Swansea-Somerset Youth Soccer League

While our continuous growth mirrors what goes on in most communities throughout our country, we still have not reached our biggest goal, namely obtaining our own fields, a dream that has been realized in the last couple of years by Dartmouth, Seekonk and at the Mariner Complex, just to name those closest to us.

Earlier this year we thought that we had finally reached that elusive goal when we placed an offer on a large parcel of land located in Swansea. Unfortunately, the owners found the assessed value to be far short of what they wanted and their demands greatly exceeded our financial means, making it impossible to reach agreement. But,  we will not get discouraged. We are confident that with everyone's help we will soon find the ideal location at a  price that we can afford and the SSYSL will then be able to better serve it's players, coaches and parents. We turn to you for help in this area.

This will be our 21st season and we expect to finally exceed 1000 MYSA registrations, a clear demonstration that the world's 'most popular sport' has also conquered the interests of the Swansea-Somerset communities.

Player development continues to show clear results, with more than three dozen SSYSL family members participating in the Massachusetts State ODP and District Teams and this Summer more than 140 of our players enrolled in the league's annual Soccer Camp, another service that the SSYSL provides to it's players at the lowest cost in the state.

In complying with state mandates, our Fall program will follow 'non-result oriented' guidelines. Although some fail to see the value of this approach, it has been proven to be ideal to achieve the pursued goal of  skill enhancement, sportsmanship and enjoying the game in a stress free environment. It falls back to the MYSA philosophy that 'the game is still the best teacher' and that  positive encouragement is preferable over the old 'winning at all costs' attitude.

The league will continue to provide T-shirts, at no cost to the players, to be used as uniforms.

Because of recent success, we will rely on our local high school players to officiate most of our games. The majority are now state licensed officials and possess the knowledge necessary to oversee the games. What they will need most is understanding from both parents and coaches, who, too often, act as if their children were participating in the World Cup Final.

Our biggest problem in the year 2000, by far, was the registration process. Hundreds of players waited until after the deadline to register, requiring an incredible amount of extra work just to get the season off on time. We cannot emphasize enough how crucial it is to register on time and hope that this message gets across so that things will be better in 2001.

It has been said before but it bears repeating: running a league of this size, with hundreds of games added to soccer camps, referee courses and licensing courses for coaches requires an incredible amount of work. Our Directors donate hundreds of hours each year in an effort to make SSYSL the best league it can be and deserve our utmost gratitude.

Have a fun and enjoyable season.