A successful "mega-club"?

On another of my tangential, non-news postings, earlier this week, a friend of mine pointed out a recent excellent article on SoccerAmerica asking if there was a place for small clubs in the USA. As a quick summary, that article states that, yes there is a place, but at a certain point, those clubs will need to either combine or affiliate with another club to ensure the proper levels of development and standards.

As anything related to soccer here in Canada often does, this led to a discussion about how it could, would, and should apply up here in the so-called "frozen north". The big issues that arose were specifically that there are different levels of services expected between smaller and larger clubs and that the political and economic reasons for larger clubs tend to be outweighed by their lack of developmental benefits. Typically, the larger a club, the more inefficient it is and the oversight and accountability becomes more difficult to manage, much like we often see here in Ontario with the OSA↣District↣Club chain.

Outdoor Season is almost upon us... (Updated)

As the snow begins to melt and the grass (and turf) underneath begins to become visible and obvious, outdoor seasons are and tournaments are starting to warm up the turf in the Kingston area.

This past weekend, one of the last indoor tournaments took place, the Queen's High School indoor invitational, out at the Kingston 1000 Islands Sportsplex in Westbrook.

On the boys side, St. Pius X from Ottawa repeated as the boys champions with a 2-0 victory over Cornwall's St. Joseph's. Eight teams started pool play with St. Pius X and St. Joseph's finishing first in their respective divisions and a bye to the semi finals. St. Joseph's beat Belleville's Bayside 1-0 in the semis to advance to the final. St. Pius beat Pickering's Pine Ridge 2-0 in the semi finals on their way to the championship.

The girls side saw another repeat champion, also from Ottawa, as St. Francis Xavier HS won in a thrilling 1-0 overtime victory over Alliston's Banting Memorial. Thirteen teams started pool play with St. Francis Xavier, Banting Memorial and Whitby's Donald A Wilson capturing their respective divisions. Banting Memorial reached the final with a 1-0 quarter final victory over Smiths Falls, and a 1-0 semi final victory over Donald Wilson. St. Francis Xavier beat Bayside 3-1 in the quarter finals, and Pine Ridge 4-0 in the semi finals on their way to capturing the title.

KUSC Women's Premier to play in the OCSL

It would not be unfair to say that Bob Machin has been around the game of soccer his entire life. His father was one of the founders of the Kingston United Soccer Club (a men's club) in the late 1940s and his brother John was instrumental in the founding of the Pittsburgh Township Soccer Club. As such, it is extremely fitting that Bob finds himself belonging to the Kingston United Soccer Club (KUSC), a club formed in 2004 with the merger of the Kingston Youth Soccer Club and the Pittsburgh Township Soccer Club.

In 2009, Bob Machin, along with Aldo Popazzi and Dimitri Senis, formed the Kingston FC women's team as part of the Kingston Women's Soccer Club (KWSC) to be entered in the Ontario Women's Soccer League (OWSL). That year, they won the East Regional division.

KWSC Playoff Finals

The Kingston Women's Soccer Club season came to an end last night with their three playoff finals being played out at the Woodbine Sporting Complex in the west end of Kingston.

In Tier 2, 2nd place Wentworth faced 1st place Cataraqui Clippers on Woodbine 4. Tier 3 featured 1st place PT United against 2nd place White Lightning on Woodbine 2, and Tier 4 featured 2nd place Turf Queens against 7th place Wilman's Painting on Woodbine 5.