New Travel Player Q & A

New Travel Player Q & A
TOP 10 QUESTIONS ASKED BY NEW TRAVEL PLAYER/PARENTS
(Q) What is Travel Soccer?
(A) Travel soccer is where kids start to learn the game and play more competitive. Separation from parents begins here. Kids start playing against other towns, clubs, and Academy’s. Teams are tracked and ranked within SJ and based on performance in Fall and Spring seasons results is where team is placed in divisions of SJSL(South Jersey Soccer League-Boys) and SJGSL (South Jersey Girls Soccer League).
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(Q) Where do we travel?
(A) Travel consists of South Jersey in general. The geographical area is from Trenton area down to Cape May. You will play a home-n-home schedule with 5 other teams in your division majority of time. 10 games total. Leagues try to do their best to group players regionally and within county within first season...
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(Q) When does season(s) start? Times? Days? Practices?
(A)Fall season games--starts the 1st w-end after Labor Day and ends the w-end before Thanksgiving, with Columbus Day w-end off, weather permitting. 10 weeks of games. Girl’s games are played on Saturdays between 11:00am and 3:30pm for most part and Boys games on Sundays, same times. Game times could change.
Spring season is also 10 weeks, starting the 1st w-end in March and ending the w-end before Memorial Day w-end. Off Easter w-end from regular games...
Practices for fall start early August, while spring will start last week of Feb. OR 1st week of March depending on how season shapes up and weather. There will be 2 practices per week based on your coach’s plans. Usually 5:30-7 slot for this age group (u8-9), but possibly 7-8:30 as well, depending on coach’s availability.
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(Q) Tournaments?
(A) Tournaments are where teams get together from all over the tristate area and play teams in round robin brackets, playoff systems, etc.….Tournaments usually run the entire w-end, although there are some one day events. U9-U10 is non results oriented. Kids receive “Participation Awards” and exchange “organizational soccer patches” with their opponents. Your coach may not do a tournament or may do a few depending on your coach and talent level of your team. Pre-season, Columbus w-end, Thanksgiving w-end and Easter are the most popular tournaments. Additional fees are associated with tournaments and collected by coach. Tournaments make for great bonding for teams and families as days are spent together.
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(Q) Tryouts?
(A) Tryouts are done to keep talent levels of players together as well as commitment to playing year round or seasonal only. Tryouts annually allow a player that one year may be on the “B/C” team and improved his/her skills to play on the A team the following year. Every player is given a chance to better themselves in rankings amongst peers annually.
If for an example 24 boys come out for the U9 teams, we will take the top 12 and place on one team and appropriately place them in a higher competitive bracket of their league then we would with the #13-#24 ranked players.
At tryouts you will be asked “Is your player committed to year round ball or just fall”? Why do we ask that question? The leagues are set up with max roster of 14 players. Should 9 kids from a max’d out team decide not return to spring ball, the league only allows us to add 3 kids, so hence, we would have a team of 8 which is not good for a season and the team would have to be disbanded by rules. The leagues in NJ allow only 3 moves (additions) during the year to a full roster of 14. It is important that we know who is serious about playing year round and who’s not so that teams are not disbanded. Does that mean that the most talented player could be placed on the B team if he/she is only playing fall ball, yes. Travel soccer can be complicated and there is so much more to it compared to micros.
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(Q) When will we know of team placement and coaches?
(A) We will name teams at the Board’s discretion usually right before or after Memorial Day w-end as long as we have coaches in place, then your coach will also contact you as well.
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(Q) Who runs tryouts?
(A) We hire our professional training partners, GPS (Global Premier Soccer) to run the training session and rank kids based on what they see. We also involve certain Travel coaches and EGSA board members for their input and help.
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(Q) What is the parent’s role during tryout?
(A) Sit back quietly and let your child do his/her thing, plain and simple. You will be asked to stay behind the cautioned taped off area or take a walk through our lovely park. There will be no coaching, no contact with your kid during tryouts. Should you decide to go against the grain, you will be asked to leave tryouts and the incident will be held against your kid’s rankings. The kids can play on their own w/o being coached by mom and dad for 90 mins. Part of tryouts is your player’s ability to think on their own w/o being told more than once.
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(Q) Should we attend both tryouts?
(A) It is not mandatory that you do, but strongly recommended that you do. All players have bad days and having a 2nd tryout day improves his/her chances and also allows the trainers/coaches to get a better look individually and with groups.
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(Q) What is the minimum age for travel?
(A) Your child must be 6 or 7 years old (only for 2016-17), beginning in the 2017-18 year all travel players for EGSA must be at least 7 years old and play with in their birth year. This is set in stone per NJYS rules. No one younger may participate.
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If you have any further questions please email us at: [email protected]

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East Greenwich Soccer Association of South Jersey

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