Parents
| 9.13.22

Combination Grades

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Hi there.

Writing for some clarification regarding team groupings for Fall 2022.

In Spring 2022, my son's team was a mix of 6th and 5th graders and all the teams in the bracket appeared to be 6th grade. For Fall 2022, his team is essentially the same, so now a mix of 7th and 6th graders. However, this season, the bracket includes a number of teams that appear to be 8th or a mix of 8th and 7th.

Are rec brackets constructed based on ages, school grade levels, or other? How common is it to have 6th, 7th and 8th graders playing one another? 

Any clarification you can provide would be appreciated greatly. Thank you very much.

  • LeeDunne
    09/13/2022

    Good question! 

    Simply put, team counts are lower at the older ages. Attirition is predominant at this age for players as they get involved in more things outside of soccer.

    So to help, SFYS shifted all rec soccer at 6/7/8 grade to play 9v9. We found the 11v11 roster demands were too much, but 9v9 has offered more flexibility with bigger rosters, and less demand on game days. 

    That said, we still face times when team counts are lower and we need to combine flights. We have also combined flights to match the age demands of rosters. So, in this instance, and much like middle school soccer, there is a combination to provide more competition to the 3 8th grade boys teams we had.