We've had a great relationship with Coast, but we told them back in August that we were going to withdraw from league play this fall because we felt it was the best thing for our families from a public health perspective. So we committed to just training as much as we can, hunkering down, and hoping to come out stronger on the other side. Our families have been incredibly supportive, and we've been able to retain our coaches, so while everyone would rather be playing, we've been fortunate and know it could be a lot worse.
The issue now is: what will SoCal soccer look like on "the other side?" And where does an ambitious, independent, competitive club fit in? We're still trying to figure that out.
It's a drag, though. Southern California has so much collective power in youth soccer; if we looked at ourselves as, essentially, a small country and created our own standards for development/scouting and our own unified pyramid for competition, we wouldn't need to drive six hours each way to play a couple of decent Arizona clubs (no offense, Arizonans). The "brand" we'd be developing would be SoCal soccer, not just a few super-clubs. I'm basically pitching Das Reboot for SoCal. And I have nothing but respect for ECNL, et. al. They do a great job and fill a need. It just seems like there was another way to fill that need in our area that would have been more coherent and...interesting. And ultimately better for a lot of kids.
