Soccer evaluations are held once a year each spring. Evaluations consist of two or three nights for each age group. Evaluations are coordinated by the MYS Travel Director & Assistant. The evaluators are volunteers. MYS tries to place evaluators with age groups they have experience coaching. Evaluators are screened to avoid conflicts of interest with the players on the field. The target ratio is at least one evaluator to ten players. The actual ratio is dependent upon people being willing to give up their time toward the success of the program.
The first night of evaluations is focused on skills and player assessment. You can see the player skill evaluation form the evaluators use.
The second night is focused on evaluating the player’s skills in scrimmages. During the second day evaluators are allowed to mix the children around to see how they perform at different skill levels.
Each age group will have two or three nights of evaluations scheduled at least a week apart. This is done so all players have a chance to attend at least one night. Scheduling evaluations a week apart helps avoid having a player attend when they are sick or hurt or otherwise. Players who can only attend one night should notify the registration desk at the field when the player signs in. Any player who cannot attend either night due to a severe injury should notify the registration desk or travel directors so MYS can properly place them on a team.
Teams are formed solely based on the players’ scores from their coaches (current team) and the evaluator scores.
Team Info
The number of teams per age level and gender are determined based on the number of children that registered for the program. We try to place an equal number of children on each team based on the rules set by BAYS (Boston Area Youth Soccer). The teams are then placed in the BAYS league divisions based on the skill set of the team.
If registration remains the same, travel teams remain the same for the fall and spring season. MYS may need to adjust teams if player registrations change. Teams will be reformed based on the player evaluations. A team’s placement in Bays may change from the fall to the spring season based on performance in that division.
Actual number of players per team is strictly based on the number of players that register and can vary from our target since everyone who registers will be assigned to a team.
Age combining may take place due to registration numbers. It may be necessary for MYS to combine players of different ages in order to form a team. MYS may combine ages to form teams rather than cut players or overload a team with too many players.
MYS recommends that all players who are planning on playing travel soccer attend evaluations. Players that want to skip the fall season should still attend evaluations since teams are formed for the fall and the spring based on the spring evaluation scores. A player that skips the fall season but has been evaluated will be placed on the highest team that matches their score, provided there is a spot available on that team. MYS will not displace a player who made a team in the fall in order to place a spring only player. New players and unevaluated players will be placed on the lowest team until they attend evaluations.
Evaluation Goal
MYS goal is to match players of similar soccer skills in order to form teams to compete against other teams with similar skills in the BAYS league. While there may be no perfect evaluation process, MYS has gone to great lengths to provide a fair, unbiased, and objective process.