Eau Claire United Soccer Club Tryout Policy Adopted by the ECU Board of Directors 2013 Amended Oct 2017 to Reflect Birth Year Mandate and Previous Voted Changes 1. Introduction Eau Claire United (ECU) players must be selected as part of a team and someone must do this selecting based on reasonable criteria. Any selection process will invariably leave a few players not selected, not selected for the team of their choice, and/or feeling unfairly evaluated, leading invariably to emotional responses and hurt feelings. ECU cannot avoid team formation and the problems that result but it can ensure that it follows a process of team formation that encourages all players to play to their potential and is open and honest. The ECU Board believes the team formation procedure outlined below, when implemented in good faith by the players, parents, coaches and administrators, will accomplish this. 2. U9 U10 Team Formation Guidelines a. The youngest team ECU will form is U9. These teams are developmental yet competitive and do not have formal tryouts. b. If sufficient U9 & U10 players are identified, multiple teams will be formed. In this case, U9 & U10 players will need to attend one evaluation session and player evaluations will be used to balance the skill level among these teams. c. Requests to be on a team with certain players may be accepted at the U9 & U10 level only and if requests are made BEFORE tryouts. The team formation committee will make every effort to respect these requests assuming that it does not affect the ability to reasonable teams (in event of multiple teams at that level). The intent is to make this first year of competitive soccer enjoyable and prepare families for the coming years. d. Additional players for U9 & U10 teams may be recruited and added by coaches as needed after the evaluation. e. Coed teams or a combination of age groups (i.e. U9/10 team) are a possible consideration for the team selection committee at this age level to avoid leaving players without a team.
3. U11 U19 Team Formation Guidelines a. ECU should maintain a Tryout Administration Committee (TAC) to organize, handle, and administer the tryouts and team formation. b. ECU coaches from the previous year, who are in good standing, will contribute to the team formation process by submitting player evaluations using forms provided by ECU. They may also be asked for input that may be used in the selection of the final 1/3 by the TAC and the future coach, if available. c. U11 Teams may, at the discretion of the team formation committee, be balanced to promote the skills development of the largest number of players. d. Written results of evaluations will not be distributed after tryouts 4. Rationale Underlying Team Formation Recommendations: a. All teams will be formed in compliance with USYS and MYSA/WYSA guidelines. USYS birth year team formations will apply unless specific exceptions are allowed in MYSA guidelines and approved by WYSA. b. ECU intends to serve the needs of highly committed competitive/travel soccer players ages U11 through U18, their coaches, and their families. Eau Claire's Parks and Recreation soccer program and Chippewa Valley Soccer League (CVSL) program serve the needs of recreational players. ECU provides no benefit to the local soccer community by duplicating these services; instead, it does so by providing the alternative of highly competitive soccer to Eau Claire Area youth, their coaches and their families. c. To provide this alternative, ECU must embrace a team formation policy that allows all players to be evaluated in as professional and fair a manner as possible in order to form competitive teams. d. For ECU to remain a strong club, players, families, and coaches must identify with and support soccer at the club level, not just the team level. Having parents and players identify with a specific team and coach likely discourages new players from trying out for ECU teams because these players believe that teams are picked before the tryouts and coaches will not consider them. e. ECU will strive to group players of like ability and commitment and to field the best possible teams at each age group. f. ECU intends to provide a roster space for every qualified player, based on skill; however, where player and/or coach numbers do not permit every player a roster spot despite the best recruitment efforts of player, parents, and club officials exclusion of some players must and will occur and this may include instances
where teams will not be fully rostered. Players excluded, if any, would be those best served by Eau Claire's recreational soccer options. 5. Recommended Team Formation Process a. Tryouts will be planned, arranged, publicized and supervised by the ECU Tryout Administration Committee (TAC), which will be appointed by the ECU Executive Board. The TAC will be composed of the Girls Team Director, Boys Team Director,the ECU Club Administrator and four At Large members, one of which will be the committee chairperson. The TAC committee should be in place by May 31. The committee will follow the spirit of the process outlined below, oversee, and assist evaluators and coaches in following the process. The TAC will set the tryout schedule, communicate the schedule and other tryout issues to ECU families, assist evaluators in managing each tryout session (registration, equipment, etc.) and communicate tryout results to the ECU Board, coaches, and families, including to those players not making a team. All players intending to try out for an ECU team must register for a tryout session. Registration must occur before the first tryout session for a player s age/grade tryout session has begun and no registrations will be accepted after the start of the first tryout session has begun. b. It is the coach s responsibility to share player evaluations with players and to submit a separate tryout evaluation to the ECU Club Administrator. When evaluations are submitted to ECU, a copy will be used by the TAC to facilitate team formation. Written results of evaluations completed during the tryout sessions by the independent evaluators will not be distributed to parents or players after tryouts. They will be stored by the ECU Club Administrator for future reference. c. ECU will sponsor tryout sessions which will be : i. Player evaluation sessions for the sole purpose of team selection will be run by the impartial tryout evaluators. The tryout evaluators will be hired/appointed by the TAC. To insure impartiality, an evaluator may not be one of the evaluators in any tryout in which he/she has children involved or will be coaching players. An exception to this is when a parent coach is involved in evaluating NEW players in an age group he/she coached previously. That parent coach may evaluate ONLY the new player(s). The parent coach, like all ECU coaches, already evaluated
his/her current players prior to tryouts and submitted those evaluations to the TAC. ii. Scheduled and publicized in a timely manner to allow all players to plan to attend. ECU may attempt to schedule, but will not guarantee, an alternate evaluation for players unable to attend the regular evaluation session. iii. Mandatory the intent, weather and other factors permitting, is to have 2 tryout sessions ( which will occur either consecutively on one day or on separate days depending on the number of tryout evaluators available ) for each group. Players are strongly encouraged to participate in all sessions for their age group and all players must register by the start of the first tryout session and participate in at least 1 tryout session in order to be considered for any ECU team unless they meet one of the following exceptions: 1. Player provides a signed medical release from a physician/nurse practitioner. 2. Player moves to the area after tryouts are complete. 3. Player is recruited to fill a roster slot on team that is unfilled. Generally, this will be done only for lowest competitive level team at each age group. 4. An appeal for any other reason will be considered if received by the TAC chairperson 2 weeks prior to first scheduled tryout session for the age/grade group. Appeals will only be considered for age/grade appropriate team and only if a current player evaluation form is available from previous season s coach. iv. Provide approximately 2 3 hours of assessment in two sessions, if necessary. v. Provide separate tryout sessions for girls and boys. vi. Provide goalkeeper tryouts, if necessary, for teams U13 and older. d. After the last session of each tryout, player selection may proceed under the supervision of the TAC, as follows: i. The TAC will use the evaluation scores to determine and fill the first 2/3 of roster spots. The impartial evaluations and the input and discussion from previous year coaches, when available, are the final consideration. The evaluation scores from the current tryout sessions will determine if any younger players will be allowed to "play up" and be included in the first 2/3 of roster spots using the guidelines of 7c below.
ii. When there is an approved coach available, they are given the option to fill the remaining roster slots. However, the selection of the final 1/3 of players does not imply that the approved coach is assigned to that particular team. This process allows consideration of factors not evident during short duration tryouts or inclusion of players known to the coach but unable to attend tryouts because of the aforementioned reasons in 5ciii. The coach may not add players who are not age appropriate. The decision to over roster* is up to the coach. *Over Roster Rules : As of 2 18 03, MYSA does not allow any over roster of C1 teams U16 and below. Over roster of one or two players (i.e. #19 and #20 roster position) where allowed by MYSA, are subject to ECU Club President approval and over roster of additional players is subject to MYSA District Operating Committee approval. iii. Once the most competitive team for an age group is chosen based on these criteria, the next most competitive team for that age group will be chosen and so on. iv. Team formation will proceed with a goal of forming Classic 1 teams in as many age groups as possible. After this is accomplished, the remaining players will be placed on Classic 2 or Classic 3 teams as numbers allow. Players may not request to be placed at a certain level of play. v. Any player participating in an ECU tryout who was not on an ECU team during the previous year will have the opportunity to ask his/her previous coach to provide ECU with an evaluation using ECU s Tryout Player Evaluation Form. vi. Only the lowest competitive team in an age group can recruit players. If a higher level team needs additional players, a player will be moved up from the next lowest competitive level based on alternate selections chosen by the coaches and TAC at team formation. vii. No parent coach may be involved in the movement of their child up or down during the team formation process. Their input regarding other players in that age group will be considered as with any other ECU coach during the selection of the final 1/3 of players, but if their child is on the bubble during this process the parent coach will be excused from the final determination of their child s placement and the remaining TAC members and independent tryout evaluator data will be used to determine the placement for the parent coach s child.
6. Complaints and Appeals All complaints and appeals will be directed to ECUSC, 3456 Craig Road, Eau Claire, WI 54701, within 10 days of notification of receiving team assignment letter. a. The Appeal Process exists to insure that the Team Formation Guidelines are followed. The only acceptable appeal will be based on the failure of the TAC to follow those guidelines (i.e. mathematical error, not considering available coach evaluations, etc.) Appeals may be filed only by a player himself/herself on his/her own behalf or by his/her parents. b. All appeals will be handled in confidence and in closed session. That means non Committee/Board members are excluded from the Committee/Board discussion of appeals. Committee/Board members will not discuss the content of such meetings at any time with anyone except to deliver the decision rendered. Legitimate appeals will be discussed in closed session by the board in consultation with the TAC Chairperson and/or parent or player as appropriate. All relevant information (e.g., the written complaint, player evaluations, etc.) will be provided to the board at least one week prior to its consideration of the appeal. Special meetings of the Board, may be called to promptly deal with appeals. c. The following appeals are not considered legitimate: i. Appeals to be on a team with certain players or to avoid certain players. ii. Appeals to be on a team with a specific coach iii. Appeals to be on a team with a sibling (unless a same age sibling or significant travel limitations due to income are shown an issue) iv. Appeals to be on a team due to geographical proximity to others on the team v. Appeals to be on a team due to team formation decisions from previous years vi. Appeals threatening to quit ECU 7. Other Issues Related to Team Formation a. Summer and Winter/Indoor Teams : It must be emphasized that teams formed after each tryout will be for the following summer. ECU forms teams in the summer/fall for the MYSA fall season, fall tournaments and the following spring/summer league and tournament season. That ECU forms teams and registers players in the summer/fall should not be misconstrued to mean that ECU
sponsors players or teams in winter/indoor soccer. Coaches and families must recognize that none of these team formation policies dictates winter/indoor teams. ECU does not sponsor such teams due to liability concerns. If individual teams choose to practice or participate in tournaments or indoor leagues out of the normal ECU season, but this will not be sponsored by ECU. b. Tryout Dates: Note that ECU chooses tryout selection dates based upon many factors. For U9 U14, tryouts are generally planned the week after the ECU tournament and U15 U18 tryouts will generally be planned between the fall and winter high school sports seasons, although these may be subject to change. Some of the reasons for tryout date selection include but are not limited to WYSA/MYSA rules, need for time to hire coaches for fall and/or spring season and field, tryout evaluator and TAC member availability. c. Rostering Up: To encourage proper player development and form the most competitive teams possible at each age group, all players are encouraged to tryout at their appropriate age level. In addition to this, if a player wishes to be considered for playing up an age level, they must also attend the tryout designated for that age level. If a player elects to be considered for, and attend tryout sessions for, more than one age level, a second registration/tryout fee will be charged unless the tryouts for those two age groups are being combined. When a player tries out to play up and qualifies to play up, that is the team the player will be rostered on. A player may be invited to roster up only if he/she: i. is needed to fill out a short roster at the higher age level (e.g. seven capable U13s are invited by the TAC to roster up because there are only eight U 14 players) or; ii. is part of a mixing of age groups that is judged by the TAC to benefit the greatest number of players at two or more age groups or; iii. ranks in the top 2/3 of the higher age level as determined by the tryout evaluation. d. Summary of available paths to top competitive team appointment: i. Appointed to roster up to an older age group by TAC by ranking in top 2/3 of that older age group, ii. Unsuccessful in attempt to roster up but appointed to age/grade appropriate team by tryout evaluators, iii. Appointed to age/grade appropriate team by coach or TAC as one of his/her/their discretionary appointments,
iv. Unable to participate in tryouts, but meeting one of the exceptions outlined in 5ciii and appointed by coach or TAC as one of his/her/their discretionary appointments. e. When teams do not have a full roster: i. After team formation, ECU and the parents of the short rostered teams will explore options for creating a team. Options include but are not limited to grouping with other or younger players who are also looking to fill a team and recruiting more players at any age level to form and fill a team. Players recruited after tryout evaluations will generally be placed on the roster of the lowest competitive level team in that age group. ii. If the top competitive team in an age group loses a player through injury, moving out of area or quitting soccer, an alternate may be pulled up from the second team in that age group based upon the following factors: 1. The alternate list as determined by the tryout evaluators. Each team except for the top competitive team at each age group will have list of at least three alternates. 2. The needs of the top competitive team (i.e. need for specific position such as goalie, striker or defender). 3. Input from coaches of both the team requesting the additional player and the coach of the team with the proposed alternate player. 4. Discussion with the alternate player and their parent(s).