By Dan Plouffe
For the Ottawa Fury, it’s a new path. For the Ottawa South United Force, it’s the next chapter. For the West Ottawa Warriors, it’s a significant feat in a short history. For the Nepean Hotspurs, it’s a rejuvenation in a long history.
And for all four local clubs granted franchises in the new Ontario Player Development League, it’s going to be a major challenge to remain competitive when the province’s new elite youth soccer league kicks off with the 2001-born age group next summer.
Words each club used to describe their initial reaction to having four Ottawa clubs in the OPDL fold included “diluted product,” “good news-bad news,” “somewhat astounding” and “laughable.”
“I know everybody doesn’t want to look at standings, but the standings are a good measurement if you have any quality on any teams,” remarks OSU general manager Jim Lianos. “Typically in Ottawa, there’s only been a couple clubs that have consistently put teams in the provincial level and competed and stayed up (to avoid relegation in the current Ontario Youth Soccer League) – usually it’s the one trip and back.”
In the past two seasons, only once have two local clubs stayed above the relegation line in the same age group (finishing third and fourth), while 15 out of 26 teams have placed fifth or sixth and were demoted back to the regional level.
The OPDL removes promotion/relegation in favour of granting entry to clubs that meet stringent standards for facilities, coaching, administration and organizational financial stability, but the likelihood of seeing Ottawa teams excel with players spread out over four clubs remains unlikely, most agree.
“The history of Ottawa teams going to Toronto and competing is, at best, marginal,” Lianos highlights, noting nonetheless that OSU’s top teams have a strong record at the top level in recent years. “Somebody has to look at this stuff and say, ‘You know what? Maybe this time around, two clubs from Ottawa should get it.’ But four? (…) The talent pool is the talent pool. We can’t just recreate, tomorrow, 2001-born boys and girls. They are what they are, they’re here now.”
Although most are now supportive of the premise that results are secondary to overall player development, there is a worry that many local players may wind up competing at a level that’s beyond their abilities. Despite “presumably too small a player pool,” having four Ottawa OPDL clubs puts an “even greater onus on us collectively to do a good job and to buck the trend” and ensure local players do excel in the future, signals West Ottawa CEO Bjorn Osieck, who says that it’s a great success for a club that’s just three years old to be advanced enough to be afforded the privilege of entering OPDL.
“On-field results always ought to be an indicator of what’s going on,” Osieck continues. “But if you’re at U13 – the inaugural generation of players entering the league – and you have to lose a string of games, but you go on to become a youth national team player at 16 or 17, I’m hard-pressed to think that anyone will remember the results you achieved or didn’t achieve at U13 in the grand scheme of things.”
The Ottawa Fury are enthused about what the future will hold as they transition their youth teams out of the North America-wide USL Super-Y League and into the Ontario-based OPDL. The Super-Y League is “a good league when it comes to competition,” notes Fury Academy Technical Director Phillip Dos Santos, but the short season mainly played in June and July was a big reason for the switch.
“It certainly motivates us to be in a league where we know we’re going to be playing 28 games, every weekend