What's the matter with Connecticut?

[Unregistered]

Between 1993 and 1999, 4 different CT girls teams won 4 premier USYS national championships. With all of the increased interest, energy, organization and money thrown at CT premier soccer in the past dozen years, the state has produced exactly ZERO national champions.

The teams against whom CT competed back then are still around today. Surf, Eclipse, Sting, Rush, Solar, Texans, PDA, De Anza, etc. in the meantime, the CT premier scene has become much more organized and prolific. Despite the business development of CT premier soccer, however, it seems that the product has not improved on a relative basis.

What's the matter with Connecticut?

[Unregistered]

Between 1993 and 1999, 4 different CT girls teams won 4 premier USYS national championships. With all of the increased interest, energy, organization and money thrown at CT premier soccer in the past dozen years, the state has produced exactly ZERO national champions.

The teams against whom CT competed back then are still around today. Surf, Eclipse, Sting, Rush, Solar, Texans, PDA, De Anza, etc. in the meantime, the CT premier scene has become much more organized and prolific. Despite the business development of CT premier soccer, however, it seems that the product has not improved on a relative basis.

What's the matter with Connecticut?

One obvious hypothesis is diffusion of talent among too many teams. Another is that CFC's United teams systematically skim the best players off the top and do not put them in position to win a USYS national championship. But that would only explain the last few years.

It's also possible that, regardless of how much girls soccer has developed over the past 10 years in CT, other programs in other states have simply developed more. It's not just soccer though... Ever try taking a CT baseball team out west or down south? Let's not even get into football or basketball... Keep on trying, Nutmeg State, but don't get your hopes too high.

[Unregistered]

2x1.5*9/12

One obvious hypothesis is diffusion of talent among too many teams. Another is that CFC's United teams systematically skim the best players off the top and do not put them in position to win a USYS national championship. But that would only explain the last few years.

of It's also possible that, regardless of how much girls soccer has developed over the past 10 years in CT, other programs in other states have simply developed more. It's not just soccer though... Ever try taking a CT baseball team out west or down south? Let's not even get into football or basketball... Keep on trying, Nutmeg State, but don't get your hopes too high.

thats days pr wek*hrs*months trained over total number of months in a yr
math is simple......doesn't look like a very good formula but it costs $2500

odp formula even worse....2hrs*8/52 weeks + 2hrs*1day*4months dont ask what that formula costs

development at its finest...i know kids should be practicing at home against a wall....not

[Unregistered]

population density

I think the answer to all of these types of questions is population. Dallas TX is about 20 miles by 20 miles. The population is 10x that of Hartford. Add in the surrounding lesser populated towns around Hartford to cover 20 miles and youre lookin at what? 20% of the population of Dallas in the same square miles? Using 20 mile drive for the example, that means one TX club can probably pull from 6-10x more kids than one located in the densest part of CT. Expand the area to match how far a United girls team would drive to match greater area of incomings for Dallas Texans and Id guess the ratio is similar. Even if you just look regionally I would guess it's the same situation. Someone can do the population math for PDA but I'd guess they are at least 2x as densely populated. All things being equal shouldnt they be much better? Using ECNL as an example Id be interested to know if there is a club pulling from less of a population than CT in about a 90 minute radius?

To put this in perspective make your u17 all-star team from central CT. Now make one for each of the past 10 years. Now make ONE all star team from those 10 teams and that's what CT is up against.

Being a small city state hurts in other ways too. What % of kids have access to turf when fields are muddy or closed? What % have access to indoor in the winter. Even TX goes inside when its too hot. There are less soccer jobs here than in TX so with all do respect to our coaches, econ 101 says there would be lesser coaches filtering up to our best kids just as it is for players.

[Unregistered]

I should add that these are not reasons why CT is not good. Id guess we are very good when its broken down by the numbers. CT clubs do a good job of workin with what it has. From reading websites it sounds like its made big strides since taking the stearing wheel from cjsa.

Correct me if im wrong but CT's ECNL team is not as bad as we are small and either is our academy team.

[Unregistered]

How can you win soccer championships when you are from the nutmeg state?

[Unregistered]

too many teams

The herd of players is spread out to thin..we r a small state and there is too much money being paid out to too many teams promising that young Suzy is the next Mia Hamm. Odp South Central and Yankee used to be all there was and they did a good job of culling out the players who did not belong...no B teams.. total commitment to the team...and club. how many championships did Yankee win back in there heyday??....Ct. soccer has been a cash cow for too may people lately and unfortionatly the parents have bought into it.

[Unregistered]

Commitment from parents and the club. These 1 or 2 days practices a week are not going to cut it. My daughter has played premier for 5 years and waht the clubs yell you at tryouts they never deliver. But parents need to commit as well.

[Unregistered]

The herd of players is spread out to thin..we r a small state and there is too much money being paid out to too many teams promising that young Suzy is the next Mia Hamm. Odp South Central and Yankee used to be all there was and they did a good job of culling out the players who did not belong...no B teams.. total commitment to the team...and club. how many championships did Yankee win back in there heyday??....Ct. soccer has been a cash cow for too may people lately and unfortionatly the parents have bought into it.

Unfortunately? Not if your goal is for CT soccer to be as strong as it can possibly be.

Population density? CT is the 4th densest state in America. And in terms of desnsity x participation rate, CT is to girls soccer what the Dominican Republic is to baseball.

Time on the ball? Don't know about the rest of you but my daughters get 5-8 hours of training every week. Plus games. And there is tons of indoor and turf capacity in CT.

The OP was asking why CT used to win national championships and doesn't anymore. My guess is that CT was once very far ahead of the curve in terms of having the top athletes playing soccer in the Fall. And ahead of the curve in terms of having professional coaching - you know, guys with accents. Now, every top female athlete plays soccer in Fall... and Spring... if not Winter as well. Some leakage of elite talent to track and basketball in the "off" seasons but often workable with the soccer schedule. Now, other regions have caught up to our approach to soccer and we can no longer win WAY more than our share of titles. That's what we were doing before - winning WAY more than our share...

[Unregistered]

how many championships did Yankee win back in there heyday??

Only 1. Back in 1997.

[Unregistered]

The herd of players is spread out to thin..we r a small state and there is too much money being paid out to too many teams promising that young Suzy is the next Mia Hamm. Odp South Central and Yankee used to be all there was and they did a good job of culling out the players who did not belong...no B teams.. total commitment to the team...and club. how many championships did Yankee win back in there heyday??....Ct. soccer has been a cash cow for too may people lately and unfortionatly the parents have bought into it.

Get over it. The time when we had only a couple of premier clubs is done and over and ain't coming back. The current system is what the free market has dictated. The only way to bring back the system you want is if the US becomes a totalitarian state so we get prohibit people from starting new businesses. Ain't happening.

[Unregistered]

Obama!

[Unregistered]

Obama!

It is remarkable how the language of socialism and central planning drips down into the popular culture. "You didn't make that..." The bile directed at entrepreneurs like Coxon... The anti-achievement tone in SOME (certainly not all) of the criticisms of Kydes. "There should only be 4 premier teams...".

Sports is one of the few areas of our culture where freedom, competition and merit are supposed to trump the impulses of the meddling nannies. Next fall we start a new (sports) year and, hopefully, get the country back on an American path.

[Unregistered]

Thanks Hillary

[Unregistered]

hopeychangey

Hey, we can still HOPE for CHANGE in November...