It would have been a lot easier to do nothing.

For 4 youth soccer clubs in Eastern Iowa, it would have been much simpler to adapt the mantra: "Change is a bother, so let's not."

But for the principals at Heartland SC, Cedar River SA, Iowa SC and Iowa City Alliance, the benefits to their membership, particularly in the area of player development, has proved compelling enough to overcome the odd mix of inertia, status quo and rampant self-interest that serves as a bulwark against change in American youth soccer circles. So the decision has been made to form a joint venture to help their collective constituencies keep up with the ongoing reforms on the national elite youth soccer stage.

As a result, Eastern Iowa United will field 2 competitive teams each in the U17 and U18 Boys and Girls division this fall.

Heartland SC Director of Coaching Gareth Smith said a number of factors have  driven the merger, which at this point will not affect the independent existence of the 4 clubs' younger age-group teams.

"Some of the foundation for this has been laid more over the past 4-5 years," Smith said. "One thing driving it is the natural attrition you have with players at older age groups. Once we get to the U15 age group, there's a huge dropoff and a struggle to produce teams and players that can compete outside the state."

"There's an underlying frustration from kids with a high level of ability and commitment and those who maybe have a different level of commitment. It's not that one is better than the other, but you want to get a like-minded group of kids with the same commitment level," he continued. "Saying that, there's a strong push to make sure this is not an elitist group. We're trying to take care of every player, regardless of how talented or committed he is.  It will be a tiered system for every level and type of player."

Anecdotally, club mergers are on the rise around the country. With a growing interest in separating an elite tier from the rest of what is called "travel" soccer, punctuated by U.S. Soccer creating a national development academy and league,  many clubs and their leaders are thinking of ways to remain viable at the highest levels of youth soccer. It's also true that areas without the population base enjoyed by some of our leading clubs, must consider consolidation if they are to compete nationally, both in matches and in providing top-level development for players.

The academics of the situation are one thing, but for Smith, Cedar River's Shaun Howe, Iowa SC's Jon Cook and Iowa City Alliance's Andrew McKnight, day-to-day business is often decidedly less macro than that. Years of rivalry, formation of cultural habits, personal convenience and even just emotions can work against the implementation of high-minded ideas.

"Change is hard. People are pretty loyal to clubs," said Sandy Daack-Hirsch, whose son Will has played for Iowa SC since he was 9. "Maybe if this is successful at older ages, the consumer might demand that we do it at an earlier age, but if there's only one program in town, if it doesn't work, there's nowhere else to go. It will be interesting to see how it goes."

Sandy says her son, now 16, has begun to notice the disparity in interests among players his age.

"My son plays for a state-level team with ODP, but that program is kind of breaking apart (other than the summer camp), so high-level soccer for him is no longer much of an option, unless it's with this team," she said. "While I still have mixed emotions about the merger, in the long run, soccer is a growing sport with a lot of kids who like to play for a lot of different reasons."

"There are different commitment levels and different abilities. When you start to break that down, it's harder to fill a team full of players with the same interests and abilities, so I think this merger is providing an opportunity for different types of players," she continued. "Some may want to play at a high level while some may still want to compete but also stay involved in other sports or other school activities like music."

The merger of teams and formation of a new club for the U17 and U18 age groups begs the question of what might happen with younger ages in the future. Iowa City Alliance D.O.C. Andrew McKnight admits there are possibilities there, but stresses that the entities want to get this first step right before looking much into the future.

"I think what this 4-club merger does is show that organizations are willing to work together," McKnight said. "My notion was to address the point of the triangle, to make sure the training environment gets better as players get older. I felt we could easily include the 16s in this, but some embrace that and others don't believe the time is right. We're taking some small steps and that is fine."

"I don't know quite sure if it will lead to across-the-board cooperation in every age group," he added. "It could potentially open doors for cooperative efforts in the future, but all 4 clubs have programs that cater to the youngest ages, and for sure there will be a real investment of making certain there is a strong base to maintain quality programming for all ages."

Daack-Hirsch said she recognizes the potential of the merger, but continues to recommend caution.

"If these 4 clubs can cooperate and be successful at it, there's potential to start at earlier age and it could be a good thing for sake of soccer in Iowa," she said. "Now when we take a good team and go compete in the Chicago area we tend to get hammered. It's also true that once a team starts winning state cups, you start to see a natural gravitation of the good players to that team anyway. Everyone wants to be on it so you get a lot of musical chairs due to the players or the parents' desire to be on that team. But you don't want to make a decision too early about a kid. It's a young enough sport here that if that was happening, it would turn people off."

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