First and foremost, AYSO provides a recreational soccer program for children ages 3 through 18. AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) is a national non-profit organization with almost 600,000 registered players and 200,000 registered volunteers. It delivers programs through individual units called Regions. Beverly Hills is Region 76. The Regions are grouped into Areas and Sections. Beverly Hills belongs to Area 1-P, the other regions of which are in central and western Los Angeles County. Area P in turn is part of Section 1, which covers Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire all the way to Nevada, as well as parts of Nevada. In Beverly Hills, our program has approximately 2,000 players and operates in a regular season that begins on the Saturday after Labor Day in September and ends in mid-December. Although we play in Beverly Hills, we accept registrations no matter where you live.
AYSO is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donations to AYSO, including to Region 76, are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to AYSO to support our programs, including scholarships for players whose families need some financial help, visit our donations page. Our taxpayer identification number is 95-6205398. Note that registration fees and other payments for players are NOT tax-deductible.
AYSO was founded on five philosophies (to which a sixth was added) which affect every aspect our program.
They are:
"Positive coaching" and "Good Sportsmanship" speak for themselves, but here is some additional information on the others:
"Everyone Plays" means that every player on every team must receive a guaranteed amount of playing time. The national minimum is half the game, but in our Region we require a minimum of three quarters, with some exceptions.
"Open Registration" means that we accept every player who registers, provided we have space in the relevant age group. Although we evaluate players, the only reason we do this is to assure "Balanced Teams" by assigning players to teams that we strive to make as even as we can.
"Balanced Teams" are not so important when the children are 4, 5, 6 and 7, but once they reach the age of 8 years old, they are playing on larger teams and fields and balance becomes critical. The result is that, at this age, we generally do not grant or even consider requests for players to play together or to be assigned to a particular coach. Teams are put together every year and they do not continue on from one year to the next.
"Player Development" means that we emphasize development of age-appropriate technical and tactical skills and pure love of the game rather than winning at all costs. We want our players to improve through practice and opportunity to learn from committed coaches whose primary goal is to help players to get better.
We make up our teams afresh each year and we try our best to balance them, especially once the play moves to larger fields in U10. Please read our page on this for more detailed information.
Our region belong to Area 1-P, which also serves regions in Culver City, Santa Monica, West LA, Pacific Palisades, Hollywood-Wilshire, Los Angeles Central, South Los Angeles, Los Feliz and (our newest region) West Adams
At the regional level, AYSO is an all-volunteer program. All of our coaches, team administrators, program administrators – everyone is a volunteer. Unlike Little League or basketball, we do not pay referees – they too are volunteers. Participation in AYSO cannot be made conditional on your volunteering but. unless nearly everyone volunteers to do something, we would not be able to function. We offer extensive training programs for all our volunteers, especially coaches and referees.
Our policy is to require teams to provide at least two volunteers to train and participate as referees. Your child's team may be ineligible for the elimination stage of our playoffs if your team does not provide referees to the program.
Teams are divided into groupings by age called divisions. Age is determined by birth year. A full listing of our divisions and age groups is available HERE.
We often allow players to move up to be with their classmates. Players who wish to be moved up will need to be evaluated by our coach administration staff to be sure they are a good fit for the new division. Please read our page on this for more detailed information.
The program for high school age players is slightly different. Teams play two games a weekend but the season ends in mid-November so as not to conflict with high school soccer.
Every team also has one mandatory practice a week (except for the very youngest players, 3, 4 and 5 years old). Practices will take place on a fixed day and time each week. These times are assigned to teams after the teams have been formed, so there is no point asking for assignment to a team that practices on a particular day.
Team and field sizes are as follows:
Division |
Team Size |
Format |
Field Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4U and 5U | Small Groups | Skills Training followed by a small-sided game | Two games concurrently on adjacent mini-fields |
| 6U, 7U, and 8U | 12 | Teams play 4 against 4, no GK | Two games concurrently on adjacent mini-fields |
| 9U and 10U | 10 | Teams play 7 v 7, GK | 55-65 yards x 35-45 yards |
| 12U | 12 | Teams play 9 v 9, GK | 70-80 yards x 45-55 yards |
| 14U | 15 | Teams play 11 v 11, GK | Full size fields |
| 16U and 19U | target 17-18; max 22 | Teams play 11 v 11, GK | Full size fields |
For our players 8 to 13 years old, there is also a tournament season which starts with a tournament on Thanksgiving weekend and then continues, in one form or another, through June. Players 14 and up may also play on tournament teams once the high school soccer season ends in late February. These tournaments, with the exception of our own Beverly Hills Sportsmanship Cup, all involve travel to other Regions, because we have no access to fields between January and August to run our own local programs.
All of our games and practices take place at public parks or schools in Beverly Hills and nearby areas, including La Cienega Park, Roxbury Park and Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Vista, El Rodeo School, Hawthorne School and Horace Mann School.
Upper division games are played in Beverly Hills and also at various Area 1P locations.
Registration is done on-line. Please visit our Registration Page for more information.
Our fees include a uniform - jersey, shorts and socks - you must buy shinguards and shoes (sneakers OK but everyone wants to play in cleats). The fee also includes team and individual photos, buttons, and a yearbook.
We have a full refund policy for players who withdraw before they play or who are not placed on teams. Partial refunds are available in some other cases.
For details on our current fees, please visit our Registration Page.
This website is packed with additional information. We've tried to hit the high spots. But please do explore. A good place to start would be the Program Page and its links. Or browse the links above or return to our home page table of contents. There is a search function at the top of every page. If you have suggestions on how we can improve the site or the quality of the information you find here, please drop us a line.
Registered Users