When things start to go south in a recreational sports league, the group running the league has two choices.
One, try to fight it and hope things get better, which usually doesn’t happen. Or, two, adapt to the times, make things better, and see the league come to life again.
For the Pleasanton Adult Sunday Soccer (PASS), a division of the Ballistic United Soccer Club, the decision was made to adapt and adjust.
The result? With the spring league starting this week, the league will see 20 teams take to the fields, up from 18 last year and up from the low of 15-following COVID.
The overall numbers are down from the total 30 plus years ago when PASS took over the entire Sports Park every Sunday, but a myriad of situations, along with COVID, it’s a miracle it’s still going – and growing.
It’s not luck, but a lot of hard work from league director Angela Woodward.
The league was originally over-30 co-ed, but the numbers were no longer worker.
Woodward and her team restructured the league to the current age restrictions.
What used to be called Over-30 is now known as the “Open” division.
On the women’s side, each team is allowed two players over the age of 18, with the remaining players required to be over the age of 21.
For the men, two players are allowed to be 21 or older, with three more 25 or older. The remaining players must be 30-plus.
In the Masters league, the men must be 40 and older, with the magic number being 35 for the women.
“It has helped bringing in players,” said Woodward of the age changes. “People have just not been coming back since COVID.”
Woodward has also instituted mixers in the offseason as PASS always had free agents available, but teams were reluctant to pick up a player they had not seen.
It started with just a handful of players at the mixers, but this past offseason saw 50 players turning out.
In addition, last season Woodard had a lot of extra men but not enough women to field a team. She put two men’s teams into the co-ed league but with a stipulation that they had women the following season.
Think the men’s teams were operating at an unfair advantage? Not so as both men’s teams lost every one of their games.
This year both teams are back with a compliment of women. There are two more male predominant teams, but both have three women already of the teams.
A beautiful thing about the league – signing up is fluid. The rosters are not frozen until the last month of the season.
The current season runs until June 9, with the Fall season starting the second week of August and runs through mid-December.
For more information contact Woodward at angwoodward@comcast.net.
