I vaguely remember a really strong Coastal Div 1 squad that won promotion, and then the club deciding to merge prem+d1, a huge fight happening over who would coach, and said Div 1 team moving to create their own or join some kind of FV/Surrey/Cloverdale club as a premier team.
so yeah... i think that was a failed changing of the guard.
From what I know Westcoast hasn't used the "club system" in a long time, perhaps a few players in the last few years but not like it used to be. @4thplacetrophy may be able to shed some light as he played prem the past few years. I find most of the clubs who use the club system, have it in Div 2, where there are call ups from Div 3 and 4.This is usually due to a numbers issue more than development. Port Moody Gunners, have always used the system well and it was shown in dominant league campaigns but often short cup runs with players signing up to specific teams (div 1-4 at least). Also in Premier, teams like Chilliwack, Aldergrove, Don't have the numbers in the club to use the system. Be interesting to hear from the clubs on what they do.
Yep exactly what happened. From what I was a part of, now almost a decade ago, there was never any integration with the original Div 1 (now Premier) and the Prem squad (now Masters Premier). Other than a guy or two here and there the old guard held onto control and weren't interested in moving on/transitioning. Then they got relegated the year the Div 1 team got promoted and the club stepped in and said that the old guard would get to retain control of the spot. From what I understand the Div 1 guys had some ins in Surrey and became Sikh Temple for a couple of seasons, until both Coastal and Temple finished as the bottom two. At this point the original Prem team decided it was time to move to Masters and a reconciliation was reached to bring the "Temple" crew back under the Coastal umbrella. I was long out of it by then, but from talking to guys now and then who are still involved that was more or less the gist of it.
As for new blood in FVSL with some keen Div 1 teams pushing for promotion, aren't the FVSL Promotion/Relegation rules as such that only last place Prem goes down and first place Div 1 comes up automatically? Then second bottom and second place playoff?
Apparently there is some big talks of coastal and one of the Vmsl div 1 clubs merging.