The kids aren't alright

Apologies for titling this post with a decidedly average Offspring song, but over the email lately there's been a bit of discussion about the future Youth Nationals. And no, I'm saying that as in Youth Nats is going to drop off the radar. It seems that Youth Nats has never managed to find a comfortable home on the calendar.

The big problem is where to stage it. It has always been in Sydney because that's where the majority of youth players are. But it has always been a struggle to get interstate teams coming, largely due to parental permission and cost. Also commitment - most youth players have only been playing a short time (less than a few months) and aren't likely to commit to a weekend interstate.

And so the current favourite line of thought is to localise youth tournaments and training camps - have them run in capital cities. To a Victorian parent, having your teenager go for a weekend in Melbourne is more appealing than letting them fly up to Sydney for a weekend for some game with a plastic frisbee.

But from this train of thought came my idea - run state based championships, and have representative teams compete at Youth Nationals. There are three key reasons for this idea...

• Funding: State Associations have a clear avenue for youth funding - getting their rep team to Nationals. Whether they pay for a coach, or a bus to get them there, or uniforms. They can even apply for government funding if they are sending a rep team, rather than a club team.
• Legitimacy: Getting selected for a state team in any sport automatically places some legitimacy on it when talking to non-players. Particularly in this instance, parents and schools. Because many other sports use a similar system, it gives the parent or school an automatic basis for comparison - they equate it with being selected for the state team in footy or soccer or tennis or badminton.
• Clear pathway: Play for your school/club team, play for your state team, make the Thunder/Terra training squad, make the Thunder/Terra team.
  

The format I suggested was as follows...

• * The State FDA's are responsible for determining the selection process for their team. Whether they have selection trials or a state championships, or simply "who wants to go?" They submit their team by a certain date.
• * NSW and Victoria split into Metro and Country, giving us teams of NSW Metro, NSW Country, Vic Metro, Vic Country, ACT, Queesland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. If a state doesn't have enough for a full team, merge them with the nearest team (eg: WA with SA)
• * Selections for Thunder/Terra training squads may take this tournament into account.

This kind of format would also give the volunteers some clear roles they can aim for, particularly being coaches and selectors. With an increased presence of coaches and selectors at the elite level, this setup would give senior players an opportunity to cut their teeth on such a role. For example: rather than diving straight into to be a selector for Terra, a Sultry player may be a selector for the Queensland youth team to get a feel for the process.

Over the years, prestige will be built up for the rep teams - they could be given a name early on and treated like a club team, but would still fall under the jurisdiction of the state FDA (particularly their Youth Coordinator). Kids would strive to make the team and being selected would be an honour, similar to how it is being picked for Thunder/Terra. And players who then go on to club teams would still have a connection to the team, and may come back to coach or even just support them.