The Spring 2013 Microsoccer season began Saturday, April 20th, and is ongoing. The final date of the seaon is expected to be June 15th.

Microsoccer takes place at RAYMOND PARK (sometimes referred to as Corcoran Park).  

Note: Map (immediately below) may be downloaded by dragging its image from this site onto your desktop (at least on Macs).

The easiest way to get to Raymond Park by subway is to take the Redline to Porter Square. 

It is then approximately a ten-minute walk from the Porter Sq. redline stop (walking straight up Upland Rd.) 

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Ten (10) Steps to a Successful Microsoccer Registration.

Before registering, please carefully read all ten (10) of the following steps, even if you have been through this process before.  If you do that, then everything should go smoothly. (However, if you don't, all kinds of things can go wrong.)

1.  Check to make sure that your child is the right age!                                

Eligibility for Prospective Players in Cambridge Family Microsoccer Players — Spring 2013      

(a) It is simple; you child does not require prior experience;

for most of the children, this will be their first exposure to soccer and - in many cases - any organized sport. 

Cambridge residency is NOT required.  

(b) The only rule is that, to be eligible to play Microsoccer for the Spring 2013 season is 

that your child should have been born between 8/31/2006 and 9/1/2008.

(If your child was eligible in the Fall of 2012, then he or she is still be eligible for the Spring of 2013. I.e., the age eligibility determination operates on an academic year schedule).

(c) For those of you who share your parenting, please do not assume that your spouse, 

partner, or ex has taken care of registration !!!  You must verify any such assumption.    

(d) If your child is slightly too young, but you want him or her to play, then SEND US AN E-MAIL describing your child and why you think Microsoccer would be appropriate for you child.

Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. 

We will then contact you to discuss what seems appropriate in your child's case.  

2.  If your child is too old for Microsoccer, try Cambridge Youth Soccer (CYS). 

If your child is too old for Microsoccer, you should check out Cambridge Youth Soccer, which is a separate organization, not affiliated with Cambridge Family Microsoccer, and which you can reach at www.CambridgeYouthSoccer.org 

3.  We Need Team Officials., i.e.:

Coaches,

Assistant Coaches, and

Team Managers. 

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND MANDATE. With few exceptions, Microsoccer coaches, assistant coaches, and team managers are all parents of children in Microsoccer. Volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization, and frequently teams have more volunteers than positions available. Sometimes, however, there are teams where an insufficient number of parent volunteers at the beginning of the season and this can hobble the ability of a team to get off to a good start.Consequently, each family should be prepared for at least one parent to participate and contribute in this collective effort. (US citizens might think of this mandate being like jury duty — a civic duty one can escape for long periods of time, but which must eventually be fulfilled).

ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES: For those parents who are willing — in principle — to volunteer, but who are shy (due to lack of experience), we are developing rudimentary coach training and mentoring system, which should be sufficient to get any team working well.

ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS: In order to functional properly, each team needs the following three (3) volunteer positions to be filled at the beginning of each season:

Coach.

The coach is the primary instructor for the team. Ideally, the coach should be someone who actually has played soccer and knows something about it. That said, the coach does not actually need to be a skilled player himself or herself, and previous coaching experience is not required.

Assistant Coach.

The assistant coach helps the coach run the practices and takes over whenever the coach is unavailable (due to absence or if the coach is acting as a referee for a game). The requirements for being an assistant coach are generally similar to the requirement for being a coach, but can accommodate less previous soccer experience.

Team Manager.

No prior soccer experience is necessary. Duties include tasks such as:

(1) The coordination of a snack list so that team parents — on a rotating basis — bring snack for the whole team to every single game.

(2) Coordinating communication among team families and coaches about who will be present or absent on particular dates, and arranging for appropriate coverage.

(3) Helping the Commissioner with the maintenance of team rosters by keeping track of actual attendance and serving as a conduit for transfer requests if a family wants their child to either join or leave a team. 

Don't be shy about volunteering! 

Note: From the point of view of Mass Youth Soccer, each of the positions are deemed to be officials of Microsoccer and must be filled by persons who are willing to have their names submitted for a routine criminal background check.

** Note to Coaches & Assistant Coaches** 

Important principles to remember during practices: 

(i)   Correct Number of Adults Coaching. Each team should have both a coach and assistant coach each week during the entire practice.  If the “official” coach and/or assistant coach is absent, late, or non-existent, please let the Commissioner know ASAP, and in the meantime, actively solicit the help of one of the many adults around so that there are two (2) adults actively involved in running the practice. 

(ii)        Small Groups. If there are 6 to 8 kids on a team, you should be spending most of the time with them broken into two (2) smaller groups of 3 to 4 kids.  That way each kid gets more individual time and more "touches on the ball."  You want to keep them moving and occupied, especially if the weather is not great.  One thing that often works is to have half the team working on shots on the goal (and goal tending), while the other half works on basic passing, throw-ins, dribbling, or plays a game like “monkey in the middle”.

(iii)      Socialization and Names. A key elementto a kid becoming a “team player” is learning to interact and cooperate with each other.  Most kids can’t remember the name of their team members for more than five minutes, much less from week to week.  Therefore it is recommended that at the beginning of each practice you go around and introduce yourselves again and then have the kids introduce each other.  Then, when you get to passing drills, have the passer call out the name of the kid to whom he or she is passing.  This helps them both learn their names and talk to each other.

4.  WITHDRAWAL and REFUND POLICIES

If your child decides that he or she does not want to participate, or if you decide that your child has other obligations or priorities, then please notify us by e-mail ASAP (whether or not you need advice).

At that point there is the following choice to make:

•       For those who are sure that their child does not want to participate and who are thus planning on having the child not attend, we can take him or her off of the roster.  (The Commissioner can then offer the space on the team to another child who is waiting to enroll or who wishes to transfer to that team.)

 •       For those who doubt that their child will participate, but who nonetheless plan to bring the child to Microsoccer most weeks, we can keep the child on the roster but may add an extra player to the team, if it needs more strength.

Once you have registered your child, we do NOT issue refunds, absent truly compelling circumstances.  Unuses fees will be applied to scholarship participants.

(A) Every year, some parents whose children were registered in the fall season show up in the spring season and mistakenly claim — with great certitude — that they (or their spouse) has already registered their child.  To reduce the chances of unnecessary acrimony on this point, we are now asking all families to bring a printout of the e-mail registration confirmation (or any other documentary proof that registration has taken place).  

(B) Online registration works 90% of the time on a first try. 10% of the time it takes a second (or ocassionally third) try.

(C) If, following your attempt at online registration, you do not receive an e-mail from Active.com or Microsoccer.org confirming that your child has been registered, then you should assume that your child is NOT registered and should try again.  (But do check your spam box first!) 

(D) If you are uncertain whether your child's registration has been completed, please send an e-mail inquiry to Registrar@Microsoccer.org.  If you have not received an e-mail confirmation from Active.com and the registrar can confirm that you are registered, then the registrar will send you a special Confirmation of Registration.

6. Caution about Active.com’s "special offers"

Registration is done through Active.com. We have used their service for several years, and generally found it to be effective and convenient. However, when you register you may be offered some kind of "special offer" to join some kind of discount club that Active offers for $50 per year.  Microsoccer takes an agnostic view of this Active promotion and does not endorse it in any way. 

Likewise Active.com may also offers you some free opportunity to become an Actve.com member, claiming that it is "recommended." Again to be clear, Microsoccer takes an agnostic view of Active's promotion and does not "recommend" it in any way. It is not necessary to become an Active.com member in order to register. On the other hand, if you do avail yourself of any of these extra Active.com features, we would be interested to hear from you as to whether they were a good experience or not.

Likewise, Microsoccer takes no view as to whether you should participate in any magazine subcription promotion that Active may offer.

7.  Note on Entering Child's Name when Filing Out Form

Please note that the "First Name" asked for on the beginning of registration form is your child's name, NOT YOURS. Your name will be asked for later on in the form under "Parent Name."

Also, please make sure you are entering the name of the correct child. (One spring we had one family in spring whose child was registered the entire spring under the name of the child's sibling, a fact that was only discovered when a trophy with the wrong name was presented at the end of the spring season).

8.  SESSION ASSIGNMENTS and PLACEMENT REQUESTS

*** ALERT REGARDING PLACEMENT REQUESTS *** If you are requesting that your child be on the same team as another child or coach, please be aware of the following:

(a)           Once the season has begun and teams have been formed it is VERY difficult to honor any requests.

(b)           When possible we try to at least match your child with one (1) other child or coach. Do not make requests like "all my teammates from last season" as such a request is overbroad and not specific enough without requiring the register to do a lot of research. It is ok to make requests like the following: "please put my child with Sam Smith or Jenny Jones or Albert Alewife" (note the use of "or" rather than "and").

(c)           The child or coach you are requesting must also be registered.

(d)           The child or coach you are requesting must be in the same session. If the requested child is in a session that is full, then you may ask the family of that child whether they would like to transfer in to the session that is available, but this is tricky and must be negotiated through the Commissioner!

(e)           When identifying a child, please make sure that you are using the child's correct last name (last year we had a lot of requests for children by the mother's last name when the children were registered by the father's last name). 

9.  E-MAIL US IF YOU HAVE REGISTRATION PROBLEMS 

If you have not been able to make online registration work, then, after having tried at least twice, please e-mail us what your experience was and what browser and version you were using.

E-mail should go to PROBLEMS@Microsoccer.org

If, due to poor weather, you are unsure of whether a scheduled Microsoccer session is taking place, then please call the 

MICROSOCCER HOTLINE at 617-274-3114.

If Microsoccer is going to be cancelled or postponed, then a message to that effect will be placed on the MICROSOCCER HOTLINE no later than 8:30 AM on the morning of the scheduled game. If there is time, there will also be a message placed on this site.

Required Equipment
Every child is required to have the following equipment at every practice and every game:

(a) shin guards;

(b) soccer cleats; and a 

(c) Microsoccer t-shirt.

Microsoccer will provide each child with one (1) official t-shirt at the first game. Please make sure you get the shin guards and soccer cleats before the first game! 

It is recommended that each child own his or her own size 3 soccer ball for use at home, but that he or she NOT bring the ball to Microsoccer. (The balls we provide are a shared resource and we don't want the kids to get too proprietary.) 

Where to get soccer equipment
There are many places you might get soccer equipment. Among them are:

Brines Sporting Goods

4 Church St. 
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel. No. 617-489-6791 

Modell's

Fresh Pond Shopping center

186 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge.

Sports Etc. 

1303 Massachusetts Ave. 
Arlington, MA 02476-4110
Tel. No. 781-646-1600

Olympia Sports
Fresh Pond Shopping Center
186 Alewife Brook Parkway
Cambridge.
Tel. No. 617-354-1284

City Sports 
1815 Mass Ave. 
Cambridge, MA 02140
Tel. No. 617-661-1666

** If you know other good sources of equipment, please send us the information by e-mail so we can share it with the whole group.