U11 Mini to Youth Transition
9 a-side football currently commences at the Under 11 age group. This age group from U11 to U 18 is known as Youth Football. Under 10 and below is known as Mini Soccer.
In the local Surrey leagues 9 a-side football is held predominantly on a Sunday, as is 11 a-side which is played from U13.
Another reason for moving to Sundays is that as the children get older the number of school fixtures and other school activities on a Saturday increases. FA rules prohibit the participation of boys in more than one game per day and the schools fixtures have to take priority. This means in practice it gets increasingly difficult to juggle league fixtures with school commitments. This becomes a nightmare for parents, managers, players and league fixture secretaries alike. As an example our one of our U10 teams a couple of years ago who had a completely committed and premier division winning squad only
had 4 Saturdays between August and December when all 10 boys were available.
Oxshott Royals recognises and supports boys participating in a variety of sports so that they can see what they enjoy most. We are aware that many of the boys play rugby on Sundays for example.
Unfortunately the only workable option for Oxshott Royals is for U11 football to move to Sundays. Indeed, the club positively encourages the movement and formation of Sunday teams at mini level for those boys that do not participate in other sports on a Sunday. We recognise that this means some boys have to make a choice at this time between football and rugby and naturally we hope that the majority (if not all!) will remain with Oxshott Royals. However we are realistic and accept that some will leave us at this age. To those that leave us we wish them well and hope they take good memories of fun, sportsmanship and friendships made over a period of up to 5 years for those that started in our Saturday morning Feeder Group at OVSC.
We will not allow under any circumstances 9 or 11 a-side football on a Saturday due to the difficulties this has caused in previous transitional years.
We believe the key to avoiding any misunderstandings is complete transparency over the issues that drive us to Sunday football supported by clear and consistent communication between Oxshott Royals, its Managers, players and parents.
In the local Surrey leagues 9 a-side football is held predominantly on a Sunday, as is 11 a-side which is played from U13.
Another reason for moving to Sundays is that as the children get older the number of school fixtures and other school activities on a Saturday increases. FA rules prohibit the participation of boys in more than one game per day and the schools fixtures have to take priority. This means in practice it gets increasingly difficult to juggle league fixtures with school commitments. This becomes a nightmare for parents, managers, players and league fixture secretaries alike. As an example our one of our U10 teams a couple of years ago who had a completely committed and premier division winning squad only
had 4 Saturdays between August and December when all 10 boys were available.
Oxshott Royals recognises and supports boys participating in a variety of sports so that they can see what they enjoy most. We are aware that many of the boys play rugby on Sundays for example.
Unfortunately the only workable option for Oxshott Royals is for U11 football to move to Sundays. Indeed, the club positively encourages the movement and formation of Sunday teams at mini level for those boys that do not participate in other sports on a Sunday. We recognise that this means some boys have to make a choice at this time between football and rugby and naturally we hope that the majority (if not all!) will remain with Oxshott Royals. However we are realistic and accept that some will leave us at this age. To those that leave us we wish them well and hope they take good memories of fun, sportsmanship and friendships made over a period of up to 5 years for those that started in our Saturday morning Feeder Group at OVSC.
We will not allow under any circumstances 9 or 11 a-side football on a Saturday due to the difficulties this has caused in previous transitional years.
We believe the key to avoiding any misunderstandings is complete transparency over the issues that drive us to Sunday football supported by clear and consistent communication between Oxshott Royals, its Managers, players and parents.