With almost 3,000 soccer players in our outdoor House League program, making up teams can be a challenge. Many parents have asked who makes up the teams and whether the Club balance the teams.

Registration for the 2005 outdoor season will commence in late January, 2005 and carry on right up to the day we start the outdoor season in late May. Most age divisions have a Convenor who refers to player evaluations from the previous season and applies that rating to this year's registration form. After all the known ratings are applied, we get down to the task of making up the teams.

Each team is given an equal number of 'A', 'B' and 'C' players and assigned a volunteer coach, assistant coach, and a sponsor. Sometimes we do not have enough volunteer coaches. When this happens, the Club makes every effort to recruit parents from the team to take on this role. For safety and insurance reasons, the Club cannot field a team without a coach.

The Club only guarantees that the coach, assistant coach and sponsor's children will be on the same team. Everyone is made aware of this policy at the beginning of the season. However, it doesn't seem to prevent parents from requesting their child play with friends on the same team. While the Club understands this desire (who hasn't had to juggle conflicting schedules, jobs, etc.?), we always stress the need to make teams balanced so everyone has a good soccer experience.

All HL teams are subject to balancing before team pictures are taken. If there is skill disparity in a particular division, the coaches will participate in the movement of players for the purpose of balancing the teams. Please be aware of this before the season starts and talk with your children in order to make any such moves as smooth as possible.