U9 – U14 Tryout Guidelines

“Tryouts” is the process through which players are chosen for the various Manhattan Soccer Club teams.  This process consists of written evaluations, observation of the players in game and practice contexts and the designated “tryout”.  It is up to the team coaches, independent evaluators and the Head Coach to determine how much weight is given to each aspect of the tryout process and the weighting may vary from year to year for the same age group.  These guidelines are a supplement to the Club rules that are available on the Club web site at http://www.manhattansc.org.

I.          Team Organization

A)        The Club, through its Board, has significant leeway in organizing the various age groupings.

(i)         In the younger age groupings (U9 to U11) the Club’s focus is predominately developmental, i.e., a team structure that will develop the skills of as many players as much as possible. 

(ii)        In the middle age groups (U12 to U14) the Club will foster the formation of as strong an “A” team as possible.  The Club wants to encourage these teams to strive for: (1) “Premier” status; and (2) success in the State Cup, and other competitions.  “B” teams should expect to lose players to the “A” team and to gain players from the “A” team who have been dropped or players recruited from other teams.

(B)       All players interested in being considered for a team are expected to attend the tryout for that team’s age group.  If a player cannot attend for a legitimate reason, then the coach of the team, the outside evaluator, and the head coach will discuss how to assess that player and whether s/he will be offered a place on a team.

(C)       MSC players are not permitted to wear any part of their MSC uniforms, including socks, at the tryouts.

(D)       Playing up (i.e., playing in an age group older than the age group defined for one’s birthday) is strongly discouraged.  The Club rules state, “Players are encouraged to play on a Team in their age group if one exists.  Playing up in the lower age groups should be rare and is strongly discouraged.  For players below 9th grade, permission to play in an older age group ("playing up") may only be granted after application to the Board by the Parent/Guardian of the player, advice of the coaches involved, and approval of the Board or its designee.”

(E)       Teams will exist so long as there are sufficient players who want to play on the team and the team organizers are able to convince the Club that the team will be viable.  (This may require team organizers to actively seek out additional players for the team).  If possible the Club will sanction three (3) teams in each U9 to U11 age group and two (2) teams in each U12 to U14 age group.

(F)       The Club strongly encourages movement between “A” and “B” teams in every age group.  It is especially important that this occurs whenever appropriate, so as to preclude players and/or their parents from believing that they have a “right” to stay on “their” team even if the player does not possess the requisite skill level to play on the team.  Also, holding on to an unqualified “A” team player is unfair to the “B” team player that deserves to be “moved up”.  This said there should not be movement solely for the sake of movement.

(G)       Movement in either direction should not come as a surprise to the player(s) involved.  Thus it is critically important for all coaches to evaluate each player on their team, using the club evaluation forms – or some similar “report card”, and speak with each player on their team individually, well before the tryouts, to advise the player where s/he stands on the team and why.  Coaches are strongly encouraged to inform players in the bottom third (not necessarily exactly where in the third) about a possible drop from the “A” team to the “B” team or from the “B” team.  Similarly, the strongest players on the “B” team should be told about the possibility of a “move up” to the “A” team.  With younger children (U9 to U11 at least), this evaluation process will include the parents.  Coaches must, at a minimum, identify the weakest one third (1/3) of the players on the team.  The rest of the team should be divided as reasonably as possible into middle level and top players.

(H)       The Club expects each coach to prepare and submit honest and fair pre-tryout evaluations.  Since these evaluations will be used to organize the tryouts, their timely submission is critical.

(I)         No one likes informing a player that s/he has been dropped from either the “A” or the “B” team.  Coach evaluations provided to the players before the tryouts should serve as a “wake-up” call.  This may make the results of the tryout easier to handle for the player who is dropped.  Coaches, not evaluators, are solely responsible for telling their players the results of the tryouts unless decided otherwise by the Board and/or the head coaches or Coaches Committee.

(J)        The Club encourages and expects teams within each age group to practice and scrimmage with each other numerous times during the fall and spring seasons.  This will (1) enable all of the coaches within a particular age group to become acquainted with the playing ability of each player in that age group and (2) will promote the concept of a single division for the age group, divided into teams on a somewhat temporary basis, allowing considerable movement between the teams, thereby reducing the angst that may be associated with movement between teams.

II.          Tryout responsibilities

(A)              It is the responsibility of the Board/Coaches Committee representative to make sure that the tryout process works as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

(B)              Coaches will complete the pre-tryout player evaluation forms, including the player rankings, and forward them to the appropriate Board/Coaches Committee representative no later than one week prior to the tryouts.  Player rankings should correspond to the evaluations in I. (G) above and may be a factor in the assignment of a “pinnie” number. 

(C)             The Board/Coaches Committee representative will be responsible for all of the organizational aspects of each of the tryouts: making sure everyone signed in; assigning “pinnies”; coordinating the coaches/evaluators meeting afterwards; keeping track of decisions, etc.

(D)             A “responsible person”, selected by the Board/Coaches Committee representative, or tryout organizer, will maintain a “master list” of all players participating in the tryout session.  This list will contain each player’s name, address, telephone number, birth date, current MSC team (if any), “pinnie” color and pinnie” number.  This list will be given to the designated Board/Coaching Committee representative at the beginning of the tryout.  The responsible “person” will review all birth dates for appropriateness and inform the Board/Coaches Committee representative if any of the players are not within the correct birth date range for the age group trying out.  Players not in the correct birth date range for the age group can participate in the tryout only if the Head Coach prior to the tryout gave the player special permission to do so.

(E)              Unless the Board and/or the Head Coach and Coaches Committee have decided otherwise, most tryouts will be run by the “A” team coach (as designated for the current spring season) working closely with the other coaches and a Board/Coaching Committee representative.

(F)              The Club will provide independent evaluators (independent of the teams) for each tryout.  These evaluators will work with the coaches to make sure that movement (or lack of movement) is appropriate.  In cases where the coaches and independent evaluators cannot agree, the age-group coordinator, Board representative, the Head Coach and, if necessary, the Board president or the Board, will become involved for it is the Club’s responsibility to insure that the team selection process is as fair as possible, even if this means overruling the coach.

(G)             The tryouts will be organized so that all of the coaches and evaluators will have the opportunity to observe all of the players who might be moving from one team to another.  For example, the “A” team coach should help the “B” team coach determine who should be added and who should be dropped from the “B” team.  Wherever possible, decisions regarding player movement should be the result of all of the coaches and evaluators coming to a common understanding.

(H)              Immediately after the tryouts, the Board/Coaching Committee representative will meet with the coaches and the independent evaluator(s) to make a preliminary assessment and player allocation.  No Parent Coaches or team parents take part in this meeting!  All decisions will be written down, with any questions clearly indicated.  The overall shape of the teams should be clear.  Any walk-ons indicated for the “A” team and/or “B” team should be identified; as should “A” team players “moving down”, or “B” team players “moving up” or being dropped.  If there are still questions about a few players, a method for coming to a decision about the players should be determined.  For example, the “A” team coach may agree to attend the next “B” team game; specific players may be invited to another team’s practice; or further discussions to be held with the Board/Coaching Committee representative or independent evaluator within a set time frame, and so on.  Based on the “A” team selections, the “B” team or teams should be selected.  For this to work well, all the coaches must work closely together with the Board/Coaching Committee representative and independent evaluators.

 III.         Post-tryout responsibilities

(A)              The Board/Coaching Committee representative will make sure that the following responsibilities are carried out subsequent to the tryout session.

(B)              Unless otherwise determined by the Board/Coaching committee, by the end of the next day following the day of the last game of the season, the coach of the “A” team will invite players not currently on the “A” team roster to join the “A” team.  A player given an offer to join the “A” team will generally have up to twenty-four (24) hours in which to respond to the offer.  Failure to respond within the twenty-four hour period will be interpreted as declining the offer unless the Head Coach has granted an extension.  After the coach has heard from all players to whom an invitation to join the “A” team was extended, or twenty-four (24) hours have elapsed, whichever occurs first, the “A” team coach will call all current “A” team players and advise them of their status.

(C)       Based on the responses of the new invitees, the “A” team coach will advise the players from his/her team that s/he has been dropped, either to the “B” team or out of the Club altogether.

(D)       The coach of the “B” team will invite players not currently on the team’s roster to join the “B” team.  Here too, the players will generally have twenty-four (24) hours in which to respond.  Once all new invitees have responded, or twenty-four (24) hours has elapsed, whichever occurs first, the “B” team coach will advise all the players from his/her team of an invitation to re-join the team or inform the player that s/he has been dropped out of the Club altogether.  Both coaches will call players dropped to a “B” team.  The “A” team coach will call the player first to alert the player to expect a call from the “B” team coach and, if appropriate, will encourage the player to accept the invitation, if the tryout decision is to drop the player to the “B” team.

(E)       The Board/Coaching Committee representative will insure that all walk-ons who have not been invited to join a team are called and advised of the results of the tryouts.

(F)       The Board/Coaching Committee representative will submit to the Head Coach a report about the tryout, highlighting any problems which emerged and summarizing the results of the tryouts (attendance, teams created, team sizes, open spots, etc.).