Save the date for the Leominster Youth Soccer (LYS) TRAVEL soccer player evaluations for all players considering playing TRAVEL soccer during the Fall 2024 and/or Spring 2025 seasons will be held on June 10 and June 11 at the Samoset Soccer Fields. (Note: there are no evaluations for INTOWN soccer.)
- 3rd/4th grade (U10) – Monday, June 10
- Sign in - 5:00 pm
- Evaluations - 5:30 pm
- 5th/6th grade (U12) – Tuesday, June 11
- Sign in - 5:00 pm
- Evaluations - 5:30 pm
- 7th/8th grade (U14) – Tuesday, June 11
- Sign in - 6:00 pm
- Evaluations - 6:30 pm
Rain Date – Thursday June 13
* In the event of inclement weather and evaluations are canceled we will email families we have contacts for and post a notice on our web page and Facebook page.
Attending evaluations is very important because they help place players on teams with kids of similar skill level so players and teams have the best experience and opportunity to develop. Evaluations do not take the place of registration. Each player must register for the season that they wish to play in. Failure to register your child before the registration deadline means your child is not guaranteed to play. Registration for travel will be open from June 13-July 30.
Evaluation method. LYS follows Massachusetts Youth Soccer’s recommended best-practices for evaluating players combined with our own pragmatic approach to evaluation. Players will participate in small-sided games and have many opportunities to demonstrate their ability to play the game. Experienced evaluators will be selected by the LYS coaching director. Most of the evaluators will not have seen our players before and some evaluators will be MYSA state coaches. We encourage parents to tell their child to be a good listener during evaluations and to simply do their best at playing soccer with their teammates. If you have any questions about evaluations, please send an email to [email protected] .
Team formation. Teams are re-formed every fall and spring season by placing registered players of similar skill level on the same team. A week or two before the season begins registered players will be contacted by their coach. Teams are placed in a Nashoba Valley Youth Soccer League (www.nvysl.org ) “flight” or level so they will play competitively and face both stronger and weaker teams. Season-to-season some LYS players will move between teams because a different group of kids registered and/or skill levels changed.
We would like our community (parents, players, coaches) to understand moving between teams does not mean a player did something wrong or is ‘not as good’. In the big picture, every player can expect to move up and down levels/teams at some point which can be both exciting or discouraging. It is normal to move between teams and it offers different opportunities and experiences (e.g., new teammates and friends, level of competition, coaching). Please be supportive of all players and look forward to having a great time playing and learning soccer with your team.
Note: LYS cannot place players on the same team because they are friends, might carpool together, or for similar reasons. LYS does offer many between-team soccer opportunities (goalie clinics, summer camps, pick-up soccer/futsal, academy practices for two or more teams) where kids can or may be able to play soccer with friends and players who are not on their team.