General Information for Coaches...

Head Coaches will be assigned one AYSO soccer team. All coaches must have filled out and submitted a Volunteer Application with picture ID, received a Coach Clinic certification for their age division, received a Safe Haven Clinic certification, and attended a General Coaches Meeting prior to the start of the season before they can receive their roster and team equipment. Only Head Coaches can be given a team roster unless otherwise arranged with the Divisional Coach Administrator (DCA) of their division.

Coaches who have a Coach Clinic certification for their age division do not have to take the course again. Also, you only have to complete the Safe Haven class one time.

Coach Committments & Guidelines:

Coach Commitments

For the Fall season, coaches generally commence practice late August if the season starts around Labor Day. Official games generally begin either just before Labor Day weekend (as was in Fall 2004) or shortly thereafter, and end early to mid November. AYSO recommends that U6 teams practice once a week and U8 through U19 teams twice a week. Coaches are strongly encouraged to attend AYSO-sponsored classes for tips on running practices, team management, game strategy, etc. These classes are held in the fall and compliment the mandatory clinics.

 

Fall Ratings Meeting

The Fall 2006 annual player ratings meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 25th at 7:00pm, at the Davis High School.

Purpose, you ask? So that next year's teams are balanced as much as possible!

This is a mandatory meeting for divisions U08 through U19, which requires either the Head Coach or the Asst. Coach to attend and discuss ratings of players in their division so that next year's teams are balanced to our best ability. The meeting is interactive. It is not effective if a coach asks to email their ratings. There needs to be discussion so that the ratings are as uniformaly standardized and agreed to as much as possible. Please direct any further questions to your DCA.

This meeting is generally held in the last week of October of each year.

Ratings Meeting Instructions and Forms - please print off the following two documents:

Fall Ratings Guidelines / Instructions ( Word ) or ( PDF )

 

Fall Ratings Worksheet ( Excel ) or ( PDF)

 

U6 Dominant Player Form ( Word ) or ( PDF )

 

For those of you Coaches who are interested in learning more about our method of Team Balancing, click here (PDF) for the guidelines.

Team Pictures are also distributed at the Ratings Meeting, however, only after a ratings form has been turned in by each Coach or Asst. Coach.

 

Player Safety

Davis AYSO continues to implement an updated child safety program.

 

• All head coaches must attend a Safe Haven class before they can be given a team roster.
• All U6 and U8 coaches must attend an age-appropriate AYSO coach clinic.
• We must see a picture ID (passport or driver's license) before we can pass out a team roster.
• Rosters can only be given to the head coach.
• There should be two adults present at all practices. One of these adults should be of the same gender as the players (you can recruit a parent of one of the players).
• Coaches should not drive unrelated players home.

 

These guidelines, and others that will follow, are for the protection of both the players and the coaches. If you have any questions please contact the either coach administrator (boys or girls) via email at coachadmin@davisayso.org.

 

PARENTS and COACHES! A reminder about AYSO's policy on Jewelery, for those with young girls...

 

Contacts

Your primary point of contact is your Divisional Coach Administrator (Boys or Girls). Your DCA should have already contacted you. If not, you can contact either of the Regional Coach Administrators; Boys at, or for the Girls, at .

For a list of the DCA's, see the Coach Administrators page for more detailed info. The typical channel of contact is shown below.

E-Mail List

The best way to keep up to date with information regarding coaching in Davis AYSO is to subscribe to the AYSO-Coaches email listserver. To subscribe to the List, visit the AYSO-coaches listserver web page.

Newpaper Reporting Guidelines

For U8 games and above, the Davis Enterprise will run scores in Thursday's Youth Sports roundup. For Fall AYSO, they don't want narrative (Bob took a long high pass from Bill, and bicycle-kicked the ball past the outstretched arms of the goalkeeper). They want very short key items. Please use the following template and email it to sports@davisenterprise.net.

They will recognize team names if both teams submit a game report and they will merge the info. You don't need to coordinate with another team on this. The Enterprise prints results by division and gender. It would look like this:

First, preface your email subject as the following example:

Youth Sports: AYSO: Boys: U12: Titans vs Cyclones

This way, the editor can spot whether both teams submitted a result. You are
welcome to appoint a parent to coordinate enterprise reporting with another
parent for the other team so that only one email covers the game.

Identify each stat with the initial of the team in parenthesis.

Example, if you are the U14B Titans:

U14 Boys
Cyclones 3, Titans 2
Goals: (T) Alvarez , Johnson
Assists (T) Smith
Outstanding defense (T): Barrow, Sabatier, Hawkins

Do not submit U6 scores. They won't be accepted. Try to work all kids in over the course of of few weeks if possible. Surely Jimmy played good defense at some point. You don't need to report game results. It's just an option. Don't add anything else. It takes too much time for the sports editor to weed out "shocking", and "tremendous comeback", from the scores. The purpose is to let a kid see their name in the paper and be proud of participating in recreational soccer.

Regarding blow-outs - it would be better sportsmanship to not report the score that week, but if you do, being a minimalist is the best sportsmanship.

Note how the example mentioned 6 kids. Don't try to mention every single player for every game, but try to cover all players within 3 games.

City/School Policy on Use of School Fields...

Finding an appropriate place for your team to hold a practice can be a difficult thing sometimes. There are often too many teams, from too many different sports, competing for the small number of fields that are available in Davis. Please note that it is important that everyone share what is available. We must all get along together!

Note, however, that any organized school group has priority over the use of school fields. If you are asked to vacate a school field by an official or school coach, you must do so. The following items are excerpted from the official document supplied to AYSO and all sports groups by the city Parks and Community Services department - "School/City Policies Related to Use of School Fields for Practices and Games":

• School teams have priority for use of school fields for practices or games.

• A school field used for a school’s team sport may not be reserved for community groups before 5:00 p.m. during the school team’s season, unless the school team has an away game.

• If a field is not reserved by the School District, community groups may use school fields for practice on a first-come, first serve basis. Community groups are expected to vacate the field if requested to do so by a School District official or School District coach.

• If a community group does not vacate a School District field when asked to do so by a School District coach or School District official, the community group is subject to discipline. The discipline may include, but is not limited to, prohibiting the community group coach and/or team from using both school district and city field(s) for a specified period of time, such as the rest of the school year and the next school year; and/or cancellation of school or city field reservations for games and/or practices.

• Schools may declare fields out of play for upcoming special events or for maintenance or repair by notifying the community group two weeks in advance, or in the case of poor weather conditions, without notice if the school posts that field use is a prohibited at the field(s).

• Fire lanes must not be blocked by parked cars at any time.

• Cars and other motorized vehicles are not allowed on campuses, except in official parking lots. Official parking lots are only those areas where parking places have painted stripes designating parking spaces. Exceptions to this policy may be made in rare situations where compelling reasons are provided. Exceptions must be approved in writing.

• All fields and premises will be left in the best condition possible after use.