Excellence Stream

With the changing landscape of soccer in Alberta and across Canada the player pathways are becoming clearer and opportunities for players to advance to the highest levels of the game are more prevalent than ever before.  The launch of the Canadian Premier League (and the presence of the two Alberta based teams – FC Edmonton and Cavalry FC), the introduction of National Youth Club Licensing, and Canada Soccer’s commitment to player identification via local scouting visits have all changed the process for players to advance along the pathway. Additionally, local clubs are offering more and better programming to their players. Before all of these were in place, Provincial Teams were often the only way to advance along the player pathway and to the Canadian youth and senior National teams. With the new options for Alberta players, the Provincial Training Program was duplicating the offerings already available and adding to the already high commitment and workload on players, hence the decision to put the programs on hiatus.

Alberta Soccer will remain involved in the player development process and pathways but will have less of a hands-on training role.  We will still be involved in Grassroots programming and outreach. The goal remains to introduce as many players and families to the game as possible and thereby create life-long players and participants who give back to the game and their communities. We will also continue to offer coach education via Community Stream and Licensing Stream coaching courses to ensure coaches can deliver age and stage-appropriate sessions for their players.

Although Alberta Soccer will have less of a role in high-performance player training, we will continue to facilitate advancement of the best players along their development pathways. The technical staff will focus on player identification and scouting events to showcase players to Canada Soccer, professional clubs, and colleges and universities. We will also continue managing teams at multi-sport events, including the Western Canada Summer Games, Canada Summer Games, Arctic Winter Games, and Alberta Winter Games.

Players that were on the Provincial Teams last year will already be on Alberta Soccer’s radar.  Assuming they have continued progressing in their development and are at the appropriate level, they will be included in the player identification events hosted by Alberta Soccer. The benefit of being on last year’s Provincial teams is that the player is already known to Alberta Soccer staff, who will continue to monitor the player’s development and progression.

There are no plans to send Alberta Soccer teams to the Whitecaps Combine in Vancouver.  The expectation is that the Whitecaps will be one of the professional clubs invited to the player identification and scouting events hosted by Alberta Soccer.

The Regional ID events, which will continue, will help identify promising players from outside Calgary and Edmonton for inclusion in the identification events. Historically, these players would have been included in the provincial training program, but will now be identified for the player ID events instead. Also, because the player ID events are scheduled for 2-3 times per year, the financial and scheduling burdens on players will be considerably reduced. As such, we expect that more regional players can be involved, and scouted, for longer periods of time (since the events will occur over the span of a calendar year and not condensed into a 10-week training program). Finally, the Regional ID camp will also allow Alberta Soccer staff to observe and evaluate the players directly – complementing any recommendations from club technical directors.

Yes. Canada Soccer’s implementation of the National Youth Club Licenses is a recognition of clubs who are working to create organizations which offer effective environments for on-going coach and player development. These clubs will provide some of the best opportunities for player advancement.  Provincial teams would have duplicated the work of these clubs and added an additional training load on players, to their detriment.

The Licensing will also result in the creation of the Alberta Youth Soccer League (AYSL), starting in the Spring of 2020, in which top players will participate. This league will create a best-on-best environment for high-performance players and will enhance their development opportunities.

Players with potential who play in leagues outside of the Alberta Youth Soccer League (AYSL) may be included in Alberta Soccer player ID events, dependent on recommendations from club Technical Directors and subsequent scouting by Alberta Soccer staff. Although Alberta Soccer staff will continue to review recommendations from Technical Directors at clubs outside of the AYSL, we anticipate that over time, the majority of top-performing Alberta players will play for teams in this League, which will feature best-on-best, Canada Soccer-aligned competition.