Let's Rework State CUp

[timbuck]

I bet it could absolutely work.
Here's my half-thought out, back of a napkin plan:
League season ends by November 12.
You have the opening weekend for all of Youngers - National, Presidents, Governors and Mayors the weekend of November 18/19. Use Lancaster, Apple Valley, Galway Downs, Oceanside, Polo Fields, Great Park, Stub Hub Center, LAFC Stadium, LA Coliseum, Rose Bowl, Qualcomm, Local College stadiums, Local High Schools and any other field that is used during league play if needed.
Limit each group to 25 brackets of 4 teams..
First come, first served and no play down petitions. Make some teams play up. Make all Flight 1 and Gold teams play in National Cup.
Here's how many teams were accepted into the respective contests for girls this year:

November 18/19 - Pool Play- Groups of 4 teams
Take a break the following weekend for Thanksgiving.
December 2- Round 64 for 2004-2006 Governors and Presidents
December 3 - Round 32 for Mayors, Governors and Presidents in the morning and Round 16 for all groups in the afternoon.
December 9- Quarter Final (8 teams) and Semi-Final - 4 teams
December 10 - Championship Games
December 16/17 - In case of rainouts and things need to get moved.
December 18-January 17 - Mandatory Break
January 20- February 10th - Tryout period for all clubs

 

[CC_SoccerMom3]

We just finished with our first State Cup experience and, before seeing this thread, had thought about posting about our experience as first timers.

From this forum I have seen most of the posts talking about Presidents division and/or National Cup, so I am not sure if the experience we just had in Governors Division differs or not.

We come from the Central Coast, and traveled to Norco the first weekend. The facility was great, the area is nice. Having to pay for parking each day, especially after already paying to enter the tournament and all the other costs of traveling, does stink a bit but it is not that horrible.

The following weekend we got to experience Lancaster...! The winds were horrible and really affected game play. The area is not that great/sketchy at best. But again, our team survived. Lancaster would not be my 1st choice of location to travel to, though.

This past weekend we traveled to Galway. Our team had already been there for a tournament earlier this year, and really liked the facility/area.

The "one and done" is hard though, especially when some teams travel over 4 hours (one way) to get there.


Overall, we had a great first time experience with State Cup. Our pool was fairly evenly matched up and the teams we played from there on out were too. It was really neat seeing our girls play against teams we probably would have never played against if the bracket draw format was done any differently.

A break in between weekends would not be so bad though. Would allow more time to recover from the traveling and prepare for the next weekend of play.

 

[Multi Sport]

Rework SC/NC? For as long as I can recall parents have complained. Nothing will change regardless of how many post you make on the forum.

Rather be happy that your kid has the opportunity to play, travel and make memories. Is it convenient? Rarely. Is it fun? Usually. Is it expensive? Can be. My kids have played in the rain, snow, wind and heat competing in these tournaments and all of them agree that they would not change a thing.

Enjoy the journey...

 

[MWN]

Its called "State Cup" because California is broken into two "State Associations" given its size and populations: Cal South and Cal North, which in the eyes of U.S. Youth Soccer are two states.

Cal South is constantly tweaking the program to maximize field usage and use facilities that are large enough to support the State Cup experience. Before you all suggest playing at parks and high schools, etc., appreciate that Cal South does a few things that most tournaments don't, such as provide medical and employee referee coordinators. Between U9-U14 (youngers) you also have 3 different sized fields with at least 2 different sized goals, tournament directors/staff with the power to make decisions at each facility. In an ideal world, Cal South would prefer to have 1 large facility and not be spread out among 12.

As much as we parents hate driving 3-4 hours to attend a State Cup match, eating at some sketchy pizza joint and staying in hotels on hard beds, our kids absolutely love it. They really don't mind the drive (they sleep through half of it and play games on their devices the rest of the trip), they enjoy eating with their teammates and the experience. Remember, this is for them not you.

 

[mirage]

This year, once again, has me thinking that State Cup is just ridiculous. Why do we take everyone of one age group and have them all drive out to a single site? All of Cal South B06 headed to Lancaster for a weekend. Then, even worse, if you advance you get to head back to Lancaster ...................That round could be at the bigger locations like Lancaster, Silver Lakes, Galloway, or the OC Great Park. Finally, the State Championship.....

Every year, some new parent posts something very similar to this. Having been around here for 6+ years between the original and the current board, I've read countless threads to "redo State/National Cup" stories. As you've experienced, nothing has changed, other than CalSouth has added new venues like Silverlakes and Oceanside complexes.

I recall 0ur kids playing in snow during February National Cup in lovely Lancaster as well it was so warm that it felt like a nice spring day at the same venue.

As years go on, and if your lucky enough to have your kid still playing, the awful Jan~Mar dates change to April~May dates. Venues also becomes better in that its either at Silverlakes, Oceanside, or Oxnard. Its my understanding that OC Great Park is even more part of the venue since the expansion (they've been using the 4 original field for few years now). I even heard a rumor that the National Cup final games will be played in the OCGP grandstand stadium.

From SoCal, if are very lucky and win a lot, you get to goto other venue for regional playoff in other state in June and the ultimate National finals in July - typically somewhere humid and not great.

Clearly, one can organize, petition and run-for Calsouth position or try to impact how best to run their tournaments - good luck and you have support of most of us on this forum, along with thousands of younger's parents from SLO to Chula Vista. Many teams in Central CA simply don't bother due to distances.

...But, for me, like mulitsports, have come to appreciate the whole experience with the right attitude and expectations. I now look back to those 30mph sustained winds with gust up to 45~50mph, where a punted ball actually travels less than 5 feet, as "remember when..." with our kids.

You see, it simply is not important enough to get worked up about, when I consider the big picture for me so I enjoy it for what it is. YMMV......

 

[carla hinkle]

I was looking at the Cal North website and I'm pretty sure they organize it differently...youngers (U9-U12) play in December, I think? It wouldn't solve all the problems but at least the little kids would be done before tryouts?

 

[Josep]

Don't count out some of those teams from further North and East. President's 04 had 8 of the sweet 16 from outside of OC. Some big, strong, fast girls out there. They played decent soccer too. Maybe not connecting 10 passes in a row, but nothing different than you see from an OC team that has one or 2 dominant physical players.
Surprised to see Coachella Valley lose yesterday.

TB, what age group is this? I tend to see most of the eligible OC teams in national cup if the option is there. So there is a larger higher ratio of non OC teams playing Presidents.

 

[SPChamp1]

I don’t have any particular issue with the distance to venues. Where we live in the LA/LB Area, even the trips to SD are manageable for our family. The one and done formats absolutely suck when teams have to travel extreme distances. I am more frustrated with the fact that the hotels in the areas near the fields jack up their prices on State Cup weekends. I’ve stayed in Lancaster at the Residence Inn visiting a friend one weekend not during State Cup and I paid $109 before taxes. During State Cup that same hotel was $189 before taxes.

If Lancaster is a “right of passage” for CalSouth players, then negotiate reasonable hotel rates and then negotiate kick backs with the Local Businesses when families patronize the businesses. You’d probably get more people to stay overnight even with the one and done format. it helps the local economy, which could drive more money into the facility to expand and/or improve the playing surfaces.