This page gives information on Juventus Sport Club, competitive youth soccer, and joining a Juventus team. 1. About Juventus The Juventus Sport Club is a non-profit 501(c)(3) youth sports organization based in Redwood City, CA. We have roughly 45 youth soccer teams. Our mission is to develop skillful, confident, and responsible youth soccer players who will be successful on and off the field. By combining Juventus resources with our community's passion for the sport, we help motivated young soccer players develop to their full potential for high school, college, and beyond. While most of our teams hire professional coaches, Juventus is a volunteer-run organization at both the team and club levels. What are the expectations and commitments for players? Expectations for Juventus teams and their players are high. At this level of competition, success and the joy of playing good soccer do not come without commitment, self-discipline, and hard work. Consequently, players are required to:
What are the expectations and commitments for parents? Being a Juventus parent also involves commitments. These include:
2. Playing Club Soccer How is club soccer different from AYSO? Both AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) and youth soccer clubs like Juventus are important parts of the youth soccer community, but tend to serve different types of players. Players joining club teams usually seek a higher level of competition, more experienced coaches, more committed teammates, and opportunities to compete against teams outside the immediate area. Players must try out for club teams and be invited to join, and stronger players generally get more playing time. Players usually stay with the same team for an extended period, and close friendships often develop among team families. Club teams, the other hand, generally require more commitment and costs are higher. Costs typically include coaching, referees, tournament fees, and sometimes expenses for overnight travel to tournaments. AYSO is open to any player, regardless of skill level, and does not have tryouts. It also requires much less travel (especially for young teams, which play most of their games in the same city. and has lower costs. Younger AYSO teams are formed anew each year with the objective of balancing teams by mixing players with a wide range of abilities, and all participants play at least half of each game they attend. While a growing number of our young players begin their team soccer experience in Juventus, many players are introduced to the sport by AYSO and later move to a club team. . What are the different levels of play? Club soccer offers several levels of play. The two major levels for Juventus Sport Club are Class 3 and Class 1 (there is no Class 2)
A decision to try out for a Class 3 team instead of Class 1 is not always based on the players skill. Sometimes families of talented players prefer Class 3 to leave more time for other sports and non-athletic activities. Class 1 teams often require putting soccer ahead of other activities, while Class 3 may involve fewer family compromises (though still a considerable commitment). In addition to the Class 1/Class 3 team designations, playing leagues are divided by level of competition. In increasing order of competitiveness, the league divisions are copper, bronze, silver, gold, and state premier. Each of these divisions may be further stratified into sub-groups (e.g., Bronze A, Bronze B, Bronze C). Tournaments have a similar classifications system (usually Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Premier) In addition to league play and tournaments with their Juventus team, the strongest players in U12-15 may be selected for league-sponsored player development programs at the district, state, and national levesl. These programs complement the player's team with extra training and competition with strong players from other clubs in out area, Juventus has been very successful getting its players into such programs. 3. Teams, the Juventus Club, & other soccer organizations How are Juventus teams structured? How are the coach and manager selected? Teams are financially independent entities that usually stay together for an extended period (often many years), though the participants may change. Teams collect player fees, buy uniforms and equipment, pay fees for coaches and referees, make decisions on players, choose leagues to play in. Juventus coaches and managers are appointed/approved (and occasionally removed, if appropriate) by the Club's Board of Directors.
How are teams connected to Juventus Sport Club? Juventus Sport Club consists of roughly 40 teams, an annually-elected Board of Directors, and some appointed positions. The Club supports its teams by processing team registrations, assigning practice space and game slots on fields, coordinating facility use with the city government and other sports organizations, running tournaments, helping select coaches and managers, sponsoring club-wide tryouts, maintaining this website, representing Juventus at league meetings, etc. With which Leagues is Juventus affiliated? Juventus is affiliated with two different organizations that run youth soccer leagues in northern California. The California Youth Soccer Association - North (CYSA-N or just CYSA) runs the CYSA Cal Soccer League (CCSL), which offers 3 different geographic league options for Juventus teams:
The next level up in CYSA is District 2, which extends from the Peninsula down to San Jose on the southeast and Monterey on the Southwest. A competing organization to CYSA is NorCal Premier, which separately runs leagues in both the Fall and Spring for all levels of play. Many of Juventus's best older teams now play in the NorCal Regional Academy League (RAL). 4. Joining a Juventus Team How do teams select players? Existing teams generally select players by evaluating them at a group tryout and/or at some team practices. Selection criteria generally include the team's specific needs (e.g, a goalkeeper and a speedy midfielder) as well as the prospective player's soccer experience, current skill level, general athleticism, work ethic, and enthusiasm for the sport. When do the soccer seasons begin and end? Check with specific teams about their plans before making a decision to join. While the league games are Sep-Nov for Fall and Apr-Jun for Spring, different teams make different decisions on how many scrimmages and tournaments to do between seasons and how long the winter and summer breaks from practice should last. Most teams restart practices in late July or August, do a few tournaments in August, play league games Sep-Nov, take a break for part of the winter, restart practices in March, play spring league games Apr-Jun, take at least a short summer break, and repeat the cycle. The Fall season is the more serious season, and players are expected to make soccer their number one extra-curricular activity in the Fall. Most teams view Spring as a more informal season, although there are regular games and practices. What is the weekly time commitment? Most Juventus teams practice twice a week for 1.5 - 2 hours each session. Teams have 1-2 games on most weekends during the league season, and some away games may be outside the mid-Peninsula. Tournaments can take more time since they have 2 games on Saturday and 1-2 more on Sunday. Class 1 teams tend to do more tournaments and these tend to be farther away, and some may require an overnight stay. Each team decides how many tournaments to attend based on parental input. There is not requirement that teams play in tournaments, but these can be lots of fun for the players and their families. Some teams only do a 1-2 tournaments each year, others do 6-8. What are the fees, and what do they pay for? Player fees vary greatly by team, driven mostly by differences in coach/trainer compensation and how many tournaments the team does. Initial expenses for new teams are higher due the need to buy uniforms, balls, and other equipment from scratch. All-inclusive team budgets usually range $300-$800 per player per season for registration fees, equipment, uniform, tournament fees, and professional training. Teams are encouraged to hold fundraisers and obtain sponsorships to help offset team costs. What teams do we compete against in league play, and how much travel is required? Class I and Class III teams often are in a playing league with teams from as far north as San Francisco, and as far south as Santa Cruz (Watsonville/Salinas). Class III teams usually confine their play to the Peninsula and immediate areas. The Spring and Fall seasons usually consist of a total of 10 games, with half played at home, and half at the other team’s field. In Spring, games can be either on Sunday or Saturday. In Fall, Class I teams generally play on Saturdays with a few two-game weekends that include a Sunday game; Class III teams generally play on Sundays if they are in the Redwood playing league, and on Saturdays if they are signed up with the Delgado playing league . If a player joins a team, can he/she later be dropped? Yes, this does sometimes happen. But our preferred approach (especially on Class 3 teams) is to help all motivated players improve their soccer skills so they continue to contribute to their team's success. Our experience is that players who fall behind their teammates in skill development are best served in the long run by moving to lower-level teams where they can contribute more and get more playing time. This is especially true when a team wins a promotion from Class 3 to Class 1, but not all players are ready to play at the higher level. Our teams almost always help place such players on other club teams within or outside Juventus. Setting a team's policy on changing players is an evolutionary process best determined by the coach and manager, together with input from parents. Some teams believe all players should try out for the team each year with no one guaranteed a position, but different teams have different approaches to making these decisions. Players may also be dropped from a team for a pattern of disrespectful behavior towards referees, coaches, teammates, or opponents. For this reason, it is important that team officials and parents be good role models for their players in dealing with the stresses of hotly contested or porly refereed games. On a few rare occasions, players have been dropped from Juventus team because of inappropriate behavior by parents. Can I help recruit players from other teams? Under CYSA rules, it is unacceptable for team officials or parents to actively recruit (poach) players already on another CYSA team. Any player movement across teams must be initiated by the player or family, and violations can result in league sanctions against the team and club. A similar policy also applies to a team borrowing guest players from another team for a tournament or league game. Guest players should always be initially solicited through their own team's coach or manager, not through direct contact with players or their parents. These rules are particularly important to respect in dealing with players on other Juventus teams. While the Juventus club strongly encourages its teams to cooperate in providing development opportunities for Juventus players across team boundaries, it is critical that thgis be coordinated with a player's own manager or coach before the player of family is approached. |
Juventus Sport Club FAQ |