Schedule and other information (also available on the website)

[R P Venkatachalam]

Sending via email as some folks have trouble accessing the website. 

Practice Sessions

We will have a 1 hour practice session per week. The first week we will have two if schedule allows. Practice sessions will be at 3:00 PM on Tuesdays at Bowers Park.

A typical practice will consist of alternating games and drills ending with a scrimmage.  You are welcome to and encouraged to look over coaching materials in the coaching section of the site and practice these drills with your kids as time permits.

Game Day

All games will be played at Curtis field in Santa Clara on Saturdays.  Expect a game every Saturday from September 8^th until November 10th. I will add the game schedule to the calendar once available. There are a hundred plus teams in the league and they all play Saturday AM so schedule change requests are extremely hard to accommodate. Please do you best to keep saturday mornings free. There will be no game on Sept 15 as a result of picture day (see below)

The game consists of 2, 20 minute running clock halves with a 10 minute halftime. It is important for all games to start on the hour and finish no later than 50 minutes past the hour.  If we are running late we will shorten our last half to end on time.  Assistant coach or team parent from either team will keep time. This way coaches can concentrate on the kids. 

CYSA rules states that every child must play at least 50% of the game. It is hard to do this on all occasions but we will do our best. We will usually substitute 3 players every 5 minute on a dead ball.  You will find that sometimes kids won't want to go in when you want them to.  We will not force kids to enter the field  but encourage them the best we can and may need help from parents as well.  Parents can not go on to the field with the kids to help them.

There is no scorekeeping and no goalies in U6. Coaches are the referee, as well as the coach on the field.  Generally only out of bounds, and occasionally, "hands" or "tripping" is called, if obvious. There are no direct kicks.  Illegal throw-ins, kick-offs or kicks get a "do-over".

Dress Code

SHIN GUARDS ARE REQUIRED!  Kids must have shin guards.  Believe it or not, cleats are not required (although, highly recommended) but shin guards must be worn at all practices and games.  They must also be worn under the sock.  They cannot wear them over their sock on game days.  Jerseys must be tucked in during game day also.

NO Jewelry. (this is a rule)  I know it is hard at this age to get the girls to take out earrings and such, but start now. As they move up in the age levels, they will be ejected from games if caught wearing them.

Kids not meeting the dress code will not be permitted to play.

Picture Day

Picture day for this season will be on Sept 15th. I will work with the coordinate to schedule a time slot and will publish it once finalized. Each player will receive a team photo free of charge. You can order additional pictures - I will distribute the forms during our first meeting.

Post-season party

Team parent will plan a post-season party. More details on this soon..

Special Practice Sessions

We have a few coaches from the UK visiting this season. The will be scheduling sessions with the various teams. During these special practise sessions the UK coaches will be working with the team coaches to run the drills. We may have 1-3 such special sessions. We will skip the regular practice sessions the weeks we have these.