North Valley AYSO

Register for Fall/Spring in Person

Our Registrar will be available in person on March 20th, from 10am to 12noon to accept applications for the Spring and Fall soccer seasons. Please remember to bring your checkbook, and if your child has not played in our region before, please bring a copy of their birth certificate to verify age and ensure they are placed in the right division.

AYSO’s Everyone Plays® Is Right For Life

The Everyone Plays® philosophy of AYSO is about more than every child being guaranteed to play a minimum of 50 percent of each game. Sure, you become a better soccer player when you’re not riding the bench. But as important, according to a new study from the University of Alberta, a negative experience on a youth sports team can cause you to avoid healthy exercise…for the rest of your life.

AYSO is all about the POSITIVE experience of youth sports. It’s the right way to develop soccer skills and the right way to develop a joy of healthy activity for life!.

[Story provided by AYSO National at http://www.soccer.org]

Region 174 recognized as Platinum Region

“Platinum Regions represent the best of the best that AYSO has to offer. These Regions model AYSO’s philosophies and commitment to providing the best family friendly youth soccer experiences for all players and parent volunteers throughout their immediate communities and beyond. They nurture the generous spirit of their participants and devote extra effort to providing assistance to many worthy charitable causes.” – from the AYSO National Site

Who competes at Section Championships in Bakersfield?

As we wind down the Area league and all-star playoffs, many teams are going on to compete in the Section 10 Championships in Bakersfield.  This map lists all of the areas and regions that make up Section 10 if you are interested in knowing who may be competing in Bakersfield.  Each region number is preceded with their area letter, for example, we are in area V, so we are listed toward the bottom as “V174″.

Keep in mind, however, only the best teams from each area go on to complete in Bakersfield, so not all of these regions may be represented.

sOccket – energy harvested from soccer

Every think to yourself, “if I could only bottle the energy of my kid, I could power . . .” We’ll some Harvard engineering students have found a way to do just that using, you guessed it, soccer. In an effort to find creative ways to generate power in developing countries, this group of four women set out to engineer a smart soccer ball that could capture the energy from being kicked or thrown.  The captured energy could then being use to power something later.
It is still in prototype stage but has already been tested in South Africa and Kenya. You can learn more by visiting their website at http://www.soccket.com/

Congrats to Teams going to Section Championships

Congratulations to all of the league teams who advanced out of the Area 10V playoffs this last weekend to earn a spot to compete in the Section Championships in Bakersfield next month. Here are the teams that advanced:

BU10 – Juggernauts (Paul Berkolds) – 1st Place
GU10 – Got Skittles (Oscar Pariente) – 1st Place

BU12 – Golden Gladiators (Ron Thomson) – 2nd Place
GU12 – High Tide (Kelly O’Brien) – 1st Place
GU12 – Beach Bums (John Daniels) – 2nd Place

BU14 – Owning Yodas (Steve Valdez) – 3rd Place & a Wild Card
GU14 – This Is How We Do It (John Satterfield) – 1st Place

Registration Update

Registration for Fall 2010 is now open on eayso.org.  Please be sure to mail in the applications and check after you’ve completed the online form submission.  Your registration will not be complete until you mail in the applications and payment.

If you’d like to register your child for Spring 2010, you can download and fill out the registration form here, and mail 3 copies with payment to the given address.  There is no online registration through eayso.org for Spring.

Our Registrar will be available at our fields on 1/16 and 1/23 from 10am – 2pm to answer any questions and accept applications and payment in person for both Spring and Fall 2010.  If your child has never played at our region, please bring a copy of their birth certificate when applying.

If you have any more questions, please visit our Registration page on this site, or contact our Registrar directly.

Playing Soccer and Chewing Gum can be Dangerous

A recent article from the Columbus Dispatch describes an incident where a soccer player nearly died after colliding with an opponent and the gum he was chewing became lodged in his airway preventing him from breathing as he was rushed to the hospital.  Read the article for more detail.

This is just one example of many injuries that can be easily avoided before stepping onto the pitch.  Please help your kids be game-ready and safe by remembering the following:

Wear AYSO provided Uniform – Jersey, shorts, socks
Wear appropriate shoes – cleats are not required, but recommended. (no baseball cleats. If you see a cleat on the toe, it cannot be worn.)
Shin Guards must be worn at all times, under the socks.
No earrings.  Referees will ask all kids to remove earrings, taping is not acceptable.
No wrist bands, bracelets, or necklaces.
No hair clips – soft hair bands are okay.
No hard casts.  Some casts may be okay if the referee determines it is sufficiently padded to avoid injury.
Finally, nothing may be worn (or chewed) that the referee determines to be dangerous to anyone on the pitch.  This may include, you guessed it, chewing gum.

And remember, it can be sunny and hot at the fields, so wear sunscreen and bring plenty of water.