The Club program (also known as travel soccer) is designed to provide youth soccer players the opportunity to experience a healthy, safe, and developmentally appropriate environment to learn and love the game of soccer. The club program draws from our member players to form age and gender appropriate teams and compete in a league format with other clubs. League competitions are generally organized into flights relative to experience and overall skill level, from beginner to highly competitive play.

Club Soccer Overview

Club Soccer generally follows the age groups and developmental formats outlined by the United States Soccer Federation. Beginning at U8 and continuing through U10, teams play games in a 7v7 format on an appropriate sized field to allow for players to maximize their time involved in the play and actively engaged with the ball, referred to as maximizing touches. The rules of the game are slightly modified to promote maximum touches, player safety (no head balls) and to begin to teach the player how to engage with their teammates. From U11 through U12 this is modified to 9v9 on a larger field as the play begins to evolve towards full sided soccer. At U13 and above the game is played on a standard field in the full 11v11 format.

Eligibility for Club Soccer

Players (boys and girls) generally become eligible to join a club team in their U8 seasonal year (7 years old) and tryouts are held each spring to form the roster for the club teams that will play for the next seasonal year. A seasonal year consists of the fall of year 1 and the spring of year 2. For instance, the 2021/22 seasonal year begins in September of 2021 for the fall session, and March of 22 for the spring session. The club program is not just for elite players! All levels of skill are welcome and club teams are formed around the appropriate skill level of the group. This means there is the possibility for multiple teams within an age group and appropriate levels of competition for each team.

Explaination of Age Groups

Club soccer organizations follow governance provided by the United States Soccer Federatin and adhered to by associations such as US Club Soccer. Club soccer teams are generally made up of eligible gender appropriate players from a single birth year. For example, a "2012G" team roster would be girls born in 2012, and as of the beginning of the 2021/22 seasonal year that team would be referred to as U10 (meaining 'under 10 years old'). Depending on league formats, younger players (born in 2013 for example) may also be eligible to be rostered to a 2012 team. Determine a players current U-Age group by birth year. >

League play and Matches

HYSC is a member club of several leagues and competitive formats and allows for teams to play matches against teams in their relative skill and experience range. The whole purpose of club play is to foster growth, development, and love of the game and so ensuring that the teams are playing fair and balanced games is essential to our program. Generally, teams play in the South Jersey Boys and Girls soccer leagues. Highly competitive teams may compete in other formats (e.g. EDP, USYS, etc). Club soccer usually begins at younger age groups with seasons of approximately 10 games played on weekends, and teams may play one or two tournaments as well for a few more games in a single weekend. Higher level or older teams may often play more games or multiple leagues.

Training

Depending on the age groups teams usually practice twice a week for 1-1.5 hours. Qualified youth trainers are offered at no additional cost and provide a structured training curriculm for practice sessions. Volunteer coaches coordinate game day activities and supplemental team training. All vounteer coaches are certified by affiliated associations and trained in player saftey, injury prevention, first aid, and appropriate match preparation and training activities.

Costs

Club Soccer is slightly more expensive than in house programs. HYSC club teams have a $175 per season registration fee, which includes the cost of the provided full uniform kits, league registration fees and referee fees for the season. Other costs players may incur include proper shoes and protective equipment such as shin guards. Individual teams, particularly older or more competitive ones, may participate in additional competitions like tournaments and camps or desire additional training, and those costs are the responsibility of the team.

HYSC is a non-profit organization and our mission is to ensure that all youth players who desire a safe, fun, productive, and engaging environment to learn and play the game of soccer have access to those opportunities, regardless of financial considerations. If financial considerations would affect a player's ability to participate with a club team HYSC will be able to privately and confidentially ensure participation. Parents should talk to the boys or girls travel commisioner about financial considerations.