We believe we know who started and is trying to spread this rumor. It's so absurd it's almost not worth responding, but I feel obligated to say something in defense of the club.
Our 05s and 07s both went undefeated and won their SOCAL Discovery NPL divisions (the 07s played up as 06s.) Neither team used college or non-league players (but the girls are flattered--thanks.) Both qualified for the playoff this weekend, however neither team was going to be available to play in Colorado next July. Our 05s will have graduated high school; some will have jobs, some will be traveling, and some will be preparing for their college preseasons. We have a small team, so losing even a couple of players makes it impractical for us to compete. Our 07s will be in a GA showcase next summer, and it's a financial burden for those families to do two travel events back-to-back.
We could have just played this weekend, maybe/probably gone through, then pulled out of nationals early next year. But, in an effort to be respectful to the league (and to the other teams in our divisions) we informed Michelle Chesters that we would rather give the second place teams the opportunity to take our spots. Michelle's response was to inform us that we had violated the terms of our commitment to NPL and that she would forfeit all of our games. Shortly after, we saw both of our teams' records flipped. I could post the emails but will refrain for now.
I appreciate that Michelle has a duty to protect her league. For two years, that has been our interest as well. We've done two hour drives to beat teams 11-0 on crap fields with one ref with no complaint. We let SOCAL use our highlights on their socials and have tried to represent the league as well as we could. When our girls went through college recruiting at schools like Notre Dame, Princeton, and TCU, playing in Discovery NPL was something they had to overcome. They had to prove their quality
despite the league, because the top college programs just want to see ECNL or GA. But, again, we protected SOCAL.
But we also have a duty to our families—many of whom have very limited financial means—to provide the best possible platform for our players who want to play in college and beyond. Despite its best intentions (and sales pitch) SOCAL Discovery NPL is not a college scout magnet. If our 07s can only take one trip next summer, we
have to choose the one that will feature the highest level of competition and exposure. Anything less would be sacrificing our players’ dreams out of loyalty to a league that forfeited some of our games this year when LAUSD canceled all its permits--without giving us a chance to reschedule them.
As I've said here before, we're a small club doing our best to do youth soccer better. We're not perfect, but we try to do things the right way. That's why we reached out to Michelle
before this weekend, rather than wait until afterwards. Although I guess we could have just gone to Silverlakes and told the girls to tank the game on Saturday. Would that have been a better message?
Ultimately, our club is fine. We have some extraordinary girls who develop into incredible soccer players. Again, nice to know we can be accused of cheating by teams who lose to us when our Notre Dame and Princeton recruits aren't even playing. So the people who have been punished by this are the girls, who worked hard, played fair, and went undefeated--and don't understand why their records now say the opposite.
But youth soccer is all about the kids, right?
(
@Dominic, if I can prove that this is all bullshit, can we remove this ridiculous, borderline libelous thread?)