AYSO Mission Statement

• Everyone Plays
• Balanced Teams
• Open Registration
• Positive Coaching
• Good Sportsmanship

The mission is accomplished by providing these essential services:

• Quality education programs (coaching, instruction, management, and officiating)
• Quality administrative and operational systems with a support network
• Integrated volunteer network, supported by a national staff
• Program research and development
• Strong financial position

Brief History of AYSO

The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) was established in the Los Angeles area in 1964 with nine teams. It was the dream of a group of devoted soccer enthusiasts who started the organization in a garage. Today, AYSO has more than 50,000 teams and more than 650,000 players. It also employs 50 people at its National Support and Training Center in Hawthorne, California.

Over the years, AYSO has created many valuable programs and concepts. Most notably, AYSO revolutionized youth sports with its "Everyone Plays" and "Balanced Teams" philosophies. In AYSO, each child who registers is guaranteed to play at least half of every game. To help create evenly matched games, all AYSO players are placed on new or "balanced" teams each year. These decisions are made based on each player's skill level and the overall ability of the team.

AYSO Structure

AYSO's grassroots program starts with a community-based league, called a region. A region can range in size from a few hundred players to several thousand. Each Region is supervised by a Regional Commissioner and a local board of directors. 

A group of regions in close proximity make up an Area. Area Directors are responsible for activities of the Regions in their Area, as well as for Area-wide activities.

For administrative purposes, AYSO divides the country into 14 geographic Sections based on player population. Section Directors oversee activities in their respective Sections.

Section 99 is an administrative section designation for programs outside the United States.

Regions are assigned numbers chronologically with respect to when they were established. Sunnyvale is Region 44, Area A, Section 2. There are currently over 1400 regions chartered. Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Portola Valley, Saratoga, and East Palo Alto are the other regions in Section 2 Area A.

Who Gets to Play?

If we are short on coaches we will place entire teams of children on the waiting list. Children are placed on teams by the following criteria:

1. Children of those who volunteer to coach, referee or take a board position get first priority.
2. Children of those that volunteer for regional support positions, ie. registration worker, field stripers, uniforms, equipment, etc. These do not include the team volunteer positions, snacks, club linesman, banner, party organizer, team picture coordinator, etc.
3. Those that registered during the regular registrations but are not one of the volunteer positions above. It makes no difference which regular registration or the time you registered, assignments are random.
4. And lastly, those non-volunteers that registered late.

Since AYSO is an all volunteer organization, it is imperative that every family volunteers in some capacity. It takes between 400-500 volunteers to run our region each year. We therefore give priority based on those that volunteer.