During the past fall season, ORVFC held numerous parent meetings to discuss the on-going challenges it faced with its volunteer-based model.

First, finding a large enough number of volunteers willing to invest the necessary time both off and on the field was proving difficult.   We found that we were depending on the same volunteers year after year to perform multiple roles.   Though they did a wonder ful job, it was not fair to them and it put the club at risk should they or their child decide to move on.  We have tried different things to address this model over the past 5-10 years but with the low fees we charged, we could not afford to hire full-time staff to run the program.  

Second, we have also been challenged for years by inconsistent commitment from those families that did not consider soccer a priority.  After we made some adjustments to the training model to accomodate this, we felt the issue insolvable with respect to forming teams and honoring league schedules.  We would have poor attendance at games and the leagues we were eligible to play in were inconsistently managed.  It has always been very difficult to find a competitively appropriate league schedule for our teams.  Some clubs would only field their strongest players but we would spread our ability levels across teams.  This made the games very inconsistent.   It is for that reason, we did not enter a regular league schedule this past season.  Ideally, we want to have age and ability-appropriate competition in order for the players to apply what they are learning in training out on the field under pressure from other clubs.  Yet if players inconsistently show up and the competition is not appropriate, then one had to ask why we were doing it?

We have struggled with these issues for years and finally decided to adopt the model that has been rolled out at many other clubs across the country. 

We have broken our program into two distinct sections:  the first section is called "Recreational".    This program is inexpensive, is run by volunteers and its seasonal organization is dependent upon the commitment of the players and volunteers that sign up.  The club will provide infrastructure support (functional knowledge, field and league scheduling, coaching advice, etc.) but the work of running this program will be incumbent upon the volunteers. 

The second section is called the "FCP/Ohio River Valley FC Academy".  This program is more expensive but will be run by professional coaches and staff.  It requires a high level of commitment and is really meant for the player dedicated to developing his/her soccer skills.  Players will attend both outdoor and indoor training sessions, they will participate in regular league games and they will receive regular feedback from the professional coaches.  Parents will be expected to attend off-field meetings led by the coaching staff where the coaches will describe the curriculum, the methodology and answer the many questions and concerns that come up during the player development lifecyle.

We believe this final program change will create the following benefits:

• We will provide a local platform for those families across the valley interested in professional coaching expertise and a progressive team structure to facilitate their player's development;
• Those families and players looking for a more casual soccer experience will still have a low-cost infrastructure available assuming there are enough volunteers to run the program.

A enormous amount of time and effort has been invested in validating this model.    We understand that some may disagree with this approach given the history of youth soccer in western PA.  It is different but it is not new.  It has been successfully deployed across the United States in areas considered to be very progressive in their youth soccer programs.  We believe our area is ready for this type of change.