10 Years + Ten Milestones: Regional Club Model (No. 6)

The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks

we'll be celebrating ten of the club's milestones over the last decade. 

Since our founding in 2014, our club has always aspired to just be one of many regional clubs in Maine that serve a distinct geographical area.

Initially we referred to our regional model as a "sister club" model, and then there was a period of time when we referred to our model as a "hub club" model. But more recently, we've found the "regional club" moniker to be the most descriptive and simplest way to describe our club's model.

Whatever we've called our model, it's always featured the same characteristics: Drawing most of our administrator, coach, and player pool from a limited number of neighboring communities; providing programming that complements the programming offered by those communities' high school programs and fellow Soccer Maine member clubs that offer programming from August-November; and fostering collaborative working relationships with the other soccer programs in our region.

As a result, most of our club's administrators and coaches live and/or coach in Gorham, Scarborough, Westbrook, and Windham. And about 89% of our club's 300+ players live and/or play in those four communities.

A cool dynamic our model creates occurs every fall, when our club's coaches and players compete against each other while they represent their respective high school and town-based clubs in competitions.

Scenes from our members' high school games at Scarborough High School, Gorham High 

School, Westbrook High School, and Windham High School in 2023 

But there are also more practical benefits for our club's regional model:

• A regional model for clubs would lead to the development of more clubs in Maine, which would likely result in lower coach-to-player ratios in clubs, lower registration fees for players, less travel time for everyone, and other benefits that are more beneficial for all of Maine's soccer stakeholders

• A regional model for clubs would lead to closer working relationships among the all soccer stakeholders in particular regions, which give Maine clubs the best chance to provide coaches and players with a consistent, 10-11 month experience coaches and players around the world receive by playing with a single program

• A regional model for clubs would provide everyone--parents, players, coaches, administrators, etc.--a clear developmental pathway within Maine. Our state does pretty well offering defined and understood programming at the local and state levels, but more regional clubs would serve as a vital connector for the local and statewide programming we have in Maine

A simple graphic that shows the developmental pathway Maine's soccer stakeholders

could follow with more regional clubs serving as connectors between local, 

town-based programs and statewide programming

Unfortunately, the trend in U.S. youth soccer is the development of soccer "clubs" that aim to vacuum up as many (relatively high) registration fees as possible across an entire state, across state lines, or even across national boundaries. 

This trend has resulted in a confusing and ever-changing alphabet soup of competing leagues and competitions. And this trend has also resulted in a disjointed and uneven developmental ecosystem that requires the highest participation fees and the most time-consuming travel demands in the world.

On the other hand, Maine has shown with its Fall Classic youth clubs and high school programs that geographically-defined organizations cultivate more stability, ensure lower participation fees, and foster good levels of competition.

And we're proud that our club has demonstrated over the last decade that more regional clubs in Maine can provide more affordable, more competitive, and quality experiences *within* our state.

- John C.L. Morgan