Tournament Guidelines
CYSC encourages team participation in tournaments to build team morale, offer varying levels of competition and develop the team as a whole. Below are general guidelines that the Team Parent Coaches and Managers can refer to.
Below are some tournaments our teams have participated in, as well as some winter league information:
- Most teams try to enter at least 2 tournaments a year. The tournaments generally fall on long holiday weekends (Labor Day, Columbus Day, Memorial Day) but are also scattered throughout the year.
- Tournament sign ups come out of team dues and are factored into the overall team finances.
- When picking a tournament, speak with your trainer first to make sure it is appropriate for your team. You can also speak with other CYSC Team Managers or the CYSC age group coordinator to find the right fit for your team.
- Where to find tournaments: besides the list below, you can check the sites for ENYYSA (enysoccer.com) or gotsoccer.com for tournaments in the area.
- It is strongly recommended that the team Trainer attend the tournament. This means discussing the trainer's availability in advance.
- If the trainer is attending a tournament with one of his/her other teams on a weekend you would like to enter your team in a tournament, you can try to see if there is an appropriate tournament on the other day (if both are one-day tournaments). Another option is to attend the same tournament on the same day as the other team, and request that the tournament director takes into account that both teams have the same coach when setting the schedules. This may result in the trainer being able to cover at least some of the games.
- If your trainer cannot attend, you can ask them to recommend another CYSC trainer to cover your team or reach out to your CYSC age group coordinator for assistance. A team may proceed without a CYSC trainer and rely on the parent coaches in the event that a trainer is unavailable; the CYSC Board would ask that the trainer supply line-ups, game plans and overall input on play time and positioning for the tournament.
- The Team Manager will need to confirm player interest and availability before signing the team up for the tournament. You may combine with another CYSC team that is age-appropriate to build a tournament roster with enough players.
- The Team Manager will need to familiarize themselves with tournament specific roster rules. Some rosters will freeze at a certain point. This means you may need to anticipate and appropriately roster players who might be serving as subs for your team.
- Make sure you clearly communicate tournament details to your team as they develop, including field locations/maps, game times and tournament rules.
- Some teams send out a snack sign up when the team is scheduled to participate in an all day tournament. This is at the discretion of the manager/coach/trainer. A tent and folding table is sometimes helpful but not a necessity (and some tournaments won't allow tents).
Below are some tournaments our teams have participated in, as well as some winter league information: