April 22 - Due to the rain, tryouts are cancelled for today. We are planning on holding our sessions tomorrow.

How do tryouts work:

• The Club holds open tryouts April 16-28, 2007 at Damon Garcia.
• These are our annual open tryouts for all of the teams in our club.
• All roster spots, on all teams, are open and players who are currently on a team must tryout, the same as new players, and earn their spot on the team. Our Director of Coaching will ensure a non-biased selection process for all candidates and teams.
• Players may play up (in an older age division), but they may not play down an age division. We, as a club, encourage/allow players to play up in the younger age divisions (U11-U14) only under special circumstances.
• All teams will be selected and players notified as soon as possible after tryouts.

Tryout Dates and Times
Tryouts will be held in April for all San Luis Obispo Soccer Club teams. You must register online for tryouts (both new and returning players)! Click here to register

* We will form a GU15 and GU18 team and. depending on the number of club level players in these age groups, may form a GU16 and/or GU17 as well.

Age Group Definitions
Here are birthdates for each age group for the upcoming 2007-08 season. If ability permits (as determined by our coaches), you may play up (in an older division). You may not play down an age division.
Under 11 - Born August 96 through July 97
Under 12 - Born August 95 through July 96
Under 13 - Born August 94 through July 95
Under 14 - Born August 93 through July 94
Under 15 - Born August 92 through July 93
Under 16 - Born August 91 through July 92
Under 17 - Born August 90 through July 91
Under 18 - Born August 89 through July 90
Under 19 - Born August 88 through July 89

Roster Size: The maximum roster size is 15 players for U11-U16 and 18 players for U17 and U18, although we will not always carry a full roster. In addition to the 15 rostered players, there can be up to 3 “reserve” players.

Reserve players are registered with CYSA, eligible to attend all trainings, and will pay a reduced fee. The reserve players are invited to participate in league games only if some rostered players are unavailable, and invited to tournaments if the coach is short rostered players or believes extra players beyond 15 will benefit the team. Reserve players can either be players who did not quite make the top fifteen roster spots, or those players who have too many outside commitments to regularly make practices and competitions.

If there are enough players with club level skills to form a second team in an age group, the SLOSC board will review the possibilities of creating a second team..

In addition to these tryouts, a team’s coach and manager can also choose to hold informal tryouts at practices, after tryouts are complete, if they have a roster spot to fill.

If you are selected...
You will be notified whether or not you have been selected to one of our teams within one week of the younger tryouts ending. If selected, we will have you go to your online account you set-up when you registered for tryouts and formally accept. You will be asked to read and accept the policies and procedures as outlined in our 2007-08 Player and Parent Manual.

There will be a club orientation on May 5th at Damon Garcia. All parents and players are strongly encouraged to attend. The initiation fee, first months dues and any uniform fees will be due at the club orientation. We will cover: introductions, player registration, uniform sizing, college recruiting session by Cal Poly coaches, referee/rules of the game, small sided games for everyone to play in, etc.

AYSO/CYSA Rec (recreation) vs. Club (competitive):
Unlike AYSO, there is no requirement for minimum playing time. At younger age levels the variation in playing time between players is smaller than at older ages. We strongly discourage playing recreational and Club soccer at the same time and expect that club soccer will be your number one recreational activity.

What do the initiation fee, uniform cost and monthly fees cover?
The initiation fee ($115) covers registering players with CYSA, SLO Youth Sports Association Fees, team equipment and training uniform. Uniform costs ($185) include home and away jerseys, shorts, 2 pairs of socks bag and warm-up. If you have a current club uniform, you do not need to purchase a new uniform. Monthly fees ($90) cover coaching salary, league registration, insurance, field fees, referee fees, and entry fees for 4 tournaments, our own North vs. South Tournament, State Cup and friendly matches. Additional expenses not included are tournament travel costs (hotel, food, etc.). Some scholarships are available.

Responsibilities other than paying team fees:
Each family from each team is required to actively work on the August tournament. The August SLSOC summer tournament is a fun event that spans the first two weekends of August (older teams play the first weekend, younger teams play the second weekend). You work one weekend (6-8 hours/family) and your child plays the other weekend so you can watch them play. Our teams play for free, but the other 170-180 teams that come to town pay to enter. The tournament usually contributes between $25,000 and $30,000 to our club operating budget.

In addition, we will be holding a silent auction event this year and ask that each family contribute one item to the silent auction.

We can always use volunteers and appreciate anyone who is interested in contributing their time to help with Club operations.

Yearly Calendar
The attached schedule gives you some idea of team activities over the course of a year. Tournaments are played throughout California. Depending on the team, about ½ are played locally (no overnight stay) and ½ require overnight stays.

Our league is called the Central Coast Soccer League and depending on your age group can run from Paso Robles to Ventura to Bakersfield. Games are played on Friday nights and Saturdays. Damon Garcia is our home field. Scheduling is done so that no more than three Saturdays in the league season are spent traveling over 1.5 hours one way, and when a team does that, they will play a double header.

As we begin practices, we understand that some players may have conflicts with pre-existing commitments and teams will work with players to maximize practice participation.

Still have questions?
Email Steve Davis at steve@slosoccer.com or leave him a message at 784-0753.