Littlestown Soccer

The Littlestown AYSO is offering two walk-up registration dates for our Spring 2012 season. Join us in person at the Littlestown Library to register for the coming season of fun and educational youth soccer.

• Thursday, Jan. 26th 5 - 7 p.m.
• Saturday, Feb. 4 from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Registration for our Spring 2012 season is now open. We may all be wearing coats today and thinking about snow in our future but Spring is just around the corner. Please consider joining us this Spring for another season of fun, entertaining, and educational soccer.

This Saturday and Sunday mark the official end to our season. Our fields are open and ready for play. U12 parents, please speak with your coach, as your game may be played on our U14 field depending on field conditions. U10 parents, please be careful in the U10 parking area as it remains very muddy.

U8 parents, don't forget our U8 tournament this Sunday. This special event will feature 4 games for each team (three group play and a final). To help us with field conditions, we are moving the U8 fields to what is typically our U14 fields on Sunday only. Look right as you enter the parking lot.

Tickets for our Fundraising Auction and Spaghetti Dinner are now for sale. This event will take place this coming Friday, October 28th at the Littlestown VFW. Doors open at 6 pm. The auction begins at 7pm.

Your coach should now be selling tickets to the event. Tickets cost $5 in advance and $7 at the door. If you haven't yet purchased a ticket, please consider purchasing one in advance. We need to get a good head count to purchase food before the event. Please leave the filled out stub with your coach and bring the large portion of the ticket to the event. There will be door prizes. Team parents, if your team needs additional tickets, please contact Jenn Wootton (jenn@thewoottons.com). We'll get them to you.

I've been very impressed by the creativity and generosity of our parents. This growing list of auction items contains a variety of awesome items. We have ski packages, sports collectibles, entertainment, jewelry, food items, manual labor, photo shoots, gift cards to local businesses, and more up for bid. If your team hasn't had a chance to donate, there's still time. Please contact Jenn Wootton (jenn@thewoottons.com) with any donations or questions.

Please join us this Friday.

The annual Fall Harvest Classic is this weekend! Nearly all the information below is on the tournament website, provided it is working (we've been hearing a few complaints), but here's some some quick questions and answers for those of us heading to Greencastle this weekend for some soccer.

Where is it?
The Fall Harvest Classic takes place in Greencastle this season. The address is 12315 Grant Shook Rd in Greencastle, PA. Here's a diagram of the field layout.

When is it?
The tournament takes place on October 15th and 16th. Typically, participation on the 16th depends on your team's success on Saturday, i.e. the top teams advance to play on Sunday.

When do we play?
Please take a look at the attached schedule, which is also provided on our website. Teams must check in at the tournament headquarters tent 1 hour before your first game in uniform. Coaches must be present for the mandatory coach meeting at 7:15 am on Saturday. Referees must be present for the referee meeting at 7:30 am.

What is this about volunteers?
The Fall Harvest Classic is run by area 13, the area that represents the Littlestown AYSO. As such, much like our organization, it is completely run by volunteers. In fact, volunteer participation is required for us to recover our tournament deposit ($150/team). Each team is required to provide a couple of volunteers for the tournament for odd jobs, such as field lining, parking help, or field monitoring. These jobs should not conflict with seeing your child play their games. Please volunteer to help us with this important part of running the tournament. Note that volunteers should check in at the Tournament Headquarters to ensure that team volunteer assignments have been covered. Please check in to ensure we get credit for your hard work!

What else?
There are a couple of rules you should know. Parking on the grass in not allowed (don't get towed!). Grills are not allowed on the premises. Outside of that, we expect to gather as a region in an area that is yet to be determined. Ask your coach. We'll likely be discussing the location at the coach meeting first thing in the morning.

Our fields reopen today on a conditional basis. They remain very wet - the rain has given us no breaks in the past month - but there are dry spots open for practice and, finally, a touch of sunshine in the forecast.

Please be patient with your coaches for the next couple of days as they search for a dry spot to practice. There will be a lot of shuffling as we attempt to find dry grass, forcing teams to share fields or move entirely.

U6/U8 parents, heads up! Please take a look your game schedule as it's been changed considerably. We've moved a lot of things around. Here's a short summary:

• Weekday games have essentially been removed. If you had one scheduled for early this week, you probably do not have a mid-week game any longer. Please check the schedule. Mid-week games will likely be limited for makeup games due to coach schedules this season (or for any additional rain makeups -- we aren't out of the woods yet).
• Sunday afternoon games have been introduced to make up for our rainy September. We understand that Sunday may be inconvenient for many parents but we don't want to short-change the kids and cause them to lose a chance to play soccer. We want to get every game in that we can.
• Our popular U8 soccer playoffs is now officially scheduled for Sunday 10/30 (rain date of Sunday 11/6). This appears as a slate of games on your schedule but is actually a tournament, which will take up all of Sunday afternoon (3 group play games and a final match for all teams based on results - this final game is not listed). This was tremendously popular in the Spring and we are really looking forward to doing it again this season. More information will be coming in a week or so.

Due to the heavy rains, the Littlestown AYSO fields are closed tomorrow, October 1st.  All home games, including all U6 and U8 games, are canceled.

If your child is playing at another region, assume it is open until you hear otherwise.

Reminder: pictures are this Tuesday and Thursday. Please show up in uniform at your scheduled day and time to capture some memories of this Fall soccer season.

Both apparel order and sub sale orders are due soon. Apparel order forms are due this Saturday, September 17th. Sub sale forms are due on Monday September 19th.

Are you looking for a specific field? Here's a map of the Muddy Cleat Soccer Fields with our Fall 2011 field layout.  Here's a map of our parking lot.


View Littlestown AYSO Soccer Fields in a larger map

The Fall 2011 season begins for coaches and region volunteers this week and for our players next week. Here is a list of upcoming events for the next few weeks.

• August 16th at 6:30pm - Coaches meeting
• August 17th - 20th - Players/Parents informed of their team, practice nights, and coach
• August 17th at 7:00pm - Board Meeting
• August 22nd - First week of practice

Registration for the Littlestown's Fall 2011 soccer season is coming to a close. This is just a quick reminder that our final walk up registration date is this Saturday, July 23rd from 9am - 11am. If you'd like to register in person, this is your last chance.

Online registration will continue to be open until July 29th. Registration after July 29th will incur a $30 late fee. Don't miss out on a chance to register your son or daughter to play soccer this Fall season.

Important Upcoming Dates:

• August 6th - Field Setup (volunteers needed!)
• August 22nd - First week of practice
• September 10th to November 5th - Fall Soccer Season 2011