Team Formation Policy

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Team Formation Goals

The primary goal of our club team formation policy is to form teams that have a mix of players with varied skills and abilities.  This will be accomplished by forming teams at the U6 and U7 level around elementary schools, i.e., each school should have a random mix of players with varied skills and abilities.  By forming teams in this manner we will adhere to national team formation guidelines which states:

“A recreational team is one that is formed so that teams are balanced in terms of skills and abilities.  The use of tryouts, invitation, recruiting or any like process to selectively form a team on the basis of talent or ability is prohibited.”

Additional team formation goals are:

• Form teams with at least a minimum number of players needed for that age group.
• Allow players to stay with a team as the team progresses through the age groups.
• Allow all youth to participate so that everyone who wants to play can.

Minimum/Maximum Players Per Team

For new teams, our club will form as many teams as possible with the minimum number of players for that age group.  This will provide room for additional players to be added throughout the season if necessary.  Coaches will be required to take additional players up to the maximum number of players listed below.  Above this maximum number, players will be added at the coach’s discretion.

Teams continuing from the previous year may be formed at the maximum level. 

Team Formation Responsibility

It will be the responsibility of the age group coordinators to form teams within their age group.  This will be done based on the team formation process outlines below.  Once teams have been formed, the club president will review and approve the teams and submit them to the club registrar for processing.

The club registrar will register players to teams as submitted and then submit this information to both OYSA and PYSA with fees.  The club registrar will also be responsible for obtaining and distributing player cards to all teams, adding and deleting players and providing team rosters to coaches upon request.

Team Formation Process

1.  U6 & U7 Teams:

a)      Teams will be formed to insure teams have players with varied skills and abilities.

b)      Our club will form teams around elementary school attendance areas within our club, i.e., players from the same school will be placed on teams together.  If the team cannot be formed from players from one school, then players from another school (at least two to insure they know someone) will be added to bring the team to the minimum number of players required.

c)      Players will be allowed to pick one player to play with as long as that player picks them as well.   

2.  Continuing Teams:

a)      Players will be allowed to stay with the same team from year-to-year if they chose to and the team has enough players to continue.  As teams progress through the age groups (U7 to U14) some will need to be consolidated due to a natural decrease in players. 

b)      Players may also choose to play with another team and this will be allowed as long as all of the teams in that age group have roughly the same number of players.

3.  Special Requests:

a)      Our club will honor requests, if at all possible, for players requesting to play with one other player as long as both players request each other.  Any other special requests to play with additional players may not be honored.

b)      Our club will honor requests by players to not return to the team they played on the previous year if at all possible.

c)      Our club will not guarantee placement on a specific team.  Our belief is that teams need to be formed for the benefit of all players, which sometimes precludes individual requests.  We believe that no matter what team a child is placed on that he or she will have an opportunity to play soccer in a fun and positive environment.

4.  Procedure to allow as many players as possible to play

1. Our club will not close registration to players as long as there are teams who are not at their maximum number of players.
2. If there are not enough players within our club to form a team at an age group, or if there are too many players for one team, we will contact neighboring clubs to attempt to combine players to insure that all players have a chance to play.

District Select League (DSL) Teams

Our club will register DSL teams under the following requirements:

1. DSL players will be required to pay the Foothills registration fee and the DSL League fee.
2. Intact Teams:  Teams that stay together from the previous year can choose to enter the DSL league without Board approval.  They may also choose to play in both the PYSA and DSL leagues which would require 2 games on Saturday or to just play in the DSL league.
3. Age Group Teams:  If the coaches within an age group want to form a DSL team they must gain the approval of the Foothills Board.  A written request must be submitted by June 1^st each year and include the following:
   1. Plan to select players to the team.  DSL policy does not allow the use of tryouts to select the team.  Therefore, Foothills requires that coaches within the age group make this selection based on their knowledge of players and their ability to play at a higher level.
   2. Identify a coach and an assistant coach that have been secured for the team.
   3. Develop a player cost for the team, i.e., Foothills fee, DSL fee, coach fee etc.
4. Age Group Teams will only be approved if all players within the age group have a place to play.  This can be accomplished by forming a recreational team(s) from the remaining players or by requiring players that play on the DSL team to rotate onto the recreational team(s) each week.