UPDATED Explainer: Dual Rostering vs. Guest Play

Are players allowed to play for both their school team and their club team?
Officially, No. But there is a difference between registering for two teams and playing for two teams. So in actuality, it depends.

Communication from SFRPD (Fall 2024)

What you may NOT do
Players may NOT register for more than one soccer team in any league. Players must determine a primary team of registration. Teams are considered valid for field allocations if their minimum rosters of players are unique, so that access to the limited number of San Francisco fields are as fairly allocated as possible to San Francisco players.

Per the SFRPD Player commitment form: 

“I commit that my child is joining the team/club listed below for the 2024 Fall season and has not committed to any other San Francisco team or club.  In order to use San Francisco fields, I understand and agree that my child may not switch to another team without written approval of the team [I am registering for].”

What you MAY do
If, for example, a player chooses to officially register with their school team, but also wants to play with a club team in tournaments, State Cup or Play Dates with their club, that's always allowed (as fields for those events are not considered for eligibility in league field allocations). Also, if your school team and your club team are both participating in SFYS leagues (example, Rec and Competitive Upper House), players registered on the Recreational team may guest up to the Upper House team throughout the regular season. 

Who is responsible for enforcement? 
The answer is SF Rec & Park, as the rule is in place so as to fairly distribute field allocations to youth of San Francisco. SF Youth Soccer has no visibility into NorCal rosters and so do not know about dual rostering until it's called to our attention. And if it's just one player and the team would be viable without that player, we don't take action. When the dual rostering happens *in* SFYS leagues (ie, a player attempting to register both for their school Rec team as well as a competitive Upper House team), that we *do* enforce - as do all the clubs and leagues - since none of our registration systems allow for a player to register on more than one team. 

But … I know kids playing for both their club and their school teams in seasonal league play!
Players who are not registered for example on the club team as part of the minimum roster requirement which has been validated, but are added later in the summer in advance of preseason tourney, etc., are historically not considered dual-rostered. However, if a player has opted into those supplemental options with the club, they must also register in said club’s US Club or CalNorth registration system. Should a player do that, they would then be available within their club team in regular non-SFYS league play as well. And to repeat, if your school team and your club team are both participating in SFYS leagues (example, school team in Rec and club team in Upper House), players registered on the Recreational team may guest up to the Upper House team throughout the regular season. 

Fall 2024 Update from SFRPD, following reporting by an opponent about a team that perhaps may have dually rostered players:

"Norcal players can guest play on SFYS team but again, it is about the timing.
 
During spring registration for fall season, the Norcal player should not be rostered on both the SFYS and Norcal team. They need to pick one. Then, later on during the summer, if you decide you want to add players to the SFYS roster to guest play, you can add them on (since the original team roster minimums have been met by then—thereby not requiring us to allocate more fields).
 
So this is what needs to happen:

• • The players will play on their Norcal teams as their primary teams going forward

• • They will guest play on the SFYS team but you will need to add them as guest players for each game *

• • Moving forward, the parents and clubs need to understand that during the time of spring registration for fall season, a child can only be on one primary team"

* Important Caveat: Contrary to the SFRPD bullet point, due to separate registration systems and insurance, as written above, it's not possible to "guest" from NorCal to SFYS. HOWEVER, if SFYS Competitive team coaches would like the option for players at the Nickel, Copper, Bronze or Silver levels to guest play between leagues at the same level, here is how SFYS would make that possible:

• During the Team Registration period, coaches must build minimum roster of UNIQUE players. 
• After Team Registration is closed, SFYS would create a team called something like SFYS Guest Player Pool. 
• NorCal or CCSL Players who want the option to play with a registered team will register not onto the team they'd like to guest with, but rather onto the SFYS Guest Player Pool team. Player registration steps and fees will be the same as all other players in SFYS Leagues. Financial Aid will not be available for dual players. In order to appear on a game day roster, those players will have to be invited every week, which makes clear to all that the players are guesting, compliant with SFRPD restrictions and also ineligible for Playoffs (if applicable).
• ISSUE: Honor system regarding level. Gold or better players should never be guesting to SFYS Rec or Competitive. Bronze or Silver players should never be guesting to SFYS Rec. There is no way for SFYS or the technology to manage this, so if a regularly guesting player is a "ringer", guest playing permissions will have to be restricted. This will affect all, as the current registration and scheduling platform is all or nothing re: guest play permissions.