To All Crossfire Families
Over the past few years Crossfire Premier Soccer Club (Crossfire) has used the assigned coach’s name as part of the official team designation. While the use of the coach’s name helped to provide an identity and cohesiveness for the team it also contributed to confusion and conflicts taking the focus off of developing players, teams, and a strong club environment. As an advanced development program Crossfire’s goal is to create an environment which provides the best professional training and development to players assisting them to play at the highest levels available, whether within the state, the region, or on a national level. After much internal debate Crossfire has decided to move away from using the coach’s name to distinguish between teams at a given age level. As a club we believe using the coach’s name is not consistent with our development objectives when taking into account the needs of the players, teams, coaches, and club.
In talking through potential approaches Crossfire did feel it was necessary to stay away from a letter designation or a designation which indicates an obvious hierarchy. While each team will be assigned an initial designation which is tied to the expected level of play, the concept of playing for a “C,” “D,” or “E” team is not representative of the attitude Crossfire Premier wants to give or project to others. The desire is to build an environment where players can compete successfully on each team and as they develop can be rewarded by advancement to the next level without an attached stigma.
The result of the debate is that starting with the 2008-09 campaign, Crossfire will move to new team designations which use either the letter A for the first team or a consistent color by level (Black, Red, White, Gray, and Blue). Using the Girls U11 teams as an example the new names will change as follows:
Crossfire Premier Girls Under 11 (GU-11) teams for the 2008-09 season are
- The 1st team, Crossfire Premier 97 Reynolds, will now be called Crossfire Premier G97 A
- The 2nd team, Crossfire Premier 97 Baumgardt, will now be called Crossfire Premier G97 Black
- The 3rd team, Crossfire Premier 97 Lombard, will now be called Crossfire Premier G97 Red
- The 4th team, Crossfire Premier 97 Crum, will now be called Crossfire Premier G97 White
- The 5th team, Crossfire Premier 97 Seid, will now be called Crossfire Premier G97 Gray
In recognition of this change you will see updates to the team names and descriptions over the coming couple of months on our websites and in our communications. Teams are also asked to adjust their usage both in internal team communication and as part of tournament or league play. As some of these changes will take time or need to wait until the current season is completed, please be patient as they are made.
Thanks
Coaching Directors & Crossfire Premier Soccer Club Board
Note: for the U11 Development teams an "A" team is not designated so colors are assigned to each team as well as the designtation of Dev (ex. Crossfire Premier G97Dev Blue)
