Youth soccer a success despite lower numbers

Even though the number of players in Fort Frances Youth Soccer was down this year compared to what it has been in the past, president Dave Berry still feels the 2012 season was a good one.
“All in all, I thought that this season went very well,” he remarked.

“Even though our numbers were down, and we would obviously like to see some more kids play, those that were out and played this year had a great time all year long.
“Plus, we had some wonderful weather this year, which is always a good thing,” he added.
Berry said about 360 players participated in youth soccer this year, which was noticeably lower than previous years.
“On average, we’ve had about 500 kids,” he noted. “And at our high point, we’ve had 700 kids.
“We don’t really know the reason why numbers are down this year, as we’ve certainly had no one come to us and say that we don’t want to play in the league anymore or that there is something else that is competing with the league,” said Berry.
“I think it’s something you see in all sports, where interest waxes and wanes over time, and right now we are finding ourselves on kind of a low point,” he reasoned.
One of the positive aspects from this season, though, was the change back to a traditional May-June schedule after the FFYS had tried extending the season into July last year.
“The extended season didn’t work out well for us last year as we ended up having to just put teams together to [hold] games,” Berry recalled.
“Even though this is a fun league for the kids, it’s still nice to have enough teams and players to have a good game and season, and going back into the traditional schedule helped with that.”
Once the regular league games conclude tomorrow, the FFYS plans to schedule a meeting in the near future, which is different from the usual date during the winter time.
“We want to do this in the summer while things are fresh in everyone’s mind,” Berry explained.
“The meeting will give the public a chance for anyone who wants to share their input into the league for next season, and to also see if anyone would like to join the board come next year.
“We had a lot of vacancies this year and as such, we only had about five people on the board,” he noted.
“So we would like to see some more involvement, and some new people come out and share their expertise.”