Dear Barbarians;
At the risk of shooting myself in the foot, or at least exposing the proverbial foot in the mouth routine, I write to you on this occasion to officially bring our 2005-2006 season to a close, and to continue the layout of how we will proceed for 2006-2007 in hopes that you may have ample opportunity to plan accordingly. Of course all of what will be covered is time sensitive material that will require some thought on the reader’s part and did so on the part of the writer, but none of what is written or ever done here with The Barbarians is for the feint of heart or weak minded. We do what we do without malcontent and with respect to all. We will not attempt to be politically correct in an age where every aspect of what is done is scrutinized by many, and for all the wrong reasons. At some point in your life you will come to know what it means to compete and how to be competitive, and whether to accept the status quo or set a course into un-chartered celestial bodies and to go where no one will, in search of those who may too have vision, beyond the skeptics who pervade the current youth soccer scene. Even the most well intended writer could confuse and obscure the rendering, for whom it is meant but believe me when I say that those who get it will, and those who don’t, never will.
Over the past few years we have attempted to acknowledge those players who have exhibited the best overall characteristics of being representative of the embodiment of The Barbarian Football Coalition over the course of their indoor season. The things that go unnoticed by most but greatly appreciated here, and those things, which mark the aspects of being more complete, as a player. We do not look to award acknowledgements for the sake of anything other than a sincere appreciation for what the individual brings to the team or club, and to make known what we think it would mean to be a complete player if any of us could embody most of these, combined. Throughout the course of the year we can say that there were on average 125 players in The Barbarians so for these individuals to capture a “look” or listen is something that they should take pride in and hopefully attempt to garner next time around, or improve upon. Where, or how to begin to lay this out is more difficult than you can imagine. So here goes…
BARBARIAN OF THE YEAR: Abby Ondeck
BEST ALL AROUND: Andrew Greenway
BEST PASSER: Tyler Bacco
COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Eric Fitchwell
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Nicholas Scioscia
MOST IMPROVED: Carla Shula
MOST SKILLFULL (foot) : Kiersten Bradnam
MOST SKILLFULL (off of the ball): Shane Hallett
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR: Trevor Martz
Congratulations to each of you on your distinction and recognition!
A major emphasis on how we proceed is that we maintain a level of consistency and that we do so as a continuum. Therefore, we will not enter more than one team in an age group until the Prime League Futsal expands its numbers to have more teams in competition. Our training methods provide every player with the opportunity to play up, against older competition without additional costs to families or to The Barbarian Football Coalition. Our goal will be to put the best players together legally; on every team we produce, so that we are able to compete for The State, Regional and the USFF National Futsal Titles. This will be achieved through gender specific teams, which are comprised of players from more than one area and more than one outdoor club. We cannot afford to move forward in the manner that has been occurring over the past couple of years, and enough has been written about that so that you all are aware of what I am speaking. It is my intention to begin training/tryouts with certain age groups at the beginning of September. Once a team is set with 7-9 players, all of the players who are not named to the team will be reserves on an active roster and continue to train with the team throughout the course of the season. Reserve players will have the opportunity to play on the team when the need arises but for the most part will have the option to compete in various tournaments in our area.
As of now, we are not planning to train U17, U18, or U19B nor participate in the league with any combination of players in those specific age groups. We do plan to begin training and compete in the U16B and younger age groupings, including U14B, U12B, and U10B as well as, U16G, and U14G but are uncertain below that age group for girls, so each U11B, U13B, U15B, U13G, or U15G who is interested in participating within The Barbarians will be able to do so. This is how we plan to proceed in the immediate future and will evaluate the proposal as we go along. We see no reason why we would not enter multiple teams in an age group for The State Cup but will monitor that situation very closely, so that we make certain the league has done all it can to have our doing so be worthwhile.
There are a lot of little intricacies and nuances that must be managed and not given into because of everyone’s desire to be a part of a team, to play in meaningless matches that do very little to help raise our level of play within this organization.
We are confident that because of our competitive stance we develop players’ skills more completely than are developed by entering league play at the expense of our credibility. It is our hope that you will come to understand that what we do is for the sake of our region, club, team, and individuals, in an attempt to raise the level of play that a competitive environment requires. It is never to serve our self! Let me know if you intend to be a part of the 2006-2007 indoor season by August 27th. I will move on from there.
As usual, I will see you on the pitch!
David W. Sayles