It may be winter, but the 2014 Nelson Youth Soccer (NYS) season has arrived.
Registration for the new season is now open and players are encouraged to sign up early. Registration deadline for rep teams is January 31, while the deadline for house team registration is March 1.
Players can register and pay online or print registration forms from the website and mail them in with a cheque.
“Fees go up after the deadline for rep registrants, but the important thing is that decisions are made based on numbers at that time,” explained Chuck Bennett, chair of the Nelson Youth Soccer Association.
He said any player who registers after the deadline, not only pays more, but may miss the opportunity to play rep soccer.
Rep squads are created based on the number of players, in each age category, that have signed up to play.
“Say we don’t have enough kids at U-16, we would move them to U-17,” Bennett explained.
However, if more players sign up for U-16 after the deadline, there may be no spots to place them.
In order to set the correct number of teams, organizers need to know, in advance, how many players want to participate. Last year the league had just under 1,000 players .
“It’s a great organization. It’s a lot of fun. We continue to grow and move the association forward.”
That constant growth includes getting a little professional soccer help.
“We’ve got the Whitecaps contract that we are working on right now, so we’ll have a full-time Whitecaps coach and a full-time executive director,” said Bennett.
The group is also looking for more coaches to lend a hand with the various teams.
“Please, put your name forward if you are interested in it. We have some good training programs and a lot of support for coaches,” he said.
For more information, for players and coaches, or to download registration forms, visit www.nys.ca.