Region 1096 Policy #2- Forming Teams/Balanced Team Policy
In some seasons, there are sometimes complaints about team balancing and formation such as teams being hand-picked or stacked by a coach. One of AYSO philosophy's is balanced teams. That means a Region, to the best of its ability, will strive to form teams that are equal in ability. There is no perfect way to do this, but we have been successful most seasons. Some teams at times will develop much better and come together as a team and may seem over balanced, but making teams is very time-consuming work but we strive each season to balance teams with the information we have. We go above and beyond to balance teams and have check and balances in place to ensure the best balance of teams as possible. The below is our policy on how we form teams:
AYSO National rules forbid building teams by strategic placing of coaches or assistant coaches. We will place parent coaches and their assistants only if the balance of the team is not effected.
Being a small Region and the only AYSO program in a 50-mile radius, we have some players traveling 25+ miles to practices/games. We MAY consider parent request in team forming, but only if we can honor the request without any effect to the balance of the team rating. Team balancing takes priority along with the other 5 AYSO Philosophy's, so our policy on requests and team selection will reflect those philosophies above everything else. We are under no obligation to honor any request, and under no circumstances are any guarantees made by board members, coaches, or volunteers. All request will be reviewed by and final approved by the RC.
Only guarantee is brothers and sisters in same age division will be placed on the same team along with team coaches will always get their child, we will adjust if necessary team balance in this situation. Brothers and sisters can play on separate teams if requested.
What if your team has a practice day that conflicts with some other commitment that you can’t arrange before team forming? What if you need help with carpooling? Please be flexible and try to work it out. You will almost always get to know someone on the team that you can work out carpooling and other responsibilities. Don’t worry about your child not knowing someone else on the team. One of the joys of AYSO soccer is the opportunity for their children and the parents to make new friends and it is done so in the context of participation on a team sport! Take advantage and if you can’t work around the practice schedule assigned to your team, last resort you can place your child on the wait list until there is an opening at his/her evaluation level on a team that practices a different night. However, there is no guarantee that all players from waiting list will be placed. The refund policy applies if you choose to place your child on the wait list after team forming, whether they are placed on a team or not.
Request to play up a division is highly discouraged no matter the level of play being it has been proven players develop to much better players in long run staying within their division. See Policy 3 for request of playing up.
During team formation process, (if team forming is completed manually versus automatically through management system) any volunteer or parent that is involved will not participate in the forming of teams in the age group which they are coaching or have a child playing in. In the event of low participation of team forming is low, the board members present must all approve the final teams formed.
After teams are formed and before coaches are giving their team, the Regional Commissioner (or person appointed by RC) will look over each age group and verify team balance by inputting the team and player rating into database that calculates team strength and/or checking the automatic management system ratings. Players may be moved at that time if the RC or appointee determines a team is unbalanced for that age group. The RC or appointee will make the effected parties aware of the player move and the reason for the move.
Any late signups after teams are formed will be put on a wait/replacement list. When and if able to place on a team, they will be placed on the team with the least number of players in the age group and with team balance first priority.
Any late signups after the first game of season must be approved by the Regional Commissioner.
Uniforms for any late signup can’t be guaranteed by the time the late signup player has their first game, but one will be provided as soon as possible without any large expense to the Region.
We will not allow late signups to be used to manipulate the system.
No players can switch teams after team forming. While parents frequently see this from their perspective and don’t take into consideration that granting a seemingly simple request can have a wave of repercussions and stretch our volunteer resources beyond breaking. Moves involve other parents along with balance team repercussions that we would have to consider.
In rare occasions Region 1096 may have to move a player off their original team. This is a rare occurrence that may happen if for some reason there is a mistake in player being in wrong age group, players drop out and leave team short, or a team is just so unbalanced that it effects AYSO Philosophies. We do not take moving players lightly and all means will be exhausted before we move players after team forming. In the event we must move a player, the RC will have final approval and will have input from the other board members as needed. The players parents input will be included in the decision and any effected coach will be included in the discussion.
Coaches or parents are not allowed at any time to trade players. Any players moved shall be final approved by the RC as stated above.
Every year many hours are spent balancing teams as mentioned above, in order to uphold the tenant of AYSO philosophy. There are many ways to do this and all involve evaluating each players ability compared to other players in the same age division, not compared to players on their team. As we do not put the players through a try-out process as Everybody plays, all new players are given equivalent ratings as we have no way to assess them. This system has worked well in the past and we believe the try-out method to evaluate puts unnecessary stress on new players and believe the equivalent rating balances out overall.
Some years there maybe complaints about team balancing and formation, from one team being handpicked to the coach stacked the team. Our process doesn’t allow this to happen purposely. For those who have complaints, you are not alone. We understand you are seeking what you believe to be best for your child. Please understand we are seeking the same situation and what we believe is the best situation for all participants in Region 1096 and the integrity of the AYSO program. We have been one of the few successful continuous running recreation soccer programs in the area and this is due to the great volunteers and the system we use that has been successful most years even though there is no perfect science to any process. The process of team forming is open to all who want to help with this lengthy process. The result of our process is that no team will have all the experienced players nor all new players, we divide them evenly as possible and each team starts on equal footing as possible.
Our process is as follows. Let me stress to players and parents, to keep coaches and those volunteers involved in this process totally honest in their end of year ratings and to keep feelings from being hurt, DO NOT ask for your child's rating. These are kept in strict confidential. No exceptions!! They will not be giving out!! Not only does honest ratings help keep teams balanced, it also helps us have feedback on continued player development.
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Accurate player evaluations at the end of the year are essential to the process, without the best and honest efforts of the coaches to accurately evaluate all players, it will be virtually impossible to put together the best as possible balanced teams. The evaluation process is very simple but Region 1096 believes it results in the best possible balanced teams. Perfect balancing will never be achieved, but this process will help and has shown that it works very well in balanced teams most years.
All coaches should consider all their players as “3” at the beginning of season. As season progresses a coach will easily be able to have a final rating at end of year. At the end of the season, coaches will turn in their final evaluation ratings to the Regional Commissioner within a week or two of season. The RC will then input all the ratings into a database to be used for team forming the next season.
During evaluations, the coach should only consider a player’s effectiveness as compared to ALL the other players in the same division. Do not rate the players compared to other players on your team or they will not be accurate. Important thing is that all players be evaluated to a common standard, that standard is “how effective they are in comparison to the other players in the division”. (Do not factor age or size into the rating, only relative effectiveness of each player)
All evaluations are to be kept confidential, only coaches and board members involved in team forming will ever see these. No exceptions, parents nor players will be giving their rating, feelings could be hurt if they are widely distributed and will cause coaches from being totally honest in their ratings in the future. Please don’t ask for them. Coaches being honest is the only way we can all help make teams as balanced as possible.
Coaches can turn in comments for the reason for rating and that will help if we need more input. Coaches can also put in half/quarter numbers if a player is between ratings. These should be far and few between.
Use the below ratings:
5-Player completely dominates the game, top player in the division, superior athlete
4-Plays hard and very talented, one of your best players, above average athlete
3-Plays hard but clearly not best player on team, average and on par with majority of players
2-Is consistent, occasionally contributes, needs improvement and somewhat below average
1-Appears lost, rarely contributes, well below average
After teams are formed and before coaches are giving their teams, the RC or appointed person will input all teams into database which will automatically calculate a team strength of all the teams. If any team is uneven by large margin, the RC or appointed person will move players around to even out all teams as close and best as possible
Signatures:(Print, Sign, Date)
______Regional Commissioner
______Coach Admin
______Ref Admin
______Registrar
______Safety Director
______Treasurer
______CVPA
______Board Member Other
______Board Member Other
- Initial Policy Written and approved 2-15-2016
- (Rev 1) Corrected misspelling and removed section dealing with moving up out of bullets and to reference new Policy 3 on moving up 3-20-2017