What goes into taking an Independent Academy team to Select?

by soccer_mom_to_1 10/9/2013, 3:33 pm

I am so confused with this! My son is on an 04 independent academy team and we have been told that we will go select next season. However, I have also heard that in order to "go select," the league requires that an academy team have their own practice facility and some other specific requirements. I'm worried that my son's team may not be able to fulfill those requirements. But...what are the requirements? Please help... confused

TIA!!

by ontherightside 10/9/2013, 4:19 pm

soccer_mom_to_1 wrote:I am so confused with this! My son is on an 04 independent academy team and we have been told that we will go select next season. However, I have also heard that in order to "go select," the league requires that an academy team have their own practice facility and some other specific requirements. I'm worried that my son's team may not be able to fulfill those requirements. But...what are the requirements? Please help...

TIA!!

This is just a start and quick answer. Hopefully others will chime in...

Your players must sign the NTX soccer player contract. This is what makes them select. Then you pick a league to attempt to qualify for - such as Classic League, qualifier in August, or PPL or APL.

You do not have to have a Club practice facility.

These are the basics.

by soccerdadrandy 10/9/2013, 4:58 pm

soccer_mom_to_1 wrote:I am so confused with this! My son is on an 04 independent academy team and we have been told that we will go select next season. However, I have also heard that in order to "go select," the league requires that an academy team have their own practice facility and some other specific requirements. I'm worried that my son's team may not be able to fulfill those requirements. But...what are the requirements? Please help...

TIA!!

sorry for my rambling (i just deleted Very Happy

) i didn't read the part where you will be a u11 team next year. all you need to do is fins a local soccer association (the one you are currently registered with might work best) and ask them what is needed. for instance, in midland tx we pay 45 for each player to MSA our home recreational assc and they assigned us a city field, which we pay for, to practice on.

by PitchBound 10/9/2013, 5:04 pm

This may help, long read but it has a lot of useful information:

http://pysa.org/UserFiles/files/Competitive/Rules/PYSA%20Competitive%20Rules_6.pdf

by Arsenal SC 02 & 01 10/9/2013, 5:41 pm

We formed and took an 01 team into competitive this season (Arsenal Elite). It's much easier at the start of the select process (U11) then at U13 so no need to get worked up...you have time.

Here's what you need to do:
- Team needs to register as a competitive team with NTX by mid June
- as stated before, player must sign the NTX contract saying they are now a select player (easy)
- Each player needs to register with a home association (can be any in the area...we used PYSA)
- The team needs to pick and register for a league (PPL, Classic, etc..)
- Then, play the challenge tournament for that league
- If you make it it, pay the money and start league play

And that's it.

NOTE: If you're going into Classic League, the coach must have a D level license. This is not a requirement for PYSA.

If you have questions about how to put all this together please let me know and we'll help any way we can.

My view:
We've had no issues renting practice locations or anything like that so overall, this has been a very positive experience for us and we have hired a number of top trainers to come and work with our team this year (Carlos Videla of Sporting United and Coach Gabby Gentile recently with FC Dallas) so even though we're an independent team, the players are still receiving quality instruction.

Our results:
We challenged into PYSA and went 3-0 and landed in P2. We're currently in 1st place with 4 wins and 1 tie. Overall, everything has gone well and I would recommend it to other teams looking to build something or keep a group of players together and not have all the drama that pops up every year.

Sidebar:
If you're happy with your team then make sure you understand where they plan to play for the Fall. If it's Classic League, make sure there is a D level license Coach or that will not be an option.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!