Middlebury Soccer Association
· Assessments will be held in age groups where there may be multiple teams. Just because there is an assessment for an age group does not mean that group will have a division 1 team. In many cases, the assessment is used to make sure that we have two even teams in an age group.
· In order to have your child go through the assessment process, you need to register your child to play and pay their registration fee. This can be done the day of the assessment or prior to it.
· No refunds will be made after August 1 for the fall season or March 1 for the spring season. This is because we have to submit teams to the district and need to know who is playing in order to do so. Registrations received after August 1 or March 1 must be accompanied by the $20 late fee and will not be guaranteed a spot on a team. If we can accommodate you, we will.
· Children who do not go through the assessment process will not be placed on a division 1 team except in the case where the only team for their age group is a division 1 team.
· The number of teams for each age group will be determined by the number of children registering. In some cases, age groups may be combined so that all children can be placed on an appropriate team.
· Teams in the fall may not necessarily stay together in the spring. In the spring, our numbers of players vary due to kids playing other sports. This may require combining teams so that all children have a team to play on.
· Children are generally placed on teams with children in their grade. The birthday cutoffs are August 1 for an age group, so in many cases there are children who could also play with a team of kids a grade lower.
· U9 and U10 (third and fourth grade) play 8 kids on the field at a time and can have up to 15 players on a roster. U11 and up play 11 kids on the field at a time and can have up to 25 (division 1) or 22 (division 2) kids on a roster. There are two divisions of teams – division 1 (competitive) and division 2 (recreational). Our goal is to have 11-13 players on U9/10 teams and 15-16 on U11 and up teams.
· The goal of Middlebury Soccer is to place all children on an appropriate team. Middlebury Soccer (MSA) looks at the number of children registered in each age group as the first step to determine teams. In some cases, there are too many children for one team and not enough for two teams. This results in having a team of combined age groups in which case some of the children would “play up” to the older age group. Sometimes it also results in players having to “play down” in a group that is age appropriate but may have kids a year behind them in school. MSA also looks at the abilities of the players in an age group to determine if we can field a division 1 team. In some cases, we have enough kids in an age group to have a division 1 team. In other cases, we will combine age groups and have a division 1 team and a division 2 team or 2 division 2 teams.
· In cases where there are two even teams in an age group, the coaches are given the player’s assessments and pick the teams. Where there are two teams in an age group, the teams will stay together for the fall and spring season and then be re-picked for the next year to mix the kids up.
· In cases where there will be a division 1 team and a division 2 team, all players except the last three will be picked based on their assessments. The remaining three players will be picked with coach input.
· There are exceptions to all of these situations that the board will need to make when placing players on teams. Our most important goal is to place all players on an appropriate team. Since we have only one or two teams in each age group, sometimes we need to make exceptions to get all kids on a team.
· If you have a question about the placement of your child on a team, you should talk to one of the members of the MSA board. If you don’t know who they are, you can find their names at www.eteamz.com/middleburysoccer. The Soccer Board meets the fourth Weds. of each month at 7:30 pm at the Shepardson Building.
· Players may play for a team in one town. For instance, you could not play on a team in Southbury and a team in Middlebury. The exception to this is pre-premier teams, in which case you can play with the pre-premier team and a Middlebury team.