1. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most satisfied), please rate your overall satisfaction with the LTSC In-House program?  Average response was 8.70 out of 10
2. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most satisfied), please rate your overall satisfaction with the game day experience (scheduling, referees, field conditions, etc)?  Average response was 8.69 out of 10
3. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most prepared), please rate your coach's preparedness for practice/games?  Average response was 8.74 out of 10
4. From a value perspective - how would you classify LTSC In-House soccer?

a. A good value for the money = 81% of responses

b. Getting a lot more than we paid for = 11% of responses

c. Too expensive for what we get = 8% of responses

 

General themes communicated the responses

· Coaches:  For the most part the comments were positive regarding coaches.  However – several comments questioned our volunteer based coaching structure.  LTSC is completely volunteer driven (from the Board down to the coaches in both travel and in-house).  We are a community organization – and it is our community which has allowed us to be successful. We will, however, implement some changes to help coaches going forward.

o Clearly outlining expectations for coaches before they sign up. 

o Additional coaching-specific sessions before and during the season.

o Providing a coaching feedback mechanism to address concerns proactively over the course of a season.

 

· Team creation/evaluations:  2021 was a different season in terms of team creation.  We did not have a real 2020 season and, therefore, evaluations were not available.  We did our best to allocate kids to teams, but this led to some uneven teams in some leagues.  At the end of the 2021 season, we obtained evaluations for all players.  We will use those evaluations to attempt to allocate kids more evenly.  Please understand, however, that this method is also not perfect.  Kids get better – some kids regress.  It’s natural.  There is no perfect method to creating teams.

o Why don’t we do evaluations like other sports (i.e. lacrosse)?  We’ve tried in the past to use this method.  The main difference is that our pre-season also happens to fall in the late summer where many families are on vacation or simply not interested in attending evaluation sessions.  Our historical attendance rate is lower than 50%. 

o Why do some coaches get to load their teams and the rest don’t?  Let me be 100% clear here – that did not happen. Like stated earlier – we did our best to allocate players. 

o Why don’t you do a draft?  We’ve tried this – and it did not result in teams that were any more even than our coordinator allocated method.  It did, however, take significantly longer and, in some cases, cause arguments between coaches.  We are not opposed to this for certain age groups – but this is not always a feasible solution given the tight turn around to get teams created. 

 

· Uniforms:  Yes – 2021 uniforms were not our typical Adidas uniforms.  We had two issues working against us last year.  Our vendor did not place our at the normal time and by the time it was discovered – the supply chain issues would not allow delivery of uniforms before the season.  So – we adapted and went with another uniform.  Some liked it – some did not.  We have ordered our traditional Adidas uniform kits this year.

 

· Fallston Cup team creation: 

o For what it’s worth – here was the process for Fallston Cup team creation.

§ Top players were requested by the Age Group Coordinators and consolidated and sent to the In-House Coordinators. 

§ Teams were created based on these lists.  The number of players selected from these lists was dependent on the number of teams we sent. 

§ If a coach’s son/daughter was placed on a team – we reached out to see if they would like to coach. 

o Going forward – we are tweaking the team selection process. 

§ We will pilot a program where opposing coaches select the best players on the team they played.  This should remove any sort of perceived coach selection bias. 

§ We will also explore the idea of holding an evaluation session for those players nominated. This may lead to not every team having a player on the team – but it will result in a more competitive team at the Fallston Cup. 

§ We are also exploring the idea of an “All-Star” game for certain age groups.  Details are still being worked on for this.