2020/21 NSC Post Season FAQ

Question 1. Lack of Field space has been communicated as the primary reason post season participation in NPSL Spring League and Founder's Cup is not feasible. What is different this year in comparison to year's past?

Answer 1. Every spring, NYSA loses access to the Northcreek fields on March 1. In addition, spring sports use Woodinville Sports Fields (WSF) which reduces availability. With COVID19, and the schools starting compressed sports season the lack of access to school district fields is also a large constraint.  All fields used by NYSA are done via a contractual agreement with the field provider. The field providers work with many other entities besides NYSA. An empty field not being used does not mean it is not reserved by another entity and therefore unavailable to NYSA.

 

 

Note: Only the NYSA office can reserve fields for all of NYSA Programming. This is per contractual agreement. Washington Youth Soccer (WYS) is the largest youth serving organization in the state and breaks the state into smaller associations to better serve the community.  Each member association is given a service area, most follow the local school district boundaries, and this is their service area for soccer programming.  The designated service area of NYSA is the Northshore School District and Maltby Elementary.  Our premier program, Sound FC, works under an agreement between NYSA and South Snohomish County Youth Soccer Association (SSCYSA) that certifies it as the single premier program for both the Northshore and Edmonds School Districts.  Under this agreement premier soccer, and only premier soccer, is allowed to utilize fields in Lynnwood, Edmonds, and Mountlake Terrace.  All other NYSA programs need to be run at the fields within Northshore School District and Maltby.  

 

Question 2. Where was NSC money spent during 2020-21 since there was no Club spend, no league registration and no home games?

Answer 2. Per the NYSA Treasurer, by not having NSC games in the 2020-21 season, NYSA avoided ~$92k is cost. The ~$92k is derived from discretionary Club funding ($1k per team or $52k), Home game officiating ($32k) and NPSL League fees ($8K). The was offset with adding extra fields to promote extra training. As an example, NSC used double the time at 60 Acres than what was budgeted for pre-COVID. 60 Acres is one of NYSA's most expensive providers. The field cost came to ~$84k.

The remaining ~$8k helped cover the shortfalls of unfortunately not having a Rec season.

Note: tournament fees are an expense collected by individual teams and not covered by NYSA. New in 2020/21, NSC hired a paid Director of Coaching. The NSC DOC's responsibilities include developing and providing coach development and player programming opportunities.

 

 

 

Question 3: With the known field issues, what is the future state of post season for NSC in the 2021-22 season?

Answer 3:  Fortunately, all signs point to a more "normal" season in 2021-22.  Getting back on the regular calendar year for school sports will help NSC get back to regular program offerings. Field constraints will continue to be an issue and we encourage the community to help support any new field initiatives in our area.

 

 

 

Question 4:  At one point it sounded like NPSL Spring League and Founder's Cup was an option, then we were informed it was not. Please explain the conflicting message.

Answer 4: NSC realizes that there have been several communications on this topic and wanted to provide a summary of the timeline of these related communications from the time they originated:

  • It was communicated on 11/14/2020 that the NSC weekly and weekend training would end on February 28. 
  • It was communicated by the NSC DOC to NSC Coaches on January 27 that playing in spring season would be incredibly challenging due to the known springtime field constraints.
  • On January 28, the governor moved Puget Sound to phase 2 which allowed for games to be played.
  • On February 4, the NSC DOC provided NPSL Spring League and Founder's Cup information to Coaches. This was followed by an NSC wide communication on February 12 informing the community that unfortunately NSC would not be participating in NPSL Spring League or WYS Founder's Cup.
  • Additional information was published by NYSA on February 27 explaining the reasons NSC would not participate in post season spring offerings.

 

 

NSC is extremely grateful for the ability to offer an outlet to players for a period of 8 months during this extraordinary time and thank our Coaches for their dedication and families for their support.

Any additional questions should be sent to: info@northshoreselect.org