Boys and girls hoping to play soccer in the Metro Select division in September must sign up for player evaluations at Burnabysoccer.com.
That’s the message from Burnaby District Youth Soccer Association chair John Berry following a March 10 meeting that confirmed the board’s earlier decision to affiliate the Metro Soccer League through the district.
“We think player development is enhanced when we have closer links with our partner clubs, particularly our feeder clubs,” said Berry.
The move will also help forge closer links with the high performance Premier League’s Mountain FC, which is a joint venture with the Burnaby and North Vancouver districts, Berry added.
All but one of the district’s five feeder clubs, Burnaby Girls, Burnaby Selects, Cliff Avenue United, Royal City Youth, South Burnaby Metro Club and Wesburn soccer associations, supported the confirmation at the March 10 meeting.
With the Burnaby Selects unable to operate an independent program in the 2014/15 season, it’s important that all youth players take advantage of the evaluations, which are being extended into April because of some of the confusion that resulted from the district’s move, said Berry.
Selects coach Frank Iuele has been named the new head coach of the District Metro Selects soccer program, Berry said. Many other Selects coaches have also been retained by the district. Iuele will handle the under-16 boys team.
Metro coaches named by the district include Geoff Labine (u-18A boys), Ned Forcan (u-17 girls), Kevin McManus (u-15 boys), Kris Blazevic (u-15 girls) and Dave Bellotti (u-14 girls).
The District’s decision came following a long deliberation with the Selects group to provide more representation for the feeder clubs on its executive board.
“The bottom line is the agreement didn’t happen and we decided to run the teams ourselves,” said Berry.
Executive director of B.C. Soccer Paul Mullen said the district was well within its constitutional guidelines to make such a decision.
“The district has the right and responsibility for how Select teams are formed and defined,” Mullen said.
Mullen added that any appeal of a district decision must be made within 10 working days of such a decision, and in this case, no appeal was filed.
Feeder clubs that ran existing Metro league programs were also allowed to continue operating them until the team’s graduation, added Berry.
The three district clubs operating girls’ programs Royal City, Burnaby Girls and Cliff Avenue are cooperating to ensure teams at the right levels are formed.
For more information, go to http://www.burnabysoccer.com/
