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Emily Dulhanty ,

March 6, 2015 Email Emily Dulhanty On Twitter:

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Dino Rossi of League1 Ontario

Recently, Red Nation Online had the chance to speak with Ontario Soccer Association Director-at-Large Dino Rossi, who is also the chair of League1 Ontario. L1O was founded in the fall of 2013 as a semi-professional league, and had some great success stories after it’s inaugural season in the summer and fall of 2014. League1 recently announced they will be adding a six-team women’s division in 2015, and the number of teams in the men’s division will grow from nine to twelve. We spoke to Rossi about the progress of the league as it prepares to enter its second season, and the league’s ambitions for the future.



RNO: First of all, congratulations on adding a women’s division to League1 Ontario for 2015. What was the interest level in the Ontario soccer community like when application packages for the women’s division were available last fall?



Dino Rossi: It’s interesting because we had good interest but, like everything else, people are sometimes a little bit hesitant to be early adopters or pioneers of new ideas. So we had a dozen if not more clubs come to the table and want to explore the possibilities of starting a women’s team. At the end of the day, the six clubs that we have gone forward with to start are those that showed us that they were prepared to make the full commitment and that they had all the [standards based] requirements. We are pretty excited about the quality of the coaches that are on board in its inaugural season and already there are several organizations who are telling us “give us one year and we’re going to be there as well.” I fully expect the League1 women’s division in 2016 will grow to maybe quite a substantial number.



RNO: The press release for the women’s division reported that you were “in active conversation with other organizations that wish to join the League1 Ontario women's division in 2015.” Is there any progress on that front, or do you believe the women’s division will consist of just the six teams already announced?



Dino Rossi: I’m pretty sure at this point we are going to go forward with just the six teams that we have. We have had conversations with several organizations but the timing just isn’t right for a couple of groups. Launching with six is by no means an issue. So the pressure is on us now to prove to everybody that this league is going to have a substantial impact on the development of young players, and we’re pretty hopeful that we can have a similar impact as we have started to have already on the men’s side. We’re seeing players who were in League1 in 2014 graduate on to higher levels of play, and it’s great to see their professional ambitions are going to be fulfilled. There are obviously fewer full professional opportunities for female players at this time but even if some of the girls can move on that would be great.



RNO: The men’s teams in 2014 were mostly made up of players from the under 23 category. Will the same likely be the case on the women’s side?



Dino Rossi: I think that we’re going to see similar age breakdowns and I think we’re going to see a lot more women under the age of 23 making up the league, but I expect that there will be some more veteran players who have the desire to continue to compete at a very high level and train at a very high level. It will probably be similar to the men’s divisions where a good number of players will head back to school in the fall. That’s just the normal course of events until such a time that we’re able to make it viable for players to stay here for the entire season and play their soccer here. But we’re not there quite yet. That’s our long-term goal.



RNO: L1O was able to bring back all nine men’s teams that finished last season, and added three new teams for this coming season. Was there any concern that adding teams to a young league would dilute the quality of play and level of competition?



Dino Rossi: You’re always concerned with the dilution, and one of our main objectives is to reduce the level of dilution in the competition that already exists. I think League1 has only scratched the surface on attracting the top male players to the league last year. We’re hearing that the response to all different tryout calls has been substantial. We expect that there’s going to be a lot of new faces and we are going need them because we’ve had a lot of good players graduate up a level, so that means there’s going to be inevitably some new faces. And I think pretty much all three of our top goal scorers last year are going to be playing in USL PRO this year, which is great. There’s no doubt that you are always cognizant that adding a lot of teams can risk bringing down the level but I just believe so firmly that there’s so much talent in Ontario that we can continue to grow.



RNO: Last July, League1 and the OSA terminated Internacional de Toronto’s license due to a "failure to comply with agreed-upon league standards.” Can you briefly discuss some of these standards that teams must achieve in order to participate in League1?



Dino Rossi: We have a fairly substantial standards document and then we also have a pretty substantial document of procedural game day operations that are in manuals that everybody is obligated to know. And on the technical side of things, you have coaching requirements, facility requirements. You have to have a head coach with a certain level of licensing and assistants with licensing, goalkeeper coaches, fitness coaches, and medical professionals. So clubs have to show that they have the staff to be able to operate at this level and the facilities that are suitable for this level. And frankly, that is one of the most challenging things to find. You want to actually stage a game and attract people to a stadium and sell tickets and have the whole game day environment, and that’s one of the biggest challenges we have in this province.



RNO: Do you believe it should be a priority for League1 Ontario teams to apply to be a part of the Ontario Player Development League (OPDL) when applications open again in 2016, especially now that academies that meet the standards will be accepted?



Dino Rossi: As a director at the OSA I think it’s imperative for us that we bring as many of our organizations into a standards based environment as possible, without obviously rushing it. We want groups to get there because they are ready to get there and because they’re stable enough to do so. In the medium term, being the 2018, 2020 cycle, by that point you really want to see all your League1 groups in OPDL, and vice versa. I’d like to start to see by that time all the OPDL teams start to look at League1 as the next natural step for their highly trained, well developed young athletes. There’s a lot of work to be done. OPDL had a very successful launch by any standard and we expect that the 2015 season is going to be better than 2014 and as this thing grows and evolves, its going to be an important piece of the high performance player landscape in Ontario.



It’s about building [the elite player pathway] and making it clear. As anyone who has played the game in the province knows the path to achieving your ambitions was about as clear as mud until the last few years. We can’t offshore our elite player development anymore; we need to start doing it ourselves. We need to be able to nurture them here.



RNO: On the operational side of things, do you expect there will be some double-headers scheduled with the L1O clubs that have both a men’s and women’s team?



Dino Rossi: Yes, we expect teams to schedule double headers whenever possible. Some groups even have ideas of doing triple headers, where they’re going to incorporate either their top youth teams or their under 21 teams so that they can really create a big festival of soccer at their facilities.



RNO: The league has already taken a big step in adding a women’s division after just one year. Where you see the league in 5 years, and what improvements do you hope to see between now and then?



Dino Rossi: We’d like to obviously see an environment where players are choosing League1 as where they want to play their soccer period, not just in the summer. I look at the Canadian Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League as a really incredible model for how you can create a high performance sport environment and still give players the opportunity to achieve their education goals as well. You have to look at models that inspire you. I think it’d be great to see a little more of mature players, more experienced players in the league, because I think they’re so beneficial to the young guys and ladies to learn from people who have had experience and played at high levels. We’d like to see a situation in 5 years where municipalities are developing facilities that are more conducive to the staging of games at this level. Even a community hockey rink is much more equipped to hold a game that spectators can come to than the average soccer facility. And I’m hoping that the OSA’s new facility is going to be a model for a lot of organizations. For our purposes a 2000-3000 seat, fully enclosed stadium with lights, a scoreboard, a sound system and a press box, that’s heaven right there.



We’d also like to cover more of the province in 5 years; we’d like to have a better spread. Now that we are going into year two, the conversations I’m having and I’m sure that our president at the OSA Ron Smalle is going to support me on is getting out to other districts and other regions of the province that aren’t yet fielding teams in League1, and working on a plan, a strategy for them. And it might be a three or four year plan, but to start laying that foundation, because the key is to give young athletes both male and female something to aspire to within their community and within their own club environment, just like any serious soccer country in the world.