Should Boys Soccer Go Four Divisions???

Written Tuesday September 16th at 8:10 AM

By Anthony Taormina

Every year, we see a clear disparity especially among the teams in the lower divisions. Even next year when both Waterford Kettering and Waterford Mott come into the OAA. It is clear that both are them are established and will field teams. One of the questions that surround certain schools is whether they will field teams or not. The lowest division, the Blue has four teams you are pretty certain will field a team but there are three teams you never know.

So, here’s the question, should Boys Soccer follow the same route as Girls Soccer.

Go Four divisions.

Give teams particularly those three teams a chance to field teams and compete with each other. The teams I talk about are Southfield Arts and Tech, Oak Park, and Harper Woods. I am concerned with the participation numbers of those three schools. I wonder what is the issue there. Lack of commitment towards Boys Soccer. A bigger commitment to other programs like football (which all three teams field great numbers in.)

The Boys Coaches simply will not go four divisions. There is a lot of pride in being in the Red, it is one of the premiere divisions in the state of Michigan. Multiple State Champions have come out of being from the Red division but something has to be done to help the smaller schools, especially the three that struggle to field competitive programs.

The Girls Coaches get it right. To help teams who struggle, they set up a Gold divisions with four teams, Pontiac, Southfield Arts and Tech, Harper Woods, and Oak Park. For the last two years, it has been successful with teams having competitive games with the other and could argue, it has benefited participation numbers with those programs. While at the same time, you have a stacked Red and a stacked White division year in and out.

It would mean reducing the Blue division but it may be worth it.

It is clear that there are teams who stand out.

The league has tried to help the three boys teams in the past by placing Pontiac and Ferndale with them but how fair is that to both those teams? Yeah they get wins but they are not seen as strong wins.

You can still have a stacked Red division and a stacked White division but something has to be done in regards to the three teams who struggle to field programs. Follow the Girls model, set a separate Gold division, and have them play home and home with each other, its six games (out of eighteen you can play). It makes a lot of sense. It encourages those kids on struggling programs to hopefully come out and play. Putting them in a three division stacked Blue is not going to help anyone, it will discourage participation at those three schools, we may be seeing it. It’s something Boys Soccer Coaches might not see when it comes to their Realignment meetings. I know they like three divisions but in regards to those three schools, something has to change.