Coaches

All of our coaches are volunteers. Many come back year after year, but we always welcome new ones — first-time parent volunteers and leaders with experience elsewhere both have something valuable to bring.

Who can coach	any parent or volunteer — no experience needed
To sign up	talk to your area rep, then work through the Coach Registration Guide
Requirements	a background check, two online courses, and a one-time Live Scan
Play time	every player plays at least half of every game
Leading big	at +3 goals, level the playing field; keep the margin under +5
Practices	mid-week — your area rep sets fields and times
Questions	your area rep

Registration

Reach out to the area rep for your school, then follow the Coach Registration Guide. It walks through registering in GotSport, the two required courses, the background check, and the Live Scan, with screenshots for each.

Anyone who spends significant time with our players needs to register — not just head coaches, but assistant coaches and regular parent helpers too.

On the Field

Play Time

Section 4:04 of the MAYSL Constitution covers Player Development:

4:04:01 Each player must participate a minimum of 50% of every game. Applies to all age groups and teams.

4:04:02 For U8 and U10 teams, each player must play each field position at least once during the season.

Within US Youth Soccer, the FIFA Laws of the Game are used. See Rules for how we adapt them by age group.

Lead Limits

The league expects its coaches to teach proper sportsmanship to players. When a team is leading by a margin of 3 goals, the coach should incorporate changes into the game to actively level the playing field. All efforts must be made to keep a margin of victory to never more than 5 goals.

Examples of actions that could be taken include:

Switching players’ positions around to enable those who haven’t scored goals the opportunity to do so.
Imposing restrictions on players, such as:
- shooting with “weaker” foot only
- requiring 5 (or more?) consecutive passes (without an opponent touching the ball) before a shot can be taken
- requiring that those passes are completed in the team’s own defensive half
- other combinations that keep your own players’ challenge level up in a way that doesn’t obviously play down to the opposing team

Examples of actions that are not acceptable include:

removing players to play down against a team;
removing a goalkeeper or changing the role of the goalkeeper.

Coaches should make every effort to prepare their players for this type of a situation before it happens. This will allow a team to practice fair play without broadcasting it on the field. A coach can choose a secret word so that players are prepared for the situation or sub in a player who can pass on the instructions to teammates.

We are a recreational league and our priorities are fun, skill development, and encouragement for ALL players.

Offside and the Build-Out Line

We enforce offside rules at U10 and above. Build-out lines are used only on U10 fields to introduce the concept gracefully.

That off-color line halfway between the center and penalty lines marks the offside line for younger players. It gets them thinking about field position in a way that creates fairer team play for both the offense and defense.

How US Soccer describes build-out lines

From Five Things to Know: How Small-Sided Standards Will Change Youth Soccer (they introduce them at U9; we don’t run U9, so we start at U10):

Starting at the U-9 level, games will use build-out lines. A horizontal line drawn from sideline to sideline 14-yards in front of each goal, build-out lines will encourage possession and playing the ball out of the back. When a goalkeeper has the ball in hand or takes a goal kick, the opposing team remains behind the build-out line until the ball is put into play. This line also indicates where offside can be called, as teams cannot be called for offside between the midfield and build-out line. As part of small-sided standards, there will be no offside infraction before the U-9 age group. New rules also ban headers as well as punts and drop kicks from the goalkeeper.

See our Growing with the Game section for more on age group differences.

Concussion and Heat

Learn about concussion symptoms and how to deal with potential head injuries. Print out a copy of the Concussion Recognition Tool that was provided as part of the US Soccer safety course. Familiarize yourself with it and keep it with your field bag or clipboard. You’ll have it available if one of your players has any sign of a head injury.

Heat-related illness is a real risk here in central California. Take a look at the Recognize to Recover Heat Guidelines.

Divisions and League Age

Parents will ask you which team their kid lands on. As of the 2026/27 season, Cal North sets league age by how old a player is on Aug 1 of the season’s starting year, which lines it up roughly with school years.

For a worked example and the age chart, see our league age post. The division breakdown is on the Parent Guide, and US Soccer’s age group calculator will work it out from a birth date.

Practices

At the start of each season, your area rep coordinates fields and times with all of their coaches. Practices are mid-week. Many U4-U6 teams only practice at the beginning of the season; U8 often practices once a week, and U10 and up typically twice.

Guest Players

Yes, you can borrow players for both recreational and travel games. CYSA District 7 outlines the essentials in their Playing Program Handbook, and our rules on guest players cover when to borrow, who’s eligible, and who has to approve it.

Coach Bag

Handy items:

2 extra water bottles: 1 to refill player bottles and another for yourself
2 colors of pinnies – very useful for dividing your team during practice (the ref station will always have some available if needed during a game)
brightly colored cones to create exercise areas or courses during practice
goalie gloves
a ball pump and spare air needles
a ballpoint pen to fill out game cards
a first aid kit

For the first aid kit, US Youth Soccer has a suggested list of first aid items here. Consider printing out their ice or heat? page to keep in the bag as well.

FAQ

What if I can’t make all the games?

An assistant coach or a team parent can cover practices and games if the head coach can’t make it. Don’t let that hold you back from signing up as a coach!

Are there team pictures?

The league provides team photos as part of the registration fee. They’re typically taken in the 2nd half of the season, after the October break, and it always happens on a game day at the YHS game field. Keep an eye on the News page for an announcement each season.