Travel Program Info

Philosophy

To let the kids play without a lot of coaching during games. To smile a lot. To encourage a lot. To let the ball be the teacher. The kids like to keep track of the score. The adults should focus on managing activities and helping the players learn soccer, social skills, and team skills.  Click on the list below to navigate to the desired topi

Overview

The Concord Carlisle Youth Soccer travel program fields teams for players U9 to U18.  We are members of the Boston Area Youth Soccer league.  Games are played in Concord and Carlisle and usually in surrounding communities such as Acton, Lexington, Sudbury, Newton and more.  Teams are fielded for U9 to U14 in the fall and U9 to U18 in the Spring.  If you're thinking about travel soccer for your child, please look below for more detail about this program.  Or, should you wish to speak with one of our program's age directors, you may contact the appropriate person for your age group as listed on the Contact Us page.

Eligibility

Children may begin playing Travel soccer in the Fall of their third grade year and play with us until the reach 18 years old. Players are placed in divisions by age groups running from August 1 of the current year through July 31 of the year following.  Click here for a listing of the 2011/2012 soccer season birth dates/grades.

Commitment

Playing in the travel program requires a commitment to attend two practices per week and all games, both home and away.  Before registering for this program, please be sure you and your player can make this commitment. It is not fair to teammates and coaches to sign up for a team unless a player and their family can make the necessary commitment.  To aid in properly placing players for fall soccer, the travel program holds player evaluations in the spring in late May/early June.  Players considering our travel program should attend these evaluations. 

Season length and start dates

The travel season runs for 10 weeks each fall and spring. Typically the fall season starts the Saturday after public school starts and for the spring, within the first two weeks of April.  Games are played during holidays and vacations each season. For details on the current season, click here to go to the Registration page.

Team Placement

Age Directors use coach evaluations, evaluations from professional clinicians and their observations from watching games to place players on teams according to their skill level.  Often a review of a draft player placement is conducted with coaches from the previous season to solicit coach input.  The primary considerations for placement are the evaluations.  For younger players, school may be taken into consideration when placing players of equal skill.  When a player signs up to play travel soccer, she/he is signing up to play soccer, not to play on a particular team.  Factors for team placement in order of priority are:

1. How many teams each age division can field and how many players are on each team.
2. The ability of the players which is determined by their former coaches and field evaluations.

The number of players registering affects the number of possible teams, which then outlines the size of those teams.  The objective of the player placement process is to put players in groupings with other similarly-skilled players, as it is CCYS belief that players will develop more effectively in this environment. 

Registration Fees

The travel program fees are $165 per season and include fees for membership to the Boston Area Youth Soccer League (BAYS) and the building and maintainance of Concord and Carlisle fields.  It also includes a $25 non-refundable administrative fee.  A $50 fee is assessed for late registrations.  Financial assistance is available for those in need.

Uniforms

Uniforms - All travel players are required to wear a uniform.  The jersey, which is maroon and black may be purchased from CCYS for $25 and can be ordered during the registration process.  The Addidas Squadra Shorts and black socks may be purchased locally at Brines in Concord or Soccer Stuff in Acton.  For questions regarding uniforms, please contact Nancy.

Games

Games in the fall are played on Saturdays.  In the spring, games for the U9 through U14 teams are played on Saturdays and for the U16 and U18 teams on Sundays.  Make ups are usually scheduled for evenings and Sundays.

Practices

Two practices per week including professonally-run player clinics are required.   Practice times are set by the team's coach just prior to the season opening and are set at coach's discretion after discussion with the parents of the players on their teams.  CCYS philosophy for good practices:

• The coach smiles frequently and encourages with positive comments, catching players doing things right.
• Every player has a ball at his or her feet.
• No players stand in line, ever. They're always doing something with the ball or moving to a ball.
• The kids are having fun. The coach has organized games that teach skills. There are no "rote" drills. 
• The practice includes a "live game" scrimmage for at least 15 minutes (30 minutes for older kids). 
•  The kids go home tired

Skills

 See the Coaches section of the site for detailed descriptions of skills we'd like the kids to learn and activities that will help them learn while having a fun.

Click here to go to registration with AdminSports (our registration provider).