Beginning a U11, your child will play on a CYA team participating the the Suburban Friendship League (SFL).  The SFL is a recreational soccer league that includes teams from throughout the Northern Virginia area and DC and Maryland. The SFL season is 8 games with an end-of-season tournament.  Since this is a recreational league, there are no tryouts and everyone plays on a team.

 

Welcome to CYA Senior soccer.  CYA soccer teams from ages U11 (aka U12 Division 2) through U19 participate in the Suburban Friendship League (SFL).  You can learn all about SFL on their web site (see link on the left).  Each team will play half their games at a home CYA field and half at an away field against a recreation level team from another club.  Here are some dates to keep in mind as we begin the Fall 2009 season:

15 August - Registration closed 

TBD at the CYA Shed - Seniors Coaches Meeting and uniform pick up

week of 23 August - This is the earliest your team will start practice

11 Sept - First weekend of games

11 Oct - no games, Columbus Day Weekend

13-14 November - SFL Tournament  (The SFL Tournament is an end-of-season event.  About half the teams play two games - some more, some less.  All games are played against teams with similar records so they are close and exciting. )    

A couple other specific details for Senior Soccer: 

 --  Dupliacte jersey numbers are not allowed in SFL so please ensure your player wears THIS SEASON’S UNIFORM - you may not be allowed to play if you wear the wrong jersey number!

--  Weather information can be accessed through the CYA Soccer web site for home games. Weather info for away games should be sought from the hosting club via the SFL web site.

--  Some of our teams will play games on turf fields – such as Poplar Tree Park.  Games on these fields will be played in wet conditions so please read the weather information carefully and be prepared to play in the rain on these full-sized fields.  Burke, Herndon, Haymarket, Springfield, and other clubs also have turf fields.  Please don’t assume that rain means you won’t play!

We hope you have a great season, learn about the beautiful game, make friends and most importantly have fun this fall!

I hope all of you know that CYA Soccer registration for the spring is open.  The last day to register is 9 March.  What you may not know is SFL has changed their operating policies this season.  I still have to submit the total number of senior teams I think CYA Soccer will field by 1 March but this season I can not be as forward leaning in my speculation.  If we do not have a good percentage of the kids we need to field a team, SFL will push back and may not allow me to register the team until I have a more complete roster.  We can still add teams after 1 March, but it will be a situation where we have to hope they have room and have not completed the division structures or schedules.
 
I want you to know that I understand why SFL is doing this.  When teams drop out just before schedules are released or even after, it is a huge disruption to the league and requires a multitude of manual re-scheduling hours for a few SFL volunteers.  This new process will limit the league's exposure to dropped teams.
 
In light of this new change, I am asking you to please register your kids early for spring soccer!  Last season we had 475 kids registered on time and 650 by the time the season started.  I can not guarantee late registrants will be placed on a team this season.  There is really no good reason to not register on time and avoid the hassle, risk and additional cost of late registration. 
 
Please spread the word and help make the lives of all the volunteers in CYA and SFL a little easier by registering your soccer player in February!
 
Thanks in advance for your assistance and I hope to see you in March on the soccer field!
 
Lisa Bishop
CYA Soccer Senior Coordinator and SFL Rep

We have the Answer - maybe a couple of them:   

1.     High School Try-Outs will generally be over by late February leaving time to register for CYA Soccer after you find out whether you made the team and assess whether you can or want to do both.   

2.     If you register for CYA Soccer and make the high school team and decide (before the spring SFL season begins) that you can not do both, we will refund the registration amount.   

3.     You can work with your SFL coach - many coaches will excuse you from practice and be glad to have you play on the weekend with your CYA buddies.   

As an aside, there are restrictions against you playing house and travel soccer in the same season.  There are not such restrictions about high school soccer and house or travel.  It is up to you, your family and your coaches.

 Hopefully this information helps and whatever you decide - we wish you good luck in your continuing soccer careers!