The new LPDL and what it means to the small LA club/player

[lovenorthshoresoccer]

Seeking guidance on new LPDL. This post is meant to get clarification/guidance, it is not a criticism of LSA or any of its programs or clubs. Just trying to figure where a player fits in this new system.

Assume we are talking about a “top player” player currently playing at “the highest level of competition possible”, for this year a Division I LCSL team that is very competitive. Assume next that this team is not affiliated with a club that is part of the new LPDL.  There are currently at least 8 clubs not a part of the new LPDL that currently field Division I teams.

As I understand it, the only way this player can take part in the LPDL would be to tryout out for and roster on one of the LPDL teams at one of the LPDL clubs which means this player has to leave her current club at the end of this season and move to one of the LPDL clubs. In reviewing the new rules, it appears that a player can move between LPDL teams and LCSL teams. This movement, however, appears to be restricted to movement between LPDL and LCSL teams in the same club. There is an exception in Policy 305.7.6.5 which states “A player who commenced the seasonal year as a registered member on one Club rostered on that Club’s LPDL team may transfer to an LCSL team or an LPDL team of another Club at any time during a seasonal year.” Unfortunately that rule does not go both ways as Policy 305.7.6.4 states that “No player who commenced the seasonal year as a registered member of one Club may be rostered on, train with or play on the LPDL team of another Club in the same seasonal year.”



It appears that LSA is encouraging every “top player” currently playing on a team not part of one of the 5 LPDL clubs to move to one of these clubs in order to “play at the highest level of competition possible”. While a player could transfer back to her LCSL team under policy 305.7.6.5, that player must first leave her club/team.

For those who stay, will the LCSL be so watered down that competition levels suffer. Also, how will the state tournaments work when the LPDL teams are put into the brackets, where will the LCSL Division I teams fall and how will the teams be seeded?

To make informed choices, players and their families need further guidance on how this system will work. Also, you have limited this level of competition to certain clubs, what safeguards will be in place to protect players coming from smaller clubs from bias by coaches who have not coached them and do not know them.



While I will reserve judgment until further guidance is given, I would suggest that a better utilization of resources would have been to form this LPDL on regional lines, across clubs. Allow the best players in this state to train with LPDL teams that cross club lines, with a team in the south and one in the north. That way you could expand your pool of top players beyond the 5 chosen clubs without destroying the ability of smaller clubs to field competitive teams at every level of competition. The 5 chosen clubs already have teams at every level, the only difference in this new system is that you have excluded the smaller clubs from the game. Given that there are at least 8 clubs outside of the chosen 5 that compete at the current highest level, those are a lot of players you are attempting to move.



Again, this is not a criticism. It is a request for more information from people who may know more about this new system. I understand that Louisiana teams currently have very poor showings at the regional levels, outside of a few exceptions and that we need to improve on a statewide basis. But in general, those regional teams already come from the 5 chosen clubs. What will change within those clubs to improve these teams? Will forcing players who currently chose not to play with those clubs to move to those clubs improve the level of play? Will those players make the move? At what age do you start telling players in the smaller clubs of the limits in competition and the need to move? The questions are endless….

Forgive the ramble, again just looking for guidance in an ever changing landscape in which it is often hard to identify what is best for any given player/team/club.

[dme1214]

I assume by your name you are in the Mandeville area, and also assume your daughter doesn't play for them. I know Cabosa is having a informational meeting the first week in April to explain the new league to the people that have an interest.
I would assume Mandeville SC and LA Fire will both do the same. That's probably where you'll get many of your answers.

[laffysoccermom]

These teams will improve competitively in regionals because they will pull top players from other clubs. I think it will have mixed results with a few strong teams and the rest basic comp 1 teams. I honestly don't think it will improve the level of soccer in Louisiana. I find it doubtful that even the big clubs will be able to field a team that can compete at this level at each age group.

I agree that a better option would be to have regional teams where 2-3 clubs form a team similar to some of the CSC and BRSC Alliance teams.

I'm not an expert and may be wrong. I think this is more or less a move where the larger clubs are protecting their turf.

[gryphon8s]

This answers some of your questions. I suggest you contact your club representative for the rest.



The LPDL will be combined age groups at U14/U15, U16/U17 and U18/U19 in both genders.
LPDL teams will not compete in the LCSL.
LPDL teams will be eligible to compete in the RPL at the older of the two age groups.
LPDL teams will be encouraged not to compete in any other league so as to keep a proper
training to game ratio and to keep costs to soccer families within reason.
Clubs will not be limited on the number of players on each roster from each specific birth year.
There will be 5 teams in each age group/gender.
LPDL play will consist of 8 games in a home/away series between each Club.
At least 3 LPDL games must be played in both the spring and the fall.
All LPDL games will be self-scheduled to give Clubs freedom to attend regional and national events.
Player movement to and from LPDL will be open.
Players will be permitted to participate on their high school teams.
All costs to LSA will remain the same as LCSL teams.

[doughboy]

I'm not sold on lpdl and I bet there will be another restructuring in a couple years. Particularly with the older age groups . I actually think some smaller clubs may benefit from not being involved. You know , as they get older, some girls just wanna play a little soccer. And some of these players are good. Really good. I have 3 daughters in 2 different clubs. This is just my uneducated observation. At the end I just let my girls make their own decisions, while giving them as much info as I can find. But if Louisiana wants to go national, this ain't the way imo. Too many teams, too many kids affected.

[goalie1]

The only way for Louisiana to compete on a regional/national stage is the way La Fire did a few years ago. They had a dedicated group of talented players that came from Slidell, Baton Rouge,Lafayette and New Orleans and all wanted to go to the next level. Only the best made the team. Soccerdad 23 could provide more insight.

[doughboy]

Mar 8, 2017 9:34:30 GMT -6 goalie1 said:

The only way for Louisiana to compete on a regional/national stage is the way La Fire did a few years ago. They had a dedicated group of talented players that came from Slidell, Baton Rouge,Lafayette and New Orleans and all wanted to go to the next level. Only the best made the team. Soccerdad 23 could provide more insight.

This is the way to do it.

[kevin]

Mar 8, 2017 9:34:30 GMT -6 goalie1 said:

The only way for Louisiana to compete on a regional/national stage is the way La Fire did a few years ago. They had a dedicated group of talented players that came from Slidell, Baton Rouge,Lafayette and New Orleans and all wanted to go to the next level. Only the best made the team. Soccerdad 23 could provide more insight.

Realistically, this is probably the best solution if the only concern is doing well at national competitions. It was essentially a South LA all-star team.

However, not everyone is going to want a commitment that may involve two hours of travel just for practice. In theory I think this LPDL model seems like a good idea. There are enough teams that teams can get in-state competition, but not so many teams that the talent pool gets too diluted. I do worry about the effects on smaller clubs, but parents have already been sending their kids to different clubs for better opportunities (i.e. the aforementioned LA Fire team). Realistically I think we should expect a pyramid of different clubs. The biggest clubs (in the biggest cities) are going to be able to field teams at a wide variety of levels in each groups. Smaller clubs (such as those in more rural areas) aren't going to have as many kids to pull from, so they may not be able to field a team capable of competing at the highest level. Are those smaller clubs going to lose out on some kids? Probably. Is that bad for those clubs? Yes. But the more important question is this: is it good for those kids? Yes. Now, as mentioned, there will be some kids who don't want as much of a time commitment and may not be interested in an LPDL team. And that's fine. But we can do a better job for the kids who are trying to compete at the collegiate or professional level.

[lovenorthshoresoccer]

I still am not really fully understanding, you say it will be good for "those kids" from smaller clubs, but those kids already could be traveling to the bigger club to play. They have chosen not to and in some cases are playing on better teams than those offered at the bigger club. If I understand what you are saying, the theory is, we remove the competition from the smaller club and presumably force those kids to the bigger club and thereby everyone benefits. If you want to compete at the highest level, your only option in Louisiana is Club A, B, C, D or F.

That is fine, but it will not work unless there are truly protections in place to insure those kids/families joining these big clubs at 13 will be treated the same as those who have been there since they were 4. I am guessing many of these families will find a way to compete without having to move. If the purpose of this truly is to improve training, then let the training happen pool based but open cross club availability environment. Form pools from different clubs that train at the LPDL club. Train kids at the LPDL club from all clubs, truly open up the training and then form the actual competition teams from these open training pools on a regional basis, not five teams but two or maybe three teams at most.

The LCSL and all of its rules, was designed to limit competition at the highest level to the big clubs. This has not totally worked and you still have the competitive small club team who gets in to the top groups now and then, often times with players who may have moved from other clubs, either as a team or individuals. There are rules in place to limit this movement, yet still it happens, often because the big club has not met the needs of the player. So now we have a new system, this one limits the top competition to certain clubs. Will this stop player movement, maybe, time will tell, but are we protecting the player and her training or are we protecting the club. If it is the player, then open this training and these opportunities to all players in this state without turning your small clubs into simple feeders for your big clubs.

[cosmos]

I am not sure if that much has really changed by forming the LPDL.

The larger clubs already have their older teams playing in regional leagues.

I suppose the next 3 or 4 clubs in size that are not in the LPDL might be impacted the most, but these are the same clubs that develop players that sometimes leave for the larger clubs at the older ages anyways.

As mentioned already there are many factors that influnce a player's/family's decision to leave one club's team for another. LPDL versus non LPDL club is just one more to add to that list.

In theory by pooling all or most of state's top players Louisiana could do better on the national level. The problem is that the country has moved away from the state pooling model and more towards the mega clubs in large cities with US developmental academy teams. Louisiana only has a couple of large clubs. If New Orleans could one day form a club large enough to have a US DA team, then the problem of forming a top state team would instantly be solved. Until that day exists, I am not sure there is one clear path for a top Louisiana player that wants to play DI college soccer.

[alto1smom]

Mar 8, 2017 9:34:30 GMT -6 goalie1 said:

The only way for Louisiana to compete on a regional/national stage is the way La Fire did a few years ago. They had a dedicated group of talented players that came from Slidell, Baton Rouge,Lafayette and New Orleans and all wanted to go to the next level. Only the best made the team. Soccerdad 23 could provide more insight.

This team was so good because management was elite.  The manager Steve Higginson constantly battled the club and LSA to push the team higher.  The team was open to ANY player who wanted more and was able to compete and it was NOT a team of the best players! There were all levels of players, we didn't have Courtney Robichaux, Maggie Otellio and many others.  Kids came and went, but the core remained in tact.  This league will be no better than a C1 team in the club is now.  As I read on it, it simply is a marketing scheme for big clubs to keep money flowing.  Any league that prohibits the BEST players from participating because of their club affialation or zip code is not and never will be the BEST teams.  It's sort of like ODP when all the BEST players are not playing.  

What should happen is ALL players should have an open tryout and the best kids make it. All fees should be paid to the club they affiliate with and the coaches should be shared between clubs.  Once thee money is not an issue the big clubs will loose interest and treat it the way they treat ODP which is telling families it's a waste of time.

[alto1smom]

I must reiterate this "Strike Squad" was so successful because ANY girl with the desire to compete on a higher level was welcome! Kids traveled to train, but some arrangements were made where training took plac closer to home. That same group of girls were successful at ODP and only trained together once before events. The Shreveport/Lake Charles girls trained in their neck of the woods and the BR/NO/Mandy girls trained in their neck of the woods!

Short Answer: Success is inclusion, I thought we were beyond this foolishness with Civil Rights!

[goalie1]

Glad to see this thread still active. Alto you bring a lot of good insights to the conversation.

[Steven Gerrard]

But, the big question is whether or not Higgerson still has those pink shorts?

[alto1smom]

Mar 24, 2017 10:59:58 GMT -6 Steven Gerrard said:

But, the big question is whether or not Higgerson still has those pink shorts?

He does not have the pink shorts.  Funny thing is the shorts were originally red and Collette, his wife, wanted to trash them long before they were famous, but the girls became superstitious and wanted him to keep them LOL.

I think I neglected to post this or it was taken down.

This new league is a way for the big clubs to keep the money.  If the BEST talent for the BEST league is what we desire, then keeping players out because of club affiliation is noting more than those clubs C1 teams, competition does not change.

This is a marketing ploy and if some of these teams played the smaller club teams what are solid they would still loose.  If LSA truly wants to put the best talent on the field have an open tryout for this league and have all families pay their fees to the club affiliate and now the clubs don't care.  

This is simply BS to making C1 teams that will compete in state, but unless they are not going to allow the smaller clubs to compete then there is no gaurantee that these SUPER teams will be in RPL because they still have to win!

[laffysoccermom]

Likely most of the smaller clubs won't be in comp 1 at state tournament anyway. With five teams in these levels, all but one of the comp 1 league teams will probably get bumped to President's Cup.

I guess every other year they might stand a chance.

Honestly it seems like the big clubs are trying to eliminate all competition using the guise of developing elite players.

Just my opinion....

[cosmos]

Current bylaws only allow LCSL comp 1 to play in the state cup and prohibit any LCSL comp 1 team from playing in president's cup. No moving comp 1 teams down to president's cup like in the past.

You are correct in that everyother year the LCSL comp 1 teams from smaller clubs would stand a better chance.

Bylaws can always change in the future

[laffysoccermom]

They may do a play-in weekend for the current Comp 1 teams and possibly make it an 8 team bracket.

[lovenorthshoresoccer]

Another note, there are now some pretty comprehensive new Policy 212 called "Ethical Standard and Professional Rules of Conduct for all Club Directors of Coaching, Coaching Staff, Independent Coaches, Assistant Coaches and Team Managers" that would make it very difficult to ever do the same thing the Chicago fire team did with an all star type team. Once parents, players, coaches, managers or any combination of the above started talking, this could be construed as improper recruiting. In other words, if you put out there you are creating a super team, clearly you are "marketing or promoting one club in a manner that may be reasonably construed as specifically targeting the players of another club" While that section applies to player transfers, if you go under tryout, it reads, 'no players or their parents shall be utilized in any manner to recruit players." It seems like these rules are designed to make it easy for complaints to be made on behalf of the club who looses the super player. In other words, it looks like our system is now designed to limit top competition to 5 clubs, and then to give a means of complaint if there is any movement between either these clubs or any other. So no way to get all the top talent at one single club. Not sure how this benefits the player as opposed to the club.

[coachguam]

Beware of a wolf in sheep’s clothing… Many of the posts have been speculating possible motivations, but all you need to do is simply connect the dots to find the obvious truth. This is an elaborate marketing scheme designed to push the best players from the smaller clubs to the big 5 clubs.  The initiative may have started out about development, but the fine print restrictions are about money.  The more disturbing thing here is that LSA seems to be complicit in the scheme, and I thought they were supposed to represent all the clubs? LSA always talks as if this LPDL was our idea, but I was at the competitive committee meeting when it was first introduced and I assure you it was a finished product not open to modification day one. Many of the clubs said they believed it should have been a regional not club based concept, but that was not up for discussion. It was suggested that the very stringent requirements necessary for a club to qualify to be an LPDL club should be phased in over time so that more could qualify, that was not up for discussion. We were told day one that there would be 5 LPDL clubs (interesting number, I am sure there is no correlation to the big 5 clubs) and their locations would be in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mandeville, Lafayette and Shreveport. There are very distinctive signs that this is designed to get as many players as they can up front for the big clubs, then make it difficult to undo even if the LPDL falls flat on its face year one. First sign, “there will only be 5 LPDL teams in each division”, not so subtle. Second sign, “the LPDL teams will NOT have a roster cap”, grab as many players as you can at the beginning because in the LPDL we can defy reality and play everyone? Third sign, “you can only transfer back and forth to a team within the LPDL club with an exception you can go back to your small club if that is where you came from”. Only one problem, in order to get placed on one of these LPDL teams you must tryout at the big club and probably register there as well… Buyers beware, this is a bait and switch. Final sign, the LPDL teams are pretty much immune to every LSA rule out there including recruiting restrictions. Wake up and speak up, because this is a sham. I want the player development to improve in Louisiana too, but this initiative is more of the same. Any initiative that has a chance at success must be a collaborative effort that is not deceptive or exclusive, and collaborative does not happen when you come to a competition committee meeting a drop a plan that is not open to modification or improvement to make it more inclusive. This initiative NEVER addressed the small clubs that are producing highly competitive teams in C1, and contradicting the notion that only the big 5 know how to develop players in Louisiana…