Information below was developed by our State Director of Coaching, Dave Schumacher, and Directors of Coaching from Washington’s top premier soccer clubs.

The purpose of this program is to provide a structure and format standards for Regional Club Leagues wishing to work with young players nine years of age.  The RCL needs to establish guidelines that demonstrate a level of professional expertise in the area of player development.  By setting a standard and having all its’ member subscribe, will affirm the RCL is founded on the core mission of “player development.”  It is important that the program is age appropriate and follows similar guidelines that are already established by Washington Youth Soccer and US Youth Soccer.  

Program Format Structure (Regional Club League Junior Program):

•    A new single name used by all clubs to replace U-10 or U-11 Dev Teams
•    One member of the RCL coaching staff working in the “Junior Program” should have National Youth License. 
•    RCL Director of Coaching oversight required to insure age appropriate training and coach selection
•    Development structure that combines training, games, or festivals/jamboree’s
•    Established and agreed to number of games (15 to 20)
•    No post season tournament
•    All players will be welcome.  Limitations on the program size maybe done so based on Association rules or available resources.  Tryouts (ID Nights) will be held only to aid in the determination of player ability.
•    Club may elect to limit to 9 year old if desired or include a limited amount of eight year olds
•    Established and agreed to time off periods
•    Program will be have an ability based aspect to maximize player development
•    Emphasis will be placed on local association participation
•    Games or other competitions should be organized regionally
•    Teams are not allowed to play-up to U-11 without approval of RCL committee (Shadow teams will not be in this league, so does not apply to us.)
•    Individual players are allowed to play-up based on the discretion of the RCL Director of Coaching
•    No standings kept for teams in this program.  Results will only be used as a measure for like vs. like competition  (Shadow teams will not be in this league, so does not apply to us.)
•    Players that are seven years old as of August 1 of each calendar year are not eligible to participate in this program.