Additional useful information
Determining your "Soccer Age"
Soccer ages are determined once per year and hold for the whole year. The soccer year corresponds to the academic year, so your "soccer age" is the same for Fall and the following Spring (i.e., not the calendar year). Your soccer age is your age on July 31 immediately before the Fall season. Thus your "soccer age" for the Fall 09 and Spring 10 seasons is the age you are/were on July 31, 2009.
| Age on 7/31/09 | Fall 09 | Spring 10 |
| 4 |
U5 |
U5 |
| 5 |
U6 |
U6 |
| 6 |
U7 |
U7 |
| 7 |
U8 |
U8 |
| 8 |
U9 |
U9 |
| 9 |
U10 |
U10 |
| 10 |
U11 |
U11 |
| 11 |
U12 |
U12 |
| 12 |
U13 |
U13 |
| 13 |
U14 |
U14 |
| 14 or 15 |
U16 |
U16 |
| 16 or 17 |
U18 |
U18 |
Note: Our rules and team sizes are done in two-year increments up through U12: U5 and U6, U7 and U8, U9 and U10, and U11 and U12. For this reason, we sometimes use "U6" as a shorthand for "U5 and U6" or U8 for "U7 and U8" and so on. We try to use the single
What's Does "U6" or "U8" (etc.) mean?
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"U8" is short for "My soccer age is Under 8".
U8 players cannot be 8 years old (or older) on August 1 previous to the Fall season, as explained above. The system is analogous for U6, U10, etc. In general, U6 players will have "soccer ages" of 4 or 5, U8 players will have soccer ages of 6 or 7, and U10 players will have soccer ages of 8 or 9. Sometimes, U7 and U8 age groups or U9 and U10 age groups are split into these 1-year increments, but our club generally means "U7 and U8" when we say U8 and "U9 and U10" when we say U10.
Since the Soccer age corresponds well (but not perfectly) to your child's grade, you may find this table useful.
|
|
Age Group
|
Most Common School Grade
|
|
U6
|
pre-K, K
|
|
U8
|
1st, 2nd
|
|
U10
|
3rd, 4th
|
|
U11
|
5th
|
|
U12
|
6th
|
|
U13
|
7th
|
|
U14
|
8th
|
|
U16
|
9th, 10th
|
|
U18
|
11th, 12th
|
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Do I have to play in my correct age group or can I move up or down?
U6-U10 age groups
In the U6-U10 age groups, players are allowed by ASSA rules (and thus our insurance) to play up. Thus, we generally allow kids that are young for their grade (e.g., have August or September birthdays) to play with their classmates, even though they qualify for the next group lower. Thus, young 1st graders usually play U8 and young 3rd graders usually play U10. If your son or daughter is unusually large or unusually skilled for his or her age, he or she is also able to "play up". Such decisions are generally made with the guidance of Gary Eyles.
Unlike the other age groups, there is a minimum age for U6. U6 players must have soccer ages of at least 4.
Playing "down" is also possible for U6-U10 teams in unusual cases, but requires paperwork to be filed by our registrar. Please contact us if you want your child to play in a younger age group than is normal.
U11 and older age groups
Classic Info...
For tournaments (particularly State Cup), age groups are observed strictly.
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