July 13, 2005

Update from UYSA President Leisa Vineyard

I would like to take this opportunity to review the past few months and all of the changes that have taken place due to many hours of hard work put in by the Board of Directors and myself. The biggest being the re-construction of the Competition Committee. As many of you know I called for a Special Council meeting to vote on three rule changes submitted by Jon Butler on behalf of several teams. All three of those rules were voted down for various reasons. The state then suspended rule 6:01:02 which defines membership on the competition committee so that we could propose the following changes:

• The Boys and Girls competition boards combine as one committee.
• Each affiliated club has a seat on the proposed board and that a representative from each district sits on the proposed committee to represent all independents teams and un-affiliated clubs within their respective districts.
• The proposed committee would have charge of all issues pertaining to the competition program.
• The proposed committee would have the power to decide how many teams would be in a division, input on scheduling, and be able to make changes to improve the level of play.

Basically, the proposed Competition Committee would have control to determine how the program would run. The Board of Directors function in all of this is only to review changes to insure that they do not violate any rules set forth by the United States Youth Soccer and US Soccer as we are the Utah affiliated of these organizations and responsible for upholding all policies. This proposal passed unanimously and has already been set in motion.

As President of Utah Youth Soccer I can assure each of you that even though the Board of Directors has within its membership very knowledgeable and accomplished coaches their intentions are not to interfere with changes that are proposed by this committee. Their involvement is limited to reviewing any proposed changes to insure that they are not in violation of an existing rule. They, like each of you, share the desire to have a program that is developing players at the highest level.

As President I have some oversight and have committed to making it minimal. I have entrusted Debbie Haycock, Girls State Competition Director and David Malchenson Boys State Competition Director to direct and oversee this committee. We feel that these changes have given each of you an opportunity to have ownership in this program.

CLARIFCATION ON RULE 3:01:02

I have also been asked to give clarification regarding the rule 3:01:02 that pertains to merging districts to create a program. The rule states that a merger can happen when "there is a lack of sufficient qualified registered players to provide a program". The purpose is not to combine two districts to create a program if it is already being provided by the State. The merger can only happen between two adjacent leagues or districts. Anything more than two district combining for one program would be recognized as inter-district play and would need the approval of the State Board of Directors.

CLARIFICATION ON NEW USYSA ROSTER RULE FOR U-17 THROUGH U19

Another great change that has come down from US Youth Soccer is the change to the U-17, U-18 and U-19 roster. Effective September 1, 2005 U17 and above may have up to twenty-two players on their team roster. This is a huge help in filling a game roster as it is often difficult to field a team within these age groups. The full details for this change will be available shortly.

I am looking forward to another great season and wish all of you the best. Each of you has contributed greatly to the success of our program and I thank all for your hard work and dedication.

Leisa Vineyard
President, UYSA