Our senior program is getting ready to participate in Northern Virginia ’s Suburban Friendship League (SFL).  We have coaches and kids assigned, teams have practice space and we expect the SFL schedule to be released this week.  Many, Many thanks to the Age Group Coordinators who help make this happen - all before the first player touches a soccer ball.

 I realize that for most parents, soccer has not yet really started.  But I wanted to let you know that we have been working behind the scenes for 2 months to organize things so your kids and their coaches can hit the ground running and start practice at the beginning of April.  Not all of your requests were satisfied in terms of team mates, coaches, days to practice, where to practice, etc.  We have nearly 650 kids in the senior program alone so it is not possible to find a perfect fit for every player.  And, this season, we had to commit to SFL the number of teams we would have by 1 March.  We made a good educated guess and have filled all the teams we registered but they are almost all totally full. 

 If you find that your player’s team has what you consider to be too many players, there are two ways you can help us resolve that.  1) Register your player early! After teams are set is a lousy time to try to make changes or add players.  2) Please become certified and coach CYA Soccer!  These are the two reasons we struggle to add teams.  We need to know there will be enough kids to support them very early on - late registrants make this tough.  And, we need to be confident there will be a coach if we do add a team. 

 Anyhow, now is the best part - we get to go out on the fields and play some soccer!  I hope your player has a great season and that we have beautiful weather and fun games with old and new friends.

 Yours in Soccer, Lisa Bishop

Welcome to CYA Senior soccer.  CYA soccer teams from ages U11 (aka U12 Division 2) through U19 all 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 2007 season:

9 March - Registration closed 

31 March - This is the earliest your team can start practice

TBD - Seniors Coaches Meeting and uniform pick up

12 April - First weekend of games

24 & 25 - no games, Memorial Day Weekend

7 & 8 June - SFL Tournament  (The SFL Tournament is an end-of-season affair.  About half the teams play two games - some more and some less.  All the games are played against teams with similar records so they are usually fairly close and exciting games to close out the season. )

A couple other specific details for Senior Soccer:   

 --  Unlike Juniors or Bantams, SFL teams usually play 10 games per season and are usually officiated by three Grade 8 referees.

 --  All Senior teams wear similar uniforms so they are easily recognizable as CYA teams.  Dupliacte numbers are not allowed in SFL so please make sure your player wears THIS SEASON’S UNIFORM - they may not be allowed to play if they 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 older teams will play games on turf fields – such as the newly renovated Poplar Tree Park fields 2 & 3.  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, Springfield, and other clubs also have turf fields.  Please don’t assume that rain means you won’t play!

 We hope your soccer player has a great season, learns about the beautiful game, makes friends and most importantly has fun this spring!