CHSC Members:
We hope that you and your child are enjoying the current fall season in
Cherry Hill Soccer Club's recreation division. For many of you, your
children will be old enough next year to consider making the transition
to travel soccer. We felt this would be a good opportunity to provide
you with some information about the travel soccer program and to answer
some questions that many families ask. There are many misconceptions
about travel soccer and we hope that the information that follows will
help you decide whether travel soccer is right for your child.
What Is Travel Soccer?
Simply put, travel soccer is the opportunity for teams from our club to
compete against similarly skilled teams from other clubs in the South
Jersey area. The Cherry Hill Soccer Club plays primarily in the South
Jersey Soccer League and the South Jersey Girls Soccer League. These
leagues consist of over 70 different soccer clubs fielding over 800
soccer teams in Camden, Burlington, Atlantic, Gloucester and Cape May
counties. The youngest age division is the U8 (under 8) division for
both boys and girls, which is for children who will turn 8 years old in
that soccer year (August 1 to July 31). The leagues continue through
high school.
Contrary to popular opinion, travel soccer is not just for the very best
players. Before each season, the teams are grouped into "flights" or
divisions based on the anticipated strength of the teams. The goal is
to have balanced divisions so that the children have fun playing soccer
at their own competitive level. Some age groups can have as many as 15
different flights ranging from teams with highly skilled players to
those that choose to emphasize the social aspect of the game over
competition. Our club fields multiple teams in many of these divisions
and we have teams that are flighted in the top groups in their age
bracket, as well as teams that are flighted in the less-competitive
groups.
At the U8 through U10 levels, the kids play 8 v 8 on the same size field
that your kids are playing on now in recreation soccer. Until the kids
reach the U-11 age, the league does not keep standings or make public
any team's record or game results. The leagues do keep records
internally, however, in order to rank the teams for future seasons in an
effort to make the divisions as competitively balanced as possible.
What Is The Expected Time and Travel Commitment for the Regular Season?
There are 10 games in the Fall and 8 games in the Spring for boys
travel. For the girls league, there are 10 games in the Fall and 10
games in the Spring. Half of the games are home games, so you only
travel to approximately five away games each season. The girls play on
Saturdays and the boys play on Sundays. All games are in the afternoon.
Because Cherry Hill is centrally located, most of the away games are
within 30 minutes of Cherry Hill, although they may occasionally be
further away. The exact location of your away games will depend on the
flight into which your team is assigned based on ability.
Practices typically start in August for our travel teams. During the
season, most of our teams hold two weekly practice sessions of 60-90
minutes in duration. One of these sessions is typically with a
professional paid trainer. This season, our travel teams are being
trained by Oliver Saunders of the New York Red Bulls training academy of
Major League Soccer. The other session is typically a team-oriented
practice conducted by your team's licensed CHSC travel coach.
Unlike most clubs, the cost of the professional trainer is included in
your registration fee. There are no extra training charges.
What About These Tournaments and Other Commitments?
Youth soccer tournaments are an exciting way for the kids to play
multiple games, often against teams from different areas, over the
course of a weekend. Cherry Hill Soccer Club pays the tournament
entrance fees for three traditional tournaments each calendar year.
Unlike most travel programs, these tournament fees are built into your
registration fee and you will not be charged extra. Typically, these
tournaments are held during Labor Day Weekend, Columbus Day Weekend and Memorial Day Weekend.
Most of our younger teams play primarily in local tournaments in places
such as Moorestown, Mount Laurel, and even Cherry Hill. Some teams
choose to venture a little bit further to places such as Fort Dix or the
Jersey Shore. Some of our older travel teams have participated in
out-of-state tournaments, often in fun destinations such as Hershey,
Pennsylvania. Some of our players elect to play winter indoor soccer as well at places such the ISC in Cherry Hill or Mt. Laurel, or Ultimate Soccer in Berlin. This is a separate activity which you can choose to play or not. For those that choose to play, there is an additional cost.
Over the past few years, some of our teams have chosen to play in some
"non-traditional" events as well, such as the Wildwood Beach Blast
(barefoot soccer on the beach with overnight camping) or the 3 v. 3
Summer Slam in Cherry Hill. These are also separate activities that you
can choose to play or not at an extra cost.
What Does All of This Cost?
In 2008-09, recreation soccer through the CHSC was $170.00 for the
combined spring and fall seasons. The travel price for those same
seasons was $220.00, plus a one-time uniform and equipment charge of
$80. The uniform and team bag typically last for at least two years (4
seasons). The registration fee includes the three tournaments and the
professional training costs.
Can My Child Play Other Sports?
Yes. Just because your 7 or 8 year old has decided to play travel soccer
does not mean that he or she has to play soccer to the exclusion of
other sports. When you sign up for travel you are committing to play in
both the Fall and the Spring season in accordance with the team
allocation assignments of New Jersey Youth Soccer.
Typically, coaches show more flexibility in the spring due to baseball
conflicts. Because the boys' soccer teams play their games on Sundays
and most baseball leagues do not, there is rarely, if ever, a conflict
between soccer and baseball games and most families have dealt with the
two sports rather easily.
Do I Still Have a Recreation Option?
Yes. Last year, Cherry Hill Soccer Club introduced a new Senior
Recreation Division for children ages 9 and 10. You do not have to
leave the club to keep playing recreation-level soccer. Our Senior
Recreation players receive professional training so that, if they want
to transition to travel the following year, they are not terribly far
behind. We are proud to note that we were able to form a new boys
travel team out of last season's Senior Recreation players, and we are
currently planning to field a new girl's team this Spring.
Is My Child at Risk of Getting Cut?
Our general philosophy is find a place for every child that wants to
play travel soccer regardless of ability. You should be aware, however,
that this policy does have some practical limitations that we cannot
completely control.
Most clubs do not field travel teams until the U-9 level, even though
our league allows it. In the Fall of 2009, our current intention is to
field one just boys and one girls team at the U-8 level. There will be
competitive tryouts for these two teams and your child may or may not be
chosen for the U-8 travel team. If your child is not chosen, he or she
will still have the ability to play in our recreation division for one
more year and to then play travel soccer the following season at the U-9
level (which is the more traditional starting age in most area clubs).
At the U-9 level and above, we typically field multiple teams in each
age group based on the number of interested players. We do everything
we can to find a place for every child who wants to play travel soccer
provided that they register on time and come to the tryouts to help us
gauge the team that best fits their skills. While we cannot guarantee
that a spot will be available for every child, our experience has been
that few, if any, children get turned away. In those rare cases where
it does happen, we often assist the families by contacting other area
clubs to see what spots may be available for your child elsewhere.
When are Tryouts?
Tryouts are scheduled to be held in May for the Fall 2009/Spring 2010
soccer year. The exact dates and times for each age group will be
posted on our website.
I Still Have Questions
No problem. You can e-mail us at travel@cherryhillsoccer.com.