July 2007:  We are splitting Boys Under 10 into two divisions

The following letter was emailed by Commissioner Lance Roth to families of all players currently enrolled in Boys Under 10 for the Fall 2007 season

Dear parents:

We are writing to inform you of an important change that we will be making to the Boys Under 10 program this year.

In the past three years, the Under 10 division has grown tremendously in size and this has continued in 2007. The division is now so large that it has become very difficult to administer and schedule. We have therefore decided to split the division into two halves:

• The Boys Under 10 (B10) division, to which we will assign all players currently in the Boys Under 10 who are in the 4th and 5th grades
• The Boys Under 9 (B9) division, to which we will assign all players currently in Boys Under 10 who are in the 2nd and 3rd grades.

Current (but not final) projections indicate that B10 will have 10 or 12 teams and B9 will have 16 teams.

We believe the change will make the divisions much easier to administer and will have a number of other benefits. We'd like to describe these to you.

1. Uniforms: The change will make it possible to reduce the numbers of uniform color clashes that arise when a division has 24 or, as we expect, 26 to 28 teams.

2. Improved competition: Soccer is always a better game when the teams are evenly matched. By dividing the division as we have done, we will reduce the gap between the strongest and weakest players in each of the new divisions and make it easier to achieve balanced teams. We will also be able to put B10 on a slightly larger field.

3. Brothers: Under our rules, you may request brothers (or children living in the same household) to be placed on the same team or on different teams within the same division. In the case of B10 and B9, we will, this transition year only, honor requests for 3rd grade B9 players to play up in B10 to be on the same team with their older brothers. You must make this request by replying to this email as we will be selecting teams in the fairly near future. Requests cannot be made after the teams have been selected.

4. Move-ups. Because we are establishing the two divisions based on grade rather than age, there should be no need for players to be moved up from B9 to B10. However, we reserve the right to move a player from B9 to B10 or from B10 to B9 for any reason where we deem it to be in the interests of the player concerned and the division as a whole.

5. All Star and Tournament Teams: All players in the B10 and B9 divisions will be considered for placement on post-season B10 All Star and tournament teams, irrespective of their age or grade.

6. Playoffs: There will be playoffs in both B9 and B10, resulting in champions in each division. The champion team of B10 will move on to the Area playoffs if permitted by our Area. However, we are moving ahead with the division split irrespective of the Area decision on participation by the B10 champion. We don't believe that it makes sense for the requirements of post-season playoffs involving just one out of 26 or 28 teams to drive how the entire program should be administered.

If you have any questions, please send an email to me at commissioner@ayso76.org.

Sincerely,

Lance Roth
AYSO Region 76 Regional Commissioner

Last updated February 12, 2010 09:43 AM