The Skyline league is the league that our premier teams will be competing in for the fall and spring of season 2009-10. We feel that the league offers a much higher level of competition than other local leagues and provides an environment where player development is the priority. The league consists of teams from SOCA, Augusta FC, Shenandoah Valley FC, Lynchburg United, New River United and Roanoke Star. These clubs are the undisputed leaders in player development in the Southwest Virginia area and we are delighted to be affiliated with them in the Skyline League.

Acceptance into the league follows strict criteria and the clubs involved all follow similar guidelines in terms of player development.  The clubs are working closely together to improve the standard of soccer in our area and we will be announcing some exciting new developments over the coming months. The clubs involved in the Skyline league are very confident that we will be able to provide the highest possible level of play for Premier players for years to come. Due to the relationship that these clubs have fostered we envisage offering a lot of additional opportunities for our players in the future including League select teams that will participate in special events.  Further additional opportunities also being explored include international travel, indoor soccer tournaments and coaching courses for member club coaches. Finally we are looking at options to use the Skyline League in tandem with the Olympic Development Program to ensure that the players who represent the Southwest Region of ODP are amongst the best possible available. It is hoped that players within the Skyline league will participate in the ODP system and discussions are underway to make participation as easy as possible for players who are registered with the Skyline League clubs.

With any new league that threatens the clubs who do not meet the criteria for acceptance, there will be a certain amount of misinformation forthcoming from those clubs. Unfortunately, this appears to be the case this year. To prevent further misinformation and in an effort to educate parents and players we have provided a comparison table for easy reference so that players and parents are aware of the differences in leagues and the options that they may have.  

Programs Offered	Skyline Premier League	Recreation Soccer	Blue Ridge Classic League
Licensed, professional coaching	yes	rarely	rarely
Block scheduling*	yes	no	no
Director of Coaching at club	yes	no	rarely
Competitive divisions at every age group	yes	N/A	rarely
Travel over 2 hours to games**	no	no	no
Regular communication between Directors of Coaching	yes	no	no
Ability to schedule friendly games against VCCL teams	yes	no	no
Possible entrance to VCCL  College Showcase	yes	no	no
Clubs with office operations and office hours	yes	no	rarely
College coaches working in clubs	yes	no	no
Limit on number of clubs in one geographical area to prevent dilution of talent	yes	no	no
Limit on geographical area from which a club is based to prevent excessive travel***	yes	yes	no
Potential for Premier players to play on VCCL club teams	yes	no	no
Large numbers of State and District Level ODP players participating in club	yes	no	very rarely
Clubs with history of helping place players in college soccer or at professional level	yes	no	very rarely

*block scheduling – The Skyline league is working hard to ensure block scheduling for clubs. Simply put, this means that games are scheduled so that clubs can travel together to games i.e. Roanoke Star U11 Boys will play games at the same venue and same day as the U14 Girls. This enables parents to easily arrange carpool and is especially beneficial for parents of multiple children who play soccer.

** Travel over 2 hours to games – this is based on travel from Roanoke. The maximum travel distance is under 2 hours in the Skyline league. Below is a table that indicates approximate travel times. All travel times are according to MapQuest.

Skyline League opponents	Travel Time	Blue Ridge Classic League opponents	Travel Time
Lynchburg United	1 hour  4 minutes	Danville Soccer Club	1 hour  39 minutes
New River United	43 minutes	Wythe County	1 hour  23 minutes
SOCA	1 hour  58 minutes	Radford Soccer Club	59 minutes
Augusta FC	1 hour  15 minutes	Amherst	1 hour  14 minutes
Shenandoah Valley	1 hour  57 minutes	PASA	40 minutes
Botetourt Star	23 minutes	Martinsville Soccer Club	1 hour  7 minutes
		Alleghany	1 hour  30 minutes
		Fort Defiance	1 hour  40 minutes
		Piedmont Soccer Club	1 hour  7 minutes

***In recent seasons the BRCL has accepted teams from as far away as West Virginia. The teams involved were at the U10 and U11 age group forcing players as young as 9 years old to travel for over 250 minutes for one game lasting less than 70 minutes. No restrictions are currently in place within the BRCL for geographical location, which could lead to the same situation repeating.