major change to the Prospect program is that it will run independently from the regular in-house league.
Here are the key differences between the programs:
Prospect Program 2012-13:
- Train twice a week, Monday and Wednesday
- 4 to 5pm turf field #9
- Additional training session or games every weekend however, this game could be a game against another prospect team from outside the club, or a game within the Peace Arch prospect program. Saturday could also just be an additional training session with mini games.
- There is no guarantee of a game every weekend against other clubs due to B.C. Soccer regulations. We are not allowed to organize a guaranteed league schedule outside of our Club at this age level. All games are exhibition. Games times will change according to the availability of other clubs. The Club must organize all these exhibition games.
- We are aware that there was a lack of games with last year’s Prospects so we want to be upfront about the structure of this year’s prospect program.
- Tournaments will be essential and the additional cost will be shared equally by the player’s families.
- There will be an additional fee for this program to cover the costs of things like field rental, Head Coach involvement, etc. This fee has not yet been determined.
- An extremely strong commitment to attending practices and games is essential as we know there are other players who may be disappointed not to be in the program.
- · Players will be selected for this program based on the Club Head Coach and age group coaches’ evaluations over previous seasons.
Regular League description 2012/13
- One training session (set time) every Wednesday.
- One scheduled game (set times) every Saturday.
If you play in the regular league this absolutely does not exclude you from the Prospect program in the future. We are aware and understand the physical and cognitive developmental process that can take place over time, in other words we expect players to mature and play themselves into the Prospect program over time.
While the playing levels are different, the goal for all our players is the same. We want all our players and families to have the ability to participate at the highest level, while having a fun experience. The creation of three levels of play will provide opportunities for our players to be both challenged and successful through playing at a level that suits their needs. At all of our levels, we are committed to long-term player growth.
