FCIAC executive secretary John Kuczo sent out an e-mail to athletic directors two days ago regarding a rule change for postseason soccer games that no one was aware of.
Instead of playing two 10-minute overtime periods to settle ties, if one team is leading at the end of the first period, it will be declared the winner.
The rule was met with scorn at today’s FCIAC Tournament quarterfinal game between Staples and Westhill, which the Wreckers won, 5-0. Staples AD Marty Lisevick said no one knew when or why the CIAC soccer committee made the decision, and that state soccer coaches apparently were not even polled about it.
The preferable format would be sudden-death overtime, but under the new rule, if weather is a factor, a team winning the coin toss is going to have a huge advantage.
So much for the idea of golden goals. If a team wins in the first overtime period, are we going to call them silver goals?
More importantly, for you historians out there, save for the Division I boys basketball tournament, which it got rid of after two years, can anyone out there remember the CIAC implementing a rule that actually improved high school sports in Connecticut?
The communication should have been better but the rule of 1 10 minute ot instead of 2 makes sense……
Comment by Anonymous — November 1st, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
I am not a member of the soccer committee or an expert in the sport of soccer so I am not in a position to debate the relative merits of various overtime procedures, however I think it is important to clarify a few statements you made in the post above:
1) While John Kuczo may have sent an e-mail to the schools in the FCIAC, the CIAC sent a message directly to all athletic directors, soccer coaches and soccer officials clarifying the change in the overtime procedure for the tournament. The reason for sending the message was that various leagues have been using different methods in overtimes and we wanted to be sure that everyone was aware of the procedure which will be used in the state tournament.
2) The rule change was made at the December, 2008 meeting of the CIAC Soccer Committee and was published in the tournament packet which was made available to schools, media and the general public in May. The tournament packet is our official method of distributing all policies regarding the tournament. All athletic directors and coaches are informed on numerous occasions of this fact and are directed to retrieve the packets when they are published so they will be aware of the policies prior to their regular season starting.
3) There are four boys and four girls coaches on the soccer committees and it is the job of those coaches to represent the views and wishes of the coaches when the committee is debating and/or making decisions. The Connecticut High School Coaches Association, not the CIAC, determines which coaches serve on each of our sports committees. If the coaches involved felt this decision was not in the best interests of the sport, they could certainly have voiced that opinion and/or voted against it. If they felt a survey of all coaches was necessary then they could have done one (as has been done by coaches in several sports regarding various issues over the years).
4) Staples AD Marty Lisevick is a veteran who has been involved in high school sports for a long time. I’m sure he is aware that coaches are represented on all of our sports committees and are involved in the decision-making process. He also knows, as a former member of the CAAD board, that there is an athletic director representative on each of our sports committees who is responsible for communicating the views of the ADs, and communicating decisions back to the ADs. The AD representative is chosen by CAAD, not by the CIAC.
In summary, CIAC tournament policies are not made by any one person or group. The sports committees are comprised of members of all the relevant constituencies (coaches, athletic directors, school administrators, game officials) to be sure that the feelings of all these groups are taken into account when decisions are being made.
Matt Fischer
Director of Information Services
CAS-CIAC
Comment by Matthew Fischer — November 2nd, 2009 @ 9:21 am