For the first time, in 2008, WWPSA will conduct an Opening Day for the Fall Recreational Soccer program.

Opening Day will have the primary purpose of seeking to create equity between teams in all Leagues from 2nd Grade thru the Senior Leagues.  On Opening Day, all players in each League will participate in a 90-minute program which will be managed by independent professional soccer trainers from our Recreational Training Partner, ProActive Sports & Soccer.  The professional trainers will evaluate each player with a view to giving them a broad player rating.  These evaluations will be used to create equal teams. 

This is not a tryout.  All players who register for Fall Recreational Soccer will participate and will be assigned to a team.  The purpose of this event is only to independently evaluate players to ensure that they are divided as equally as possible between teams.  While this approach does not guarantee complete equity, we anticipate that we will have a much greater opportunity to develop teams of equal strength.  This will benefit all players and hopefully lead to many closely matched teams and competitive games.

Important: Please note that League Managers will continue to be responsible for team formation and will also continue to have the discretion to take into account special requests. The only difference from prior years is that the player evaluations they use to help create teams will not come from prior year coaches but from independent professional evaluators using a single standard evaluation system.  This will ensure that they have evaluations for all participating players and will help create teams of equal strength. In addition, on Opening Day, most families should be aware of potential conflicts for the Fall season; this information will also be collected and taken into account. 

Opening Day will take place on Saturday 6th September.  The schedule is outlined below. In the event of a rainout, Opening Day activities will be rescheduled to take place on Sunday 7th and Monday 8th September (rainout schedule to be advised).

In addition to the primary goal of developing equal teams, Opening Day will also provide the following benefits:

• Late registrants will have a better chance of being accommodated
• League Managers will have a reduced workload
• Preparation for the season will no longer be concentrated in August, the very moment when volunteer League Managers, Coaches and players are often away on vacation.
• Player’s fall schedules will be better known by this date allowing us to address more of the practice conflicts that inevitably arise.
• Equipment bags will be distributed to volunteer coaches on Opening Day
• Parent sessions will also be offered on Opening Day

We hope that you will support this change.  Based on an early Labor Day and late Thanksgiving, we are fortunate to have 12 weekends for our Fall Season.  We believe that investing the first weekend for the benefit of achieving balanced and fairly constructed teams is worth the time.  In addition, the activities delivered by our professional trainers will be fun for the players.

Opening Day Schedule

Friday 5th September	Conover
6:00pm	Girls Senior
7:30pm	Boys Senior
Saturday 6th September	Conover
9:00am	Boys Intermediate
	Girls Intermediate
10:30am	Girls 5th/6th
	Boys 5th
12:00noon	Boys 3rd
	Girls 4th
1:30pm	Girls 3rd
	Boys 6th
3:00pm	Girls 2nd
	Boys 4th
4:30pm	Boys 2nd