ORGANIZATION:
What is the Recreational League? EBSC has two programs - Recreational and Travel. The Recreational League offers an introduction to the sport at a very young age through our Superstars Program, with an amphasis on teaching the sport through activities geared to the psychological age of the players. There are no 11v11games in Superstars, just opportunities to develop the basic footskills and playing concepts that will be used the rest of their soccer career. After two years of Superstars, the Recreational League has two years of instructional level soccer (the U7 and U8 years - see below), where players practice as actual teams during the week, and play small sided-games (starting at 3v3 or 4v4 and moving up to 6v6) on weekends. The concepts of goalkeepers are introduced at the U8 level, along with most of the actual laws of the game. At the end of the U8 year, many players tryout for the Travel Program, which accepts a limited number of players following the tryouts. From U9 onwards, the Recreational League continues to offer boys and girls the opportunity to develop their game through weekday practices, and often professional training sessions, with weekend games against their friends and classmates.
How do you group players? The Recreational League groups players by age, based upon how old they are on August 1. This age cut-off is set by the USYSA, our national youth association, as the soccer year runs from Fall to Spring. For example, if your child is 7 years old on August 1, we refer to your child as Under 8, or U8 for short. We also combine certain age groups, where the pooling of players is necessary to create enough teams.
For the Fall 2008/Spring 2009 year, refer to the following chart to determine what age division your child will play in:
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Born Aug. 1, 2002 - July 31, 2004
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Superstars (Boys and Girls)
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Born Aug. 1, 2001 - July 31, 2002
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Boys U7 or Girls U7
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Born Aug. 1, 2000 - July 31, 2001
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Boys U8 or Girls U8
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Born Aug. 1, 1998 - July 31, 2000
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Boys U9/10 or Girls U9/10
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Born Aug. 1, 1996 - July 31, 1998
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Boys U11/12 or Girls U11/12
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Born Aug. 1, 1990 - July 31, 1996
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Boys U13-18 or Girls U13-18
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Do you allow players to play out of their age group? We do not allow players to play in a different age division. There are always going to be some players who have the skills and ability to play with older players, and there are many players who are born close to the cut-off point, but it is a firm Club policy to keep players in their own group.
Why are some of my child’s classmates not in the same division? Our Club uses August 1 as the cut-off point for setting age groups. The public school system uses a different cut-off date. Therefore, a single age division will often include players in two different grades.
How do you pick teams? Do you group players by school? The over-riding concern when forming teams is to make them as balanced as possible across the division. While winning or losing is unimportant compared to the simple fun of playing the game, no player wants to step onto the field thinking that he does not even have a chance to win. If we allow a division to get so unbalanced that some teams win all their games and some teams lose all their games, inevitably the players on the losing teams stop enjoying the game and drop out. So the Club takes steps to form teams that will be balanced and competitive, requiring that we not look at social arrangements (ie - which school or neighborhood the players are from), but at each players’ ability
How much playing time will my child get? We will not form teams with rosters so large that a child will ever get less than 1/2 a game on the field. However, we are limited as to how many teams we can form by how many volunteer coaches step forward to assist us, and the number of registrations varies each season. Because of that, we sometimes have rosters that are larger than ideal, and consequently the players may not get much more than 1/2 a game on the field. In practical terms, it also can vary significantly game to game, depending on how many players miss a game. That said, it is the expectation that each coach will play all their players an equal amount of time over the life of the season, subject of course to player absences, or other special circumstances. A player’s skill level is NOT an acceptable reason to limit that player’s time, however.
When does the season start? The Fall season generally starts shortly after Labor Day, and the Spring season generally starts at the end of March. Each season runs approximately 10 weeks. Specific dates will always be available on this website.
How do I register my child to play? Registration is handled on-line, and a link will be prominantly displayed so long as the registration period is open. If you cannot find a registration link, that means the registration period is over for that season, and the Club is no longer accepting additional players. Registration for the Fall season generally opens to the public in late May or early June, while registration for the Spring season generally opens in early December. We try to open up registration for the next season at least as early as Awards Day for the previous season, so we can remind returning players to register immediately.
Can I request that my child play on a particular team, or with a particular coach? The Club cannot honor such requests, for several reasons. As mentioned above, the teams first and foremost must be competitively balanced, and to accept player requests would make that impossible to achieve. Second, we may receive more requests for one coach than that team can hold - and since we cannot numerically accomodate all those requests, it would not be fair to grant some requests but not others. Third, assuming for argument’s sake that the coach being requested is the next Sir Alex Ferguson and has the magical ability to bond with your child, that once again is reason why it would not be fair to allow your child the benefit of that coach season after season, and not allow other children that same opportunity. The Club will accomodate requests to have siblings play on the same (or separate) teams, and will also consider requests to be separated from particular coaches or players, based upon personal conflicts.
PRACTICES AND GAMES:
What equipment do I need to purchase? If you are joining the Superstars program, the Club will provide a ball for you. For all other divisions, each player is expected to have his/her own ball, and bring it to all practices (see your respective division page to determine what size ball is required). All players are required to wear shin guards, which must be worn underneath the player’s socks. Soccer cleats are strongly recommended, though at the Superstars level, regular athletic shoes are acceptable. No cleats for other sports (baseball, football, etc.) are permitted. Uniform jerseys will be provided by the Club. Shorts, socks and any cold-weather gear are your responsibility, and we naturally recommend soccer-specific items if possible, though any general athletic gear is acceptable. It is important that your child bring sufficient water to each practice and game - at least 20 oz. in warm weather.
Is there anything my child cannot wear? No jewelry of any kind is permitted, nor hard metal or plastic hair clips, bows, etc.. Placing tape over stud earrings is not an acceptable remedy - they must be removed entirely. No standard eyeglasses can be worn, pursuant to state law - any player requiring prescriptive lenses must either wear contact lenses or sports goggles.
When are games played? EBSC has over 800 players in the Recreational League, and nearly 500 in our Travel program, making up nearly 100 separate teams. In order to fit all those teams onto the fields for weekend games, we have a full slate of games each Saturday and Sunday beginning at 9:00 am and continuing until the evening. At present, the Recreational League primarily plays games at 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm or 3:00 pm, but there are occasional games at 5:00 pm or even 7:00 pm (though usually only for the older divisions). Games may be scheduled for either Saturday or Sunday. Generally, teams can expect a variety of game times throughout the season, as the Club avoids setting strict times for any single division - to do so would potentially lock children with conflicts out of every game for the entire season, whereas varying the times will minimize any one players’ conflicts.
When are practices held? Except for the Superstars division, which does not have weekday practices, each individual team sets its own practice schedule, both as to time and day(s) of the week. Generally, few Recreational Teams will have more than one (1) practice a week. While coaches will hopefully consult with their players to select days and times convenient to as many as possible, in the end the teams cannot exist without the volunteer coaches, and the coach’s availability must be the foremost factor. If your child has conflicts with any particular night, it is incumbent upon you to state as much when you register your child - we can take that information into consideration at the time we assign players to coaches, but we cannot reshuffle teams around afterwards if you wait until practices begin to raise a conflict. Since this is Recreational League, however, coaches will not be penalizing players for missing practices - we all know players have other commitments, and cannot always make every practice. Please be courteous to your coach, however, and give advance notice when you will be missing any team event.
CLUB INFORMATION:
What is East Brunswick Soccer Club? Are you a profit-making company? No. The Club is an IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt not-for-profit organization that exists simply to serve the community by providing the opportunity for our children to learn and play soccer. No Trustee, Officer or Coach gets paid anything by the Club for their efforts - all time and energy is donated on a purely volunteer basis.
So where does my $65 dollars go? Although our time is given for free, the Club nevertheless has expenses to cover. Those costs include team jerseys, trophies, fees for referees, supplies to maintain the fields, insurance, coaching education, tournament participation, and many other items. The Club also retains professional training organizations, such as UK Elite for the past several seasons, to provide regular training sessions to the players. The Club has worked hard to keep it's fees in line with its costs, and as a result, we probably have the least expensive registration fee for any youth athletic league in the community.
And what is the Work Bond? As an all-volunteer organization, we rely on the time and effort of all parents to help us out. Consequently, each registration (even if there are more than one child per family) comes with an obligation to perform at least two (2) hours of service to the Club. Although Head Coaches and Board members are exempt from that requirement, because they give much more than two hours of service each season, all other families, including assistant coaches, are obligated. The Work Bond can be satisfied in several ways - working a shift at the concession stand; doing field set-up or clean-up on Saturdays; assisting during any of our tournaments in various capacities; or simply being your teams photographer. As a Club, we are always trying to develop new opportunities for service to be perfomed, so if you have any ideas, please let us know.
What else can I do to help? So very much, actually! Performing the Work Bond Service may be the first thing that comes to mind, but the Club will benefit much more from your participation as a Head Coach (or assistant), or as a member of our Board of Trustees or serving on any of our several commitees. Please think about donating your time in these areas, which in the end will make the Club a much better organization.
Whom should I contact if I have a problem? The first person you should go to is your Head Coach. Any information you need should be available to him, and as the closest Club official to the situation, your Coach is the best person to answer the question. If the Coach cannot help you, please go to your respective Division Director, then to your respective VP (either Boys Rec, Girls Rec or Superstars), and then ultimately, the President of the Club. Please do not start in the reverse order. All contact information can be found on this website. Maybe your question will even make it here onto the FAQ!
