2005, October News Article

St. Charles Celtics A & B Leagues
A more competitive, fun system.

The Celtics Over 30 Soccer Club is starting its fifth year of indoor soccer at Sportsplex and this year marks its first use of A and B leagues. We who help run the league (and other players as well) have been discussing this idea for many years and now the increasing number of players in the league has allowed us to do it. Of the 18 teams in both leagues, 13 of them are Celtics “House” teams. A great deal of care, discussion and “horse-trading” has taken place over the last 2 months, the time we’ve taken to complete our draft process.

Here’s how the draft-process works
Volunteer Celtics Captains observe and evaluate players, then rank them on a scale of 1-10.  A player’s rank is usually a consensus of the Captain’s evaluations and we keep them private, as we know that they are only an estimate. Feel free to ask your Captain or me for your ranking, if you’re curious. We try to have each team’s total “Player Ranking” match the other teams’ in the league. That, theoretically, should help us achieve the almighty goal of Parity! Parity means competitive games and if that is achieved, then everyone benefits. Top-level players get the speed, skill and challenge they desire and less experienced players have the proper environment to develop their skills. The A league is designed to “by invitation or draft only”; meaning that an A league Captain has to want you on his team. The B league is more like the way our Club was designed in all prior years. Players of all levels are taken on the teams, so long as there is room on the roster. All remaining players are put onto a waiting-list. New teams are created in the Winter league (Jan.-Apr. ’06) for anyone on the waiting-list.

We clearly understand the draft-process is as much art as science and that our evaluations are not 100% accurate. Rankings are all relative to the entire pool of players, but through consensus of the Captains, I’d have to say they are fairly accurate. The best barometer of that, I believe, is that each year our leagues seem to be getting more evenly matched games and that is goal of the exercise.

The average Player Ranking in the A league is about 7.2; the average in the B league is about 4.8. For 6’s like me, we are, literally, in the middle and can play in either league. In fact, some players in the 5-6 ranges do just that! The average team rank in the A league is 88.8; the B league is 56.9. 

Relegation
The Relegation Games at the end of the Fall season will allow the top two B teams to play against the bottom 2 A league teams for a chance of advancement into the A league. If either B team wins, they advance to the A league and the losing A team(s) is “Relegated” to the B league. I love the Relegation process, as it rewards those teams who have the ambition and skill to advance. Plus, its evolutionary and helps maintain proper competitive levels in the league.

Affiliated or “Farm Teams”
One minor benefit of A & B leagues is that we’ve loosely affiliated A & B House teams so that an A House team can “borrow” a B player from their affiliated or “Farm” team. Its like the Farm System in major league baseball, with their AAA, AA, A teams, etc. Basically, when an A team is short of players, they have a roster from which to draw a temporary loaner player. A players cannot play with the B teams because of their potential impact on the outcome of the game.

Summary
The benefits of the A & B leagues are:

     1. Proper competitive levels for all players.
     2. A conducive learning environment for less experienced players.
     3. A challenging league for the more experienced players.
     4. In my opinion, a safer game for all players.

After watching the first games on this past Tuesday (10/18/05), it appears to have been a successful start of the season. I would like to hear from you, the players, about your thoughts on how competitive the leagues are, etc.

Anders Kauserud
kauserud@sbcglobal.net

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