SANTA ROSA SOUTH YOUTH SOCCER CLUB

What are the differences between Travel Competitive, Select, and Recreational soccer?

There have been various changes in the way youth soccer has been organized with different names being used indiscriminately causing some confusion. The level above recreational soccer has been referred to as Competitive, Select or Travel. This level is now referred to as Competitive.

Division 1 youth soccer was used for travel teams that played at the highest level with a high level of commitment and time. Coaches were paid and had advanced national coaching licenses, and while they could be parents of boys on the teams, were more often not. Teams usually played year round, with substantial travel and costs for parents. In the new soccer vocabulary, these teams play in the Gold/Premiere divisions

The level below could be described as “Select” soccer or division 3. Now, these are still Competitive but known as Silver or Bronze teams, with a little more commitment and skill in the silver divisions, slightly less in the bronze.  (Athletico, Tahuichi, SCA, and SR United all have sliver and/or bronze teams playing year around. The silver and bronze teams in those clubs cost nearly as much as the gold/premiere teams.)

This is traditionally where Santa Rosa South (SRS) teams (and its preceding teams, Central, Laguna and Annadel) competed. Teams are still created by tryouts (held yearly) and if a player fell off in his or her performance and/or attitude, they might not automatically make the team the next year. Coaches are typically the parent of one of the players and have regional coaching qualifications but not always to the level of those from the Gold/Premiere teams. Some teams stay together by competing in off season tournaments or as an indoor team but this does not prevent the majority of players competing in basketball and/or Little League baseball, etc.

Recreational soccer formerly known as Division 4, is open to all players of whatever ability with teams created to maximize parity. Coaches were almost universally parents, some with coaching qualifications but by no means all.

MYTH 1
Competitive Soccer is a huge year round commitment.

Santa Rosa South competitive teams are usually comprised of players who wish to play other sports such as basketball, baseball, lacrosse, or ice hockey and this is encouraged to allow players to excel in all sports while not facing the possibility of a one sport burn out.  SRS teams usually start practices in June and play through November/December.

MYTH 2
Practices are every night of the week

Teams usually practice two nights a week (with at least a rest day between) for 1 1/2 hours from June through November. Immediately before the season starts, coaches may add a third practice in August on a weekend day but this is not usually compulsory.

MYTH 3
Teams travel every week and games take up the whole weekend.

There are usually 10-12 games in a season. Half the games are played at home fields (recently at Strawberry Elementary School, Steele Lane Elementary, or Slater Junior High School) and half are away. Games are 60-90 minutes and players are asked to be at the field 30-45 minutes before a game. Parents often comment that is a much lower level of commitment than little league baseball games. Travel for league games is regional, confined to cities mainly in Sonoma County, but a few games may take teams into Marin/Napa County area.

Some teams, usually after discussion with parents and players, may decide to take part in the State Cup.  This begins with a series of regional seeding games during the league season, usually played on Sundays in the same Sonoma/Marin/Napa county area. After seeding rounds, the final rounds develop into a couple of weekend tournaments at the end of the season (November- December) in places like the East Bay or Central Valley.

MYTH 4
There are tournaments all the time, all over the place.

In the preseason there could be an opportunity to play a tournament every weekend. However, SRS teams (and coaches) do not choose to do so.  Typically, an SRS team will play in 2-3 regional preseason tournaments (June, July, or August) depending on the team.  These tournaments may take place over one or two days, but typically involve 3-4 games during the weekend either way.

During the league season, the last weekend of every month is left open for tournaments.  If a team decided to participate in the State Cup, they will typically not enter season tournaments.  Teams that do choose to participate in a tournament, typically enter two locally (within daily driving distance), and one weekend away (overnights in Sacramento, South Bay, Fort Bragg, etc.) to wrap up the season. Families are responsible for their own travel, food, and lodging, but with carpooling and brown bag lunches, the whole family can have a fun weekend away for a couple of hundred dollars.

MYTH 5
Competitive soccer is really expensive

Silver/ Bronze soccer is definitely more expensive than Recreational soccer but is still surprisingly affordable. Competitive Gold/Premiere level teams, usually with paid coaches, who play in a lot of tournaments (some out of state) can have dues of over $2000 a year with travel costs pushing this to $3-4000 a year.

Dues for SRS competitive teams are usually in the $400-600 a year range.  In addition to SRS registration, a first time SRS competitive player will be responsible for buying a jersey kit (approximately $100), but most kids can wear their jerseys for two years.  Most teams collect $200-300 for the season, with this cost going to tournament fees and the purchase of any necessary equipment.  A new team will usually have a little higher cost as the team buys match balls, nets and other game/practice items for the first time. The biggest cost difference is that our coaches are committed, but qualified, volunteers who are not paid for practices, games, or tournaments. Teams with paid coaches need to cover the travel costs for coaches at tournaments which is not the case for SRS coaches.

MYTH 6
It’s just too competitive with too much pressure on the kids.

The emphasis at SRS Silver/Bronze teams is player development. Being on a select team at 8 or 9 years old is not an automatic indicator that a player will be exceptional at 16. What we do is to teach the fundamentals of team play. The biggest difference between recreational players and select team players is the ability to play as a team of 8 or 11 rather than a as group of isolated individuals doing their own thing. Individual skills are developed, but used as a way of enhancing team play rather than individual glory.  All players play at least one-third of the game, but most teams still divide playing team equally among players.

Winning is nice, but usually more important to parents than players and coaches. Our goal is to teach kids to become better players, through commitment and hard work. We find that a dedicated team, working in connection with their coach, to develop skill, fitness, and teamwork, will have good results that will follow. It might be easy to win games by playing a certain way but that might not necessarily be the best way to have the kids grow with the game. Coaches are not overly concerned with results if the players are showing progression. Good results will follow good habits.