Dear Northern California Soccer Family,
We hope all of you and those close to you are healthy and safe during this time.
A few weeks ago, US Club Soccer suspended competition until April 30th effective for all its members – including NorCal Premier Soccer. US Club Soccer’s Board of Directors will meet on April 20th to review their policy going forward. NorCal Premier Soccer’s Board of Directors will meet immediately thereafter to review all of our competitions and create a new timeline, based on the US Club Soccer decision, along with the latest recommendations from medical and public health experts.
By the end of this week, we will have finished hosting a series of Regional Advisory Committee(RAC) online meetings, with each Club’s Director of Coaching. The initial RAC meetings, held over the past week, while sobering, were very encouraging. The overwhelming sentiments shared by those in the meetings were a sense of community and a deep concern for players and club members (coaches, board members, referees and of course the families). Competition between clubs has been set aside, replaced by an open sharing of ideas and collaborative attempts to help each other get through this crisis while playing a positive role in our members’ lives during this difficult time.
Our club soccer community has moved with remarkable speed to provide a “soccer outlet” for its members while providing other types of support as well. One club leader, working in a lower-income area, said his club’s primary focus was ensuring their players had meals to eat. Others spoke of developing a social outlet, organizing time for the players and parents to just visit with each other, team chat time and online happy hours, virtual support groups and delivering meals. Many clubs are using videos, online meetings, providing training plans, skills contests and even developing book clubs. Most importantly, club leadership has recognized we can use off-field soccer opportunities to connect with players and provide some normalcy, routine and support to players and their parents, during these abnormal times.
Most soccer clubs are non-profits with operations funded by their members. Few have reserves in place to survive months without collecting fees. In fact, a few soccer clubs have already furloughed their coaches and administrative staff, while others may soon be forced to do the same. Some clubs may not be able to survive the financial hardship COVID-19 has created. Hopefully, some of the support coming from the government will arrive quickly enough to enable soccer clubs to be ready to serve their players, once team sports are allowed to reconvene.
NorCal Premier Soccer recommends our clubs, parents and coaches work together to ensure clubs continue to operate, providing “virtual” connection and virtual soccer during this shutdown whenever possible, and that clubs be ready to start up immediately when permitted.
We encourage clubs to apply for all the government support of loans or grants feasible for their club to ensure they are utilizing every resource possible during these trying times. NorCal Premier Soccer has created a Coronavirus resource page to assist clubs in this area.
Recognizing there will be families struggling financially during this time, we encourage clubs to work with parents who have lost the ability to pay club fees, to remain in good standing. We encourage parents who are able to continue to support their club in any way appropriate, to try to do so. Should families have the means, we encourage them to consider making a tax-deductible donation to the club instead of taking a refund or credit to ensure our clubs can continue providing soccer to our youth players moving forward.
We encourage clubs who are able to provide virtual instruction to do so during this time. NorCal will provide resources to assist clubs in getting virtual soccer up and running.
NorCal Premier Soccer remains in close consultation with US Club Soccer, our sanctioning body, and the Northern Californian Club Soccer community. We will communicate an update to the post-April 30th timeline after the US Club Soccer announcement following their BOD meeting on April 20th. While we are not sure when we will return to playing soccer, we believe it vitally important that a healthy sports structure is at the ready once kids are allowed back on the field together.
Finally, we hope everyone is safe and healthy during this time. We look forward to a resumption of soccer and a return to more normal times.
Thank you, NorCal Board of Directors