About Player Evaluation Day

2023 Player Evaluation Day is June 24th.

Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your scheduled session to sign in and get your evaluation number. Do not wear your current jersey.

• Please arrive 15 minutes before the evaluation to collect an evaluation bib.

Players should bring:

• A properly inflated soccer ball
• Water bottle

Player must wear:

• Soccer cleats and be appropriately dressed to play soccer (shin guards, socks)
• A plain t-shirt with NO NUMBERS so that the numbers on their assigned pinnies will be visible. Do not wear your soccer/club jersey.

Our primary goal is to place players on the team that best matches their ability. To achieve this goal, we use as much information and knowledge we have about players as possible, including:

• Previous coach evaluations (if any). Coaches have a solid perspective of player ability built over 10 weeks of play per season.
• Players average scores received from Scorpions on Player Evaluation Day.

Given the relative nature of the assessments within each particular age bracket, NO make-up sessions are planned. If a player cannot make his or her assigned session, you must NOTIFY the appropriate Boys/Girls Travel Coordinator PRIOR to the scheduled date.

Boys Travel Coordinator: George Labonte

Girls Travel Coordinator:  Brian Keays

Player evaluations are a closed session, meaning parents and coaches are not permitted onto the back fields during the evaluations. Only players, evaluators, and nonpartisan WYS board members are permitted. WYS volunteers will assemble each group of players and walk them up to the back fields, and then walk them back down again after the evaluations.

Third-party soccer professionals from Scorpions soccer clubs provide unbiased scores for each player based on their overall ability to play individually and as part of a team, as demonstrated through a combination of individual skills stations and small-sided games.

Players are evaluated based on several drills, which include the player’s ability to dribble at pace while turning and shooting, field and game awareness, ability to look for space and find players that are open, etc.

Each session finishes with a small-sided game. Depending on the age group, players will be evaluated on factors like:

• Are the players involved in the game?
• Do the take up a natural position (e.g., out wide, attack, defense)?
• Do they make the right decision (e.g., pass, shoot, dribble at the right time)?
• Do they communicate with other players?
• Do they help teammates by encouraging them?
• Do they show talent during the game in how they play?

Players are constantly rotated so that they are always playing with and against different players in their age group, as well as evaluated by many different Scorpions coaches. This makes the scoring system as objective and unbiased as possible.

Scorpions coaches score the players based on shirt number only. Evaluators do not know any player names. Each player receives at least four individual scores. Scorpions then determines an average score for each player.

No. WYS does not entertain requests for placement with specific children for travel teams.

No. WYS does not entertain requests for placement with specific coaches for travel teams.

Requests can be made for brothers or sisters in the same age group to play on the same team. In all cases, the higher placed child will be placed on the team with the lower placed child, but not vice versa.

The number of players registered on each age group, along with maximum team sizes, together determine how many players are on a team, so the number of players on each team's roster can vary.  For example, if 30 Grade 3 girls register, we will build three teams of ten players.

Ideally, we limit the number of players to afford each player substantial playing time. The number of players on 7v7 and 9v9 teams may vary depending on many factors, but is ultimately determined by WYS Board of Directors.  There are also BAYS league limitations for the number of players on a given team; however, WYS teams typically fall well below the BAYS limits. For Grades 3&4 teams, there will likely be 10-12 players per roster.  For 9v9 teams when all teams are travel, the travel committee determines the roster size based on the number of players needing placement.  The WYS Board will make its best judgment on the number of players on each team.

Yes!  Every effort should be made to attend player evaluations, but parents must notify the WYS Board if a player is unable to attend placements due to a conflict. Players with an excused absence will be placed on an appropriate team based on their previous coach’s evaluations and constructive parent input, but there are no guarantees as to their placement level. The Board will exercise its best judgement to place players that do not have an excused absence.

It is important to understand that at young ages, many players’ skill levels compared with their peers can change tremendously in a year. Our goal is to create teams with players of similar skills, which is how BAYS asks that the travel teams be assembled. Previous seasons’ placement does not guarantee a player’s placement level for this season.

WYS understands that player placement is not an exact science and that it is impossible to please everyone with its decisions. WYS always strives to do its best to objectively place each of our 300+ players on a team appropriate for their competitive level where they can be most successful.

Players unhappy with their placement are encouraged to continue playing and practicing with their assigned teams. Players will have the opportunity to earn a higher team placement at the following year’s player evaluations. A disappointing placement presents an opportunity to teach young people how to persevere in the face of adverse circumstances.

All player placements are final. The Board does not entertain requests to move players up. Encourage your child to participate fully with their team. They will make great friends and have a wonderful time. Experience shows player placements are typically a much larger issue for parents than they are for the players.

In an ideal world, every player who plays in the Fall would also play in the Spring and no changes would need to make to any team from the Fall. Unfortunately the number of Fall players that play in the Spring is generally less than in the previous Fall. (Soccer is sometime looked on as a Fall sport).

For this reason, based on the number of players per age group, the exact number of team are decided to make the teams balanced. e.g.  For obvious reasons, it is not good for the players on both teams if one team has 7 and another 13, just to keep the teams the same as they were in the Fall. In this case WYS may need to move 2-3 players to make the teams balanced.  The players that are moved either up or down is generally based on the coach’s rankings from the Fall, the scores from fall evaluations are also considered.  Teams with too few players or too many players is not in anybody’s interest and especially on the young players. It is always very difficult decision to move players but experience shows it is important to make the teams as evenly spread and ultimatly benefits ALL players.

It is human nature not to like changes; Experience shows it is good for the kids to have the ability to play on teams of similar abilities and by developing their soccer skills. WYS goal is not to build a team with a core group of players and try to keep them the same for every season. We feel this does not give every player a fair chance to advance.