BAYS Travel Coaches

Travel Program

The Travel Program is designed to be an introduction to competitive athletics with an emphasis on developing both the athlete and the complete person.

Teams:

Teams are organized according to individual player’s soccer skill development level. Players are placed based on the judgement of the NGS Professional Coaching Staff, their performance at a yearly assessment, and on evaluations from their coaches during the prior season. Assessments are generally held each Spring to determine placement for the following Fall season. It is presumed that nearly all players remain on the same team from the Fall and Spring seasons. The goal of the placement process is to form teams composed of players of similar abilities and skills.

NGS does not archive player evaluation or tryout data from previous years, to discourage the tracking of players. Girls who wish to move up to more skilled teams are encouraged to enroll in our Skills Development Program for extra practices and NGS will reward hard work and dedication to the game by The travel teams are selected by the coaches under the supervision of the grade coordinator, based on a combination of tryout results and player evaluations. NGS realizes that evaluation of a player’s abilities, especially in youth soccer is a subjective process. NGS has evolved and continues to enhance the assessment and placement process to fairly evaluate and place each player according to her abilities as accurately as possible.

BAYS:

The NGS Travel Program is a member of BAYS — Boston Area Youth Soccer. BAYS is one of about 14 regional leagues affiliated with MYSA — Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association (www.mayouthsoccer.org). BAYS is the largest league in Massachusetts, comprising nearly 50 towns located in and around Boston.

BAYS operates competitive programs between towns, starting at the U9 and our travel program enters teams in each age bracket from U9 through U18. The High School programs only run in the Spring, since the High School varsity teams play in the Fall. Players may elect to enter the travel program in any year.

Once the teams are formed, NGS presents the ordered list of teams to BAYS with our recommendations of how we feel the teams should be placed within the league. Within each age group BAYS has up to four skill Divisions — from 1 to 4, and sub-sections (A, B, C, D, etc..) within each division. The skill range from the top of Division 1 to the bottom of Division 4 is vast, but the skill differences between adjacent sections (e.g. Division 3 section G aka “3G” to Division 3 section H “3H”) is often indiscernible. Ideally, if our teams have been formed correctly, and placed well, they will be evenly matched within their sections. Fall results are used to realign teams in the Spring. A team with a lopsided winning record might be moved up several sections. Division 1 and 2 teams are eligible for MTOC, the Massachusetts Tournament of Champions, which is the annual state-wide tournament for all the participating regional leagues.