SOCCER PROGRAM INFORMATIONAges: Rocky River FC (aka Midland Youth Soccer) offers fun and competition for children from ages 4 1/2 to 18 years old. We offer an introduction to Soccer program for 3 to 4 year olds.
Competition: Micro Soccer is an ALL in house program with one scheduled event per week. Program requires a minimum of 15 registered players. If we do not have 15, then players will automatically be enrolled as Pee Wee. All Pee Wee, U6 to U12 teams will compete in a league with most games played at Locust Elementary School or Stanly County Community College. Middle School teams may play in the Locust league or the South Charlotte. High School teams will play in the South Charlotte league.
Locations: Practices for most teams will take place at Bethel Elementary School in Midland. Other practice locations may be utilized based on the number of teams. ALL Micro events will take place at the Bethel Elementary School soccer field up teams will have both home and away games. Home games will be on the schedule, but take place at the soccer fields located at central league locations. Directions to all of the fields can be found on our web site under the Soccer / Directions tab. We do NOT play home games at Bethel currently for Pee Wee or U6 to U15.
Games: All teams will typically have a minimum of 8 scheduled games during the Fall & Spring seasons. Game schedules will be provided to the coaches of each team typically the week of the opening weekend. Parents should note your team's opening weekend and be prepared to play a game that Saturday or Sunday or both. Some teams may choose to play in additional tournaments or events during the season at an extra cost.
Practices: All Pee Wee & U6 teams will conduct one to two practices per week, typically Monday/Wednesdays or Tuesday/Thursdays. All U8 and older teams will conduct one to two practices per week. Practices can start as early as 5:30 PM, but most start 6:00 PM or later, and usually run at least an hour, but no more than 1.5 hours. Practice nights are determined by coach availability. Players can not be dropped off at the fields unsupervised. If you can not stay with your child, please be sure you make arrangements with another adult to supervise your son or daughter while you are away. This is not the coach's responsibility.
Equipment: Each player must have the following equipment in order to compete during games and to participate in practices: shin guards with soccer socks fully covering the shin guard and soccer cleats with non-metal spikes. It is also recommended that each player has their own soccer ball. Pee Wee, U6 and U8 players will use a Size 3 ball, U10 and U12 players will use a Size 4 ball and U15 and older players will use a Size 5 ball. Many stores stock these items but we recommend Academy Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods in Matthews as they have a wide variety of options. Each player should also bring along water or sports drink to every practice and game. Player name should be written on their soccer ball and any non-disposable water bottle/container.
Uniforms: Each player will receive a complete kit with their paid registration, which includes jersey, shorts and socks. It is highly recommended that each player also has additional shorts, shirts and socks to utilize for practices.
Age Brackets: The "U" in each age bracket stands for "Under"; for example: "U8" means "Under 8 as of March 1st." Each child will be placed into the appropriate age bracket based on their age or experience level.
Coed and Non-Coed teams: All Pee Wee & U6 teams are coed, there is no separation between boys and girls in these two age brackets. Currently ALL U8 to U12 teams are COED. At the U15 or Middle School or High School level, teams will be based on gender. Boys may not play on an all girl's team but girls cannot be denied playing on a boy's team. If we do not have enough girls to form an ALL girls team in an age division, a player may play up a level if space is available OR be combined with the boys division to form a Coed team. Some parents have requested their child to play up to be with classmates or for more experience/competition. We will consider allowing a player playing up, however, a player playing up can not take a spot of player playing his/her age. If rosters are very full, and we do not have enough to form two teams in a division, we will move the older players up to form teams. It is our goal to find a team for everyone who registers.
Cost: The cost for a single player is determined by division. Micro is $95 per player. Pee Wee, U6 & U8 are $135. U10 & U12 are $155 per player. U14 and up costs $175 or more depending on sponsorships we've received. The cost of the program covers the following: Facility fees, uniform fees, officiating fees, equipment expenses, League Team and Player registration fees and end of Season tournament fees if applicable.
The costs teams incur if they choose to play in events or tournaments external to the league they are assigned to will be the responsibility of the team.
Seasons: Soccer is technically a year round sport, running from July 1st to June 30th. For Rec soccer, the year is split into two sessions - Fall & Spring. The Fall session will begin before school starts back, normally mid to late August and games will begin the 1st weekend after Labor Day. The Fall season typically runs thru November, ending before Thanksgiving.
The Spring session begins late February to early March, normally right around when Daylight Savings time changes. The older kids will normally start a week or so earlier with Pee Wee/U6 and Micro starting mid to late March. The season will run thru late May, normally ending before Memorial Day weekend, but can run into the first two weekends of June if the Spring Season experiences a lot of rain or teams choose to play in external tournaments.
Late fees may be applied to those who register after March 1st (Spring) or August 1st (Fall).
If you have any questions about the program, please email
[email protected]USYS Medical Waiver Form