The ‘man who changed soccer’ in Sudbury

The conversation was hardly unique within the realm of the local soccer community when Andy Charsley entered the mix.

A lifelong resident of Sudbury who played just one year of recreational soccer in his youth in Valley East, Charsley had followed his daughters through the early stages of their soccer careers in the same area.

But as the girls looked to take the next step, the long-time engineer by trade noticed exactly the same scenario that so many had identified before him.

“It was in 2004-05 when I first started having the conversations on the field with people who had long been involved,” Charsley said, after a recent meeting of the Greater Sudbury Soccer Club (GSSC). “Everybody I talked to seemed to think that something had to be done.'”

The cause for concern within the competitive arm of youth soccer in the Nickel City was a fractured approach that saw seven different clubs offering various degrees of youth competitive soccer, all battling, to some extent, over the same relatively limited talent pool.

“I was a bit naïve, and partly, due to my background as an engineer, when I see a problem, I try and solve it,” Charsley said.

He is the first to acknowledge that he’s not a “soccer person.” But he is more than capable of overseeing a process. “I’m pretty sure the day was Feb. 7, 2007,” Charsley said. “I put up 10 or 12 slides (at a meeting of the Sudbury Regional Soccer Association), talking about identification and development of players, a better integration of the house league and competitive sections, and a review of structure.”

He accepted the offer from long-time SRSA president Gail Arbic to chair a committee looking at the structure of soccer in the area, meeting on a regular basis with representatives from all 12 groups who represented youth soccer locally.

Two years into the process, an impasse had been reached. From four initial framework models, the group had selected two that seemed feasible — either amalgamating all 5,000 players in the entire district under one club, but continuing to run six different recreational leagues based on geography; or bringing together just the seven competitive clubs, allowing the recreational leagues to maintain their autonomy.

A meeting early in 2009 provided a watershed moment. “Prior to that meeting, I had essentially decided that I would resign from the committee, as I felt that we did not have the ability to move forward,” Charsley said.

But with the help of Ontario Soccer Association (OSA) representative Bruce Henderson, common ground was found.

“Bruce had noted that there were not a lot of differences between the two options, other than governance,” Charsley explained.

With the OSA’s blessings to introduce the concept of allowing the affiliation of multiple recreational clubs with a singular district competitive arm, the concept of the Greater Sudbury Soccer Club began to build traction.

Through it all, Charsley’s chore was to bring together a variety of individuals with strong convictions regarding the right or wrong way to develop young soccer talent.

Charsley, along with the countless others involved in moving the GSSC forward, has no false illusions about the work that remains to be done. A complete change of mindset is required before the real benefit can be seen down the road.

“I’m confident that five years from now, looking back, we’ll have a much better system in place than five years ago,” Charsley said.

That belief, and the steady support of others who shared the same vision, allowed the “man who changed soccer” to always maintain the end goal in sight.

Randy Pascal is the founder of SudburySports.com and a contributing sports editor for Northern Life.