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Travel Soccer Tryout Process - Rules and Logistics Overview
Players who are not currently rostered on a travel team may participate in one or two practices with the team they are trying out for in the week before the tryout. Please introduce your child to the coach at the beginning of the practice and explain that he or she is there because of an interest in trying out for next season. Consult the Practice Schedule under the "Practices" tab to determine the location of practices; for questions, contact Marcia Hamelin at
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Players are assessed on their speed, agility, technical skills, tactical skills and attitude as demonstrated during the tryout and determined by the assessors. Team selection is primarily based on performance and attitude during the tryout, balanced by other relevant information including commitment and performance during prior seasons. If a player must miss a tryout due to documented medical reasons or other exigent circumstances, the player’s prior or current season coach will be asked to provide an assessment, or a special makeup session will be arranged.
Tryouts for the Fall season must be held at the end of the Spring season to allow time to meet CJSA (CT Junior Soccer Association) rules and administrative procedures. Tryouts for the Spring season are held at the end of the Fall season in order to give players an opportunity to try out at a time when their soccer skills are sharpest, and also in order to hold tryouts outdoors.
Attendance at tryouts is mandatory for all players interested in playing Travel Soccer, subject to the exceptions noted above. Players must be registered in order to try out.
Tryouts are closed to all but the players and the assessors. Parents should drop off their players at the start of the tryout and not return until the scheduled conclusion. Please make your best efforts to respect this request in order to be fair to all participants.
The following explains our travel program and tryout process in more detail. |
Age Requirements
Any player meeting the age requirements set by CJSA may try out. Prior soccer experience is not required. Any player entering 9th grade, regardless of their age eligibility, cannot play both High School and Travel Soccer in the fall. Team designations, determined by age, may be found in the table at the tab "CJSA Age Group Requirements".
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Required Paperwork:
Please bring the following to tryouts:
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A completed Pass Facsimile (click to download) form with a 1 inch X 1 inch photo affixed and with the PLAYER's signature.
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If the player WAS NOT on a Weston travel roster sometime since Spring 2008, then bring COPY of Birth Certificate (not hospital certificate) or Passport .; Do not bring originals, we accept only copies
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If player was NOT born in US and was NOT on a Weston travel roster since Spring 2008, then contact
for additional mandatory paperwork.
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All players will be asked to provide signed copies of Weston Travel Player and Parent Commitment Letters (click to download this 2-page document) .
No Tenure
There is no tenure system whereby some children receive automatic invitations to the team solely because they have been on the team in the past. Each child participating in the tryout has an equal opportunity to receive a travel invitation. To receive a ravel invitation, players must display a level of skill and attitude that places them high enough in the professional coaches' rankings. Sometimes a child that has played travel previously does not receive a travel invitation in the subsequent season. Or, all of his/her friends receive travel invitations and he/she does not. As hard as this can be for a child (or for the parents), we fundamentally believe that the value of having open tryouts outweighs the value of keeping kids together that "are such good friends" or "have played so well together."
Although we believe that soccer is a wonderful opportunity for personal growth through self-discipline, physical fitness, teamwork and fair play, we are a sports association, not a social club. We believe that every Weston child should have an equal right to earn a Weston travel roster spot.
For those children who do not receive an invitation to join a travel team, we do our best to find alternatives means of playing and enjoying soccer. Whenever possible, we form no-cut teams that compete in our local Rec Plus league; if we do not have enough kids to form a team, we do our best to help find alternate placements in nearby towns.
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Professional Coaches
Professional soccer coaches are hired by the Club to run the tryouts and evaluate the players. These professionals have no self-interest in the tryout results other than to evaluate and rank the children by merit. The coaches rank the players in five skill/attribute areas and on an overall basis from the strongest player to the weakest.
Parents of the children playing in the program are not involved in the decision of who makes a travel team. In fact, parents of players trying out are not allowed to witness the tryout. The parents who administer the program have the sole responsibility for taking the coaches' rankings and communicating the results. |
Weston Kids First
We prioritize invitations for travel teams to children that live in Weston. This is the Weston Soccer Club and, while we can take a certain number kids from other towns under the applicable CJSA rules, we do this only when there are spots not filled by Weston kids. As much as we like to win, the Club prioritizes participation over competition. We believe we have an obligation to Weston children first and foremost. We accept out of town players only when we do not have enough Weston players to fill the roster and it is in the best interest of the program to accept outside players. |
Roster Size - new
Under CJSA rules, small-sided teams (teams that play 8v8) have a roster limit of 19, and full-sided (11v11) teams have a roster limit of 25. These are absolute upper limits and are larger than we would prefer. However, in order to continue to form viable and vibrant teams and to address the needs of each team and each age group, we will ask our professional coaches to make team-by-team recommendations after each tryout. These recommendations will be designed to create the roster that will best fulfill our goals of providing a fun and challenging soccer environment for the children involved, while encouraging the continued development of as many players as possible within the context of each team.
The Club will form 2 teams at each age level if there are enough qualified players to do so. For U11 and above, when we form more than one team, the teams will be divided according to skill level in accordance with CJSA guidelines. These divisions will be determined by the recommendation of the professional coaches in consultation with the Program Directors. |
Playing Time
We recognize that roster sizes affect playing time. Our goal is to create rosters of a size that will enable each child to get enough game experience to continue his or her development as a soccer player. However, in some circumstances, larger rosters may be necessary for the good of the team as a whole, and a game rotation system may be employed. We reserve the right to implement procedures such as game rotation that we believe will best meet the needs of each particular team and group of players, but will do our best to communicate these procedures clearly and in a timely fashion.
We also recognize that children, especially younger children, may have the desire to try out different sports. We understand this desire but have to balance the needs of the team against individual concerns. Players who wish to play travel soccer but have other significant commitments are required to communicate these conflicts prior to accepting a roster position so that the Club can ensure that the needs of the team are met. The Club reserves the right to make roster changes whenever necessary to continue to provide the best possible soccer experience for our players and our teams. |
Playing by Grade
As noted above, our travel teams play under the auspices of the Connecticut Junior Soccer Association ("CJSA"). The CJSA has established maximum age guidelines for establishing teams that we must follow. Teams are defined as U10, U11, etc., where the "U" stands for under, as in Under-10 years old. A child's "soccer age" is determined by their age on August 1st of each year. A child that is twelve on August 1 of this year cannot play U12 soccer, but must play U13.
Because Weston is a small town with only one school for each grade, the Weston Soccer Club has decided to correlate our teams to grades rather than to strictly apply the one-year age band, as some other towns do. In some ways this limits our competitiveness with other towns, but we believe that playing by grade, while still following the CJSA's maximum age rule, provides a better solution for our town. Therefore, for example, while the U11 boys and girls teams tend to be 5th graders, no one who plays on the U11 team this fall can be older than eleven on August 1 of this year.
The "playing by grade" policy also means by extension that while we are required to follow the maximum age guidelines, we do not follow the lower limits provided that the player is in the appropriate grade. |
Playing-Up
Children are not allowed to play up in the travel program provided there are sufficient Weston players available to play at the particular age level. |
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Parent Input and Participation |
We welcome your input on these rules. It is through the diligent efforts of dedicated volunteers and professional soccer coaches that these rules are developed, communicated and implemented.
Almost without exception, when you are frustrated that something has not gone more smoothly, it is because there are too few people trying to get too much accomplished. We always need more volunteers, particularly in the program administration and communication areas. Please let us know if you might be willing to help. Although volunteering will not result in any preferential treatment for your child, it will give you a satisfying way to fulfill your personal obligation (which we believe every one of our parents has) to give of yourself for the benefit of the community of children who play soccer in Weston.
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