Frequently Asked Questions - Registration
Practice & Game Schedules
When does the season start and end?
For the U7 division and up, practices typically begin in the last week of August. U5 and U6 players do not have separate practice days - they have a practice session on their game days - so their practices will begin on the first day of the season.
The first day of games for all age groups is generally in September on the first Saturday after Labor Day. The season will end the weekend prior to Thanksgiving for U8 and below, and will extend a week or two into December for playoffs in our U10-U14 divisions.
What days/times are games and practices?
All games are on Saturdays until U14 and higher and may be scheduled throughout the day. The full season schedule will be posted around Labor Day. Practices can be any day during the week depending on your coach’s schedule, although we do guarantee a “no practice” day that you can specify in your registration. For the location of games and practices, check out our "Where We Play" page.
What is a "no practice" day?
We allow parents to request one weekday when their child cannot practice, and we do our best to accommodate that request. Additional requests (e.g., for a second no practice day or a specific practice time or location) should be placed in the registration/submitter comments field, where they will be seen by your division directors, but we cannot guarantee that they will be followed.
Team Formation & Placement
What age division is my child in?
All AYSO teams are formed based on the calendar year that players are born, aligning our program with U.S. Soccer's Player Development Initiative and most organized youth soccer programs around the world. Click here for your child's age division.
Can my child play in a different age group?
Requests to "play up" in a higher age level or "play down" in a lower age group will be considered on a case-by-case basis and must be approved by the Regional Commissioner. Factors such as the child's size, age and soccer experience will be considered, and all changes are subject to limitations imposed by AYSO National Rules. Please click here to make a request.
Do you need my child's birth certificate?
Players may be required to provide a copy of their birth certificate or passport for verification against their inLeague registration records. Failure to provide a birth certificate matching the player's DOB in our registration system may result in the player being dropped from his/her team and ineligible for a refund.
When will I find out what team my child is on?
Team assignments will generally be announced in late August.
Friend & Coach Requests
Can I request a specific teammate or coach for my child?
More detail below, but three general concepts apply here: (1) please enter any request in the "registration comments" field in your child's registration profile - requests emailed to your division director or the regional commissioner will not be tracked in any way, (2) we do not guarantee teammate requests in any age group (other than siblings), and (3) to the limited extent requests are honored, priority is given to our volunteer coaches, referees and Board members, so please volunteer if this is essential to you or your child. If you do list a friend request in your registration comments, include first and last names; we don't who your friends are!
Why don't we honor all friend/coach requests?
a) Logistically, it would be impossible to manage requests in a program with over a thousand players. Requests often include players who aren't in the same age group or even registered in our program. Honoring some interlocking requests would require putting more players on a roster than we have room for.
b) As players get older, honoring teammate or coach requests would violate AYSO's core philosophy of "Balanced Teams", which is the foundation of our team formation process. Losing or winning games by large margins every week is not fun, even in younger divisions where we don't officially keep score, and discourages many players from playing in the future.
c) One of the great strengths of our program is its function in connecting our community across school lines, so that players and families make connections between Overland and Brawerman, St. Paul's and Westwood Charter, Fairburn and John Thomas Dye, or Warner and The Lab School. Kids have all day every day at school with school friends; we want our program to broaden their horizons. For this reason, we don't make "school" teams and we encourage families to use soccer as a chance to make new friends.
We do make limited exceptions to these restrictions in the younger divisions (U5-U8):
- In the U5 Jamboree, there are no "teams"; all players learn together.
- In the U6 division, we recognize that children are still quite young, and we want to promote a supportive social environment for families. Accordingly, we accommodate many teammate requests as long as we have enough volunteer coaches and referees to form teams. Please recognize that we will not be able to accommodate every request. Priority will be granted to requests from our volunteer coaches, referees and Board members.
- In the U7 and U8 divisions, we will honor requests as follows:
- volunteers may choose to be on a team with a specific head coach or pair their child with the child of another volunteer
- for this purpose, a "volunteer" includes an active referee or a new properly certified referee, a head coach from another age group, a Region 70 Board member or a parent who volunteers at least 4 hours of time through some other opportunity (e.g., assisting with equipment distribution or staffing our Cheviot table one Saturday.)
- logistical concerns and team balance may prevent us from satisfying specific requests.
- In the U10 & U12 "competitive" divisions, requests may be made in the registration comments, but are more limited as we prioritize AYSO's core philosophy of "Balanced Teams" in those competitive divisions.
- In U14 and above, larger roster sizes give us more flexibility to honor requests.
Volunteering
Why do you ask everyone to volunteer?
AYSO is an all-volunteer organization. Every position, from the regional commissioner, to the coaches and referees, right on through the webmaster and the game scheduler, are filled with parents who are volunteering their time. Our ability to put on a successful program depends on the willingness of every family to help out in some way.
I would like to be an AYSO coach; what should I do?
The first step is to check the box indicating that you wish to volunteer as a coach when you register your child to play. Next, consult the Coaching section of our website to learn about volunteer registration and coach training. Your name will be forwarded to the Coach Administrators, who will send you information concerning the registration and training requirements for your child's division. In the summer, the Division Directors will contact coach volunteers and compile a list of likely coaches.
I would like to be an AYSO referee; what should I do?
The first step is to check the box indicating that you wish to volunteer as a referee when you register your child to play. Next, consult the Referees section of our website to learn about volunteer registration and referee training. Training opportunities exist during the summer months and through the Fall. The referee administrator and scheduler will contact you in September about training and game opportunities.
Other Questions
My child is under 8 years of age - how do you structure play for young kids?
AYSO is designed to provide a fun learning environment for the youngest players. U5 play (for kids under age 5) is in our "Jamboree", a clinic environment with fun games and instruction by professional coaches. Kids play 3v3 games on a small field (30x20) with no goalkeepers. U6, U7 and U8 play introduces the basics of team play, with a focus on passing and team participation. Kids play 4v4 on a small field (45x30) with no goalkeepers. Larger team play with goalkeeping is introduced at age 8 (in the under-10 division.)
What's the deal with wearing earrings?
Earrings and other jewelry are not allowed during AYSO games and practices, so please avoid getting ears pierced during or soon before the start of the season. Referees are instructed not to allow players at any age with earrings to participate out of concern for the player’s safety.
How does the Wait List work?
There are times when we may have more kids sign up to play in a specific division than we have room for or we do not have a sufficient number of certified volunteer coaches for a specific age division. In these cases we may be forced to place registered players on a Wait List until such time as either a new team is able to be formed or a space on an existing team becomes available. While this is not a common occurrence or a desired practice, it is sometimes necessary. In most cases, parents will be notified when they register (particularly for late registrations) that their child has been placed on a Wait List.
Players will not necessarily come off of the Wait List in the order in which they were placed on it. Region 70 will instead use a combination of factors to add players to teams or open spaces on teams. These factors include: volunteer status of the parents, order in which the player was registered, and rating of the player.
When taking players from the Wait List, we must take into account all of the program objectives and AYSO Philosophies, starting with maintaining balanced teams. This means that when a player drops from a team, we will look for a player of similar ability on the Wait List - we will look to replace a dropping strong player with another strong player if at all possible and vice versa. If we are unable to remove players from the Wait List prior to Week 3 of the Fall season, then we will offer parents a full refund.
What about COVID?
We will run our program in compliance with protocols issued by the LA County Department of Public Health, if any, regarding masking, testing and vaccinations. These guidelines are subject to change during our season, and a change in those rules will not be cause for player refunds except in the event our season is cancelled.
Does Region 70 offer financial aid for my child?
We do offer financial aid for our families for whom our registration fee will be a financial burden. Please send an email to our Registrar at [email protected] for more information or to request financial assistance.
CLICK HERE TO PROCEED TO PLAYER REGISTRATION