Evaluations

One of the six AYSO philosophies is Balanced Teams. A key factor in starting the season with teams that are balanced are the assessments. The assessments are meant for all registered players, though there may be certain days and/or times for different divisions. This is in contrast to team training, which will be for a specific team. Once teams are formed, each coach will determine the weekly training schedule for their team.

NOTE: Players must be registered before they can be assessed. Information on player registration can be found by clicking here.

After your have registered your child, plan on having them attend at least one assessment session for their division. While players are only required to be assessed one time, we encourage them to attend as many of the assessments for their division as possible.  Only registered players can participate in the assessments.  NOTE: players are required to have at least shin guards when on the soccer field. Soccer cleats are highly recommended. If a player does not have shin guards, they will not be allowed to participate in any sort of match play or drills involving facing an opponent (e.g. 1v1, 2v2, ... drills). They would be able to participate in solo drills, kicking drills or simple passing drills where they are not facing an opponent.

At the assessments the players will be evaluated. Based on the evaluation, the players will be distributed across the teams to balance out the abilities and ages of players assigned to each team. The assessments occur before the regular team training starts but not all age divisions are assessed.

In most cases players will not be placed onto a team until they have been assessed, thus it is critical that you make sure your player attends at least one assessment. If, due to time constraints, a unassessed player is assigned to a team, it is possible that the player will be moved if the teams are determined to be out of balance. Players that register after teams have been formed may have to wait before being assigned to a team in order for an assessment to take place.

Once a division has had a few assessments and enough players have been assessed to form initial teams, teams for that division will be created. The head coaches for those teams will be given a roster for their team and will reach out to the members. If a team does not have a head coach, a team meeting will be held by the board and  we will ask for someone to volunteer to coach. It does not have to be a parent, but the head coach does need to be at least 18 years old. If there is someone that is under 18 that wants to coach they can be an assistant coach, but an adult will still need to be the head coach (even if the assistant coach is the one running the weekly team training sessions). More information about volunteering can be found here.

Why no assessments for divisions below 8U? For the 6U division, these co-ed teams are created looking at ages of the players. We will be trying something new this year by having a special "play date" before the season starts where they can experience what it will be like every Saturday and you, as the parents, can learn how to help your player get the most out of the season. Please check back on our calendar on the home page for a time and date.

Why no assessments for divisions above 12U? We normally only have one team per age and gender division for the older players. Thus, there is no need to evaluate the players in order to create balanced teams. If there are enough players to warrant assessments, then they will be scheduled. In place of assessments, the coaches for these teams will simply schedule team training. The training will start late July/first part of August.