New divisions in Washington Area Girls Soccer League support elite teams

By Chris Hummer

One of the top leagues for youth travel soccer in the United States has answered the calls of their elite teams. Beginning with the Fall 2010 season, the Washington Area Girls Soccer League, or “WAGS” as it is known, has created a “Masters” and “Premier” bracket as a way for elite teams to compete locally against top competition in league play without having a negative impact on their ultimate goals of winning State Cups and showcasing their players in other competitions.

The league, and others like them around the country, has been confronted with increasing frequency by their best teams, demanding more flexibility in the scheduling so they aren’t forced to choose between a league game and hurting their chances at advancing in major competitions they may have to play the following day.

The folks at WAGS have tried multiple formats over the years to accommodate, but has some of the toughest logistical challenges of any league in the world when it comes to scheduling.

Challenges such as dealing with two states on opposite high school seasons, the resulting opposite seasonal State Cup schedules, an enormous number of elite teams, and a mid-Atlantic geographic location that makes it convenient for those teams to participate in other events.

All these options have lead to the semi-annual ritual of setting division structures becoming one of the most anticipated, yet dreaded times of the year for both league officials, and the teams. The questions that swirl every summer and winter as the announcement of the divisions nears are many. Who would take a sit out? Who would be placed where? How many teams in their division? How many games will they have to play?

This year, WAGS decided to try something new, and the response they got was beyond all expectations.

On July 8th, just as the league’s Division Structure Committee was preparing for their summer ritual, the league sent out an invitation to a list of their best U-16 – U-19 teams, inviting them to apply for a unique new pilot program. A program that would give them strong competition in local league play, but that would be completely accommodating not only for State Cup conflicts, but to high school competition as well.

The invitation laid out minimum criteria for participating, as well as a list of the benefits. The teams that accepted, and could show they met the criteria, would be accommodated.

Features of the new program:

• Play just six WAGS games
• No posted scores
• Teams coordinate their own schedules, with each playing three home games
• No games on weekends with a State Cup match, or with more than a certain number of players participating in a high school match on the preceding Friday.

The response was dramatic, and nearly instantaneous. The league was on to something for sure. They had sent the invitations to 22 teams, giving the recipients just 36 hours to respond. All but three accepted, far more than WAGS officials had anticipated.

“We had no way of knowing how many teams would accept the invitation, we had no idea that there would be a need for two divisions,” explained league President Kathie Diapoulis in an email to Potomac Soccer Wire, “At that time, we decided that the best measure [to divide the 19 teams into two divisions] was State Cup performance, which is why you see the teams currently in the Master\'s Bracket.“

According to Diapoulis, from a competitive standard, the "Master’s Bracket" is considered the top bracket, effectively replacing the previous “Champions” division. The “Premier Bracket” makes up the remainder of the invited teams that accepted, and can be equated more towards the “High School” division that had been used in prior years.

The new Masters bracket has seven teams, making a 6-game schedule work out perfectly for each team to play each other once. There are three natural U-18 teams, two U-17s, and two U-16’s. Only one calls Maryland home, the Bethesda Dragons, the rest are from Virginia.

The Premier bracket is more complicated from a scheduling standpoint, with 12 teams in total, so they won’t all play each other. There are four U-18 teams, five U-17s, and three U-16s. Three are from Maryland, the rest Virginia.

It should be noted that Maryland plays high school soccer in the fall, which is likely the cause for a lower number of teams representing the state.

Diapoulis is excited about the program, which was first proposed by new League Vice President Lula Bauer. The two worked quickly to roll out the program for the fall season, which included personally calling each invited team to be sure they had received their invitation, as well as understood the details. “We think it\'s a great way to allow these teams to have competitive games in order to prepare for other prestigious events. You can\'t make everyone happy, so you just do the best you can and hope you hit the target for the majority. I believe we did with this program.”

With a larger number of teams than anticipated accepting the invitations, the majority has certainly spoken… WAGS is on the right track.