The Brentwood Soccer Club hosts two major tournaments a year, the Adidas Women's Tournament in spring, and the boys' BWCS Invitational, shown here, in the fall.

Tourney among tops in Southeast; leadership changes

By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
Brentwood Soccer Club is preparing to host its biggest tournament of the year, the Adidas Women’s Invitational on May 6-8, around the same time the organization is working on its budget for next year’s youth travel teams and expenses.

After falling below the City of Brentwood’s residency requirements on its 13-and-up teams last fall, the nonprofit club was forced to pay the full outside rental rate – or about double what it had been paying to use city fields -- amounting to $29,000 since September just for 13-up age groups. Since trying to work out a better arrangement to no avail, BWSC has seen some changes in leadership, with some still yet to take place such as the hiring of a new executive director.

But, while the club doesn’t yet know how next year’s budget will be affected for fees passed to parents of BWSC’s competitive players, the program is going about its business including the AWI spring tourney which brings about $60,000 into club coffers.

“That was not fun; it was not enjoyable to go through that process,” said entrepreneur Scott Hill, voted in as BWSC president last fall after Alan Holt resigned six months into the current two-year term. “But it's business as usual for us from the standpoint of our kids are winning, playing and doing well in tournaments; our kids are developing; our coaches are teaching kids. We're doing all the business of the club.”

BWSC hopes to re-address the issue of the field fees perhaps at a future date, all the while doing what it can to increase the number of Brentwood youth who participate.

“We prefer not to pay a whole big chunk of money to use what we believe to be our Williamson County and Brentwood parks for youth sports,” Hill said. “We'd prefer that, but as a Brentwood resident, I understand their position. I'm just looking forward to continuing to work with them and find a mutually beneficial solution.”

This weekend about 130 teams age U9 to U19 and their families will descend upon Brentwood, weather-permitting, for the AWI girls tournament, which has become among the best in the Southeast. All the teams are first booked into Brentwood hotels if they will offer a rainout refund. Other area hotels in Cool Springs and beyond are used next.  

Club officials believe the tourney at Crockett Park and the fall boys tournament are worth several hundred thousand dollars to Brentwood’s economy. Assistant city manager Kirk Bednar said Brentwood hotels and restaurants certainly will receive a boost, but added that the impact is spread out to neighboring cities.

"Given the number of teams involved, Brentwood hotels are only about a third of the total hotels impacted by the tournament with hotels in Franklin and Nashville seeing just as much impact," Bednar said.  "Likewise, the retail spending on shopping and restaurants will likely be spread across those other communities also. We certainly wish them well with their tournament and hope that the weather will cooperate."

This year’s tourney also is partnering with Elite Soccer Center, a soccer academy in Florida that will be scouting players to be seen by college, pro and other elite team coaches from around the world.

Hans Hobson, the BWSC director of coaching, said the AWI girls tourney funds the majority of the club’s operating budget. Hill also said it helps with scholarships to players.

“The tournament is huge for our club,” Hobson said. “... We really rely on this tournament and the boys tournament. This is a bigger tournament. ... People come because of the fields and the quality of the park itself.”

In addition to the event, BWSC is also preparing for tryouts for next year with players able to sign up for free evaluations for different age groups during June 2-10 (register at www.brentwoodsoccerclub.com ). Anyone is also welcome to attend for free to see what the club is all about, Hill said.

Club working on impact on parents' budgets 

While the club meets the city residency requirements for U8-U12 age group, the U13 and over ages fell below the city’s second tier of service providers. The City of Brentwood doesn’t run athletic leagues, but rather partners with other organizations for lower service-provider rates on practice and game-day fields and facilities.

“The fields are going to cost us more money, it's no doubt,” Hobson said. “One of things we're trying to do is we're trying to see what we can do to meet their percentages. … We just don't meet them at 13 and up, and it's not that it's not close – it’s 50%-54% and we have to be at 60% and we're just not there.”

Kids often drop off as they get older to play other sports, however, plus the selection process for quality competitive teams “draws the best players from all over,” Hobson said. He noted that there are a few kids who even come to BWSC to play from Alabama, Crossville, Knoxville and Memphis, but that 85%-86% are from Williamson County.

“It is going to be a little bit more costly,” Hobson said. “We're going to have to rearrange our budget a little bit and try and make it so doesn't affect the parents. That's one of the things we don't want to do is we don't want it to affect them, but unfortunately as we get into the budget a little bit more deeply it could.

“It's nothing that the city's done; I think we're a victim of our success right now.”

Hobson said the success – with Brentwood teams competing regionally and nationally with the likes of Dallas and Baltimore mega-size soccer organizations – also led the club to grow at a pace that outgrew its organization. About 950 try out annually, with about 850 currently in the club and the others usually making other teams.

Hill, who has three children in BWSC and a fourth in the younger Brentwood YMCA recreation league provide, has been helping the club try to update bylaws to catch up to current needs, Hobson said.

“We're going through a structure change,” the DOC said. “We went from a club that was 12 to 20 teams and they were all working together, to a club that has about 50-some teams. We've doubled in size. It's all volunteer-run; it went from one full-time paying position to three paid positions that run the on-field portion. The off-field portion is the executive direction position, and right now the executive board is king of running that.”

New president trying to delegate more duties

Hill, who played on New York state championship soccer teams in high school, also has formed several committees, delegated more duties and is trying to build up the volunteer base from the 1,600 or so parents.

Both Hill and Hobson emphasized they value the working relationship with the City of Brentwood, and Hobson even admitted the club maybe stepped on some toes in approaching the city. Bednar also said the relationship was good and that the club is complying with the city's policies.

Hobson, however, said he would be happy to sit down and have an in-depth conversion about the field fee situation with someone such as Mayor Betsy Crossley. Crossley is among six candidates running for four city commission spots in today’s election.

The director of coaching also said some members of the public and government don’t understand the paying of competitive soccer coaches. But he pointed out that Division I state-league coaches in Tennessee are required to have a C coaching license – which costs $1,000, plus airfare and other travel costs, to attain – and improvement to B and A level bring that to about $4,000-$5,000.

“Most of my coaches do it on the side,” Hobson said. “But it's a car payment, it's a house payment and it helps them. Some of them don't make a lot, but some of them have worked hard to get to where they are.”

BWSC players are also going to places such as Las Vegas and getting exposure to college coaches.

“I've been here for three years, and the club continues to grow,” Hobson said. “I'm just extremely, extremely proud of this tournament and what's it become and just our relationship in representing the city.

“I'm always happy to put on a shirt that represents and says we're from Brentwood. We're a little town in Tennessee and we compete with some top clubs in the nation.”