This is the place to quickly find “any and all” information concerning Norcal Premier Soccer. Information about the League and programs will be filed, even double or triple filed alphabetically. Often, but not always,the information will be presented in question and answer format. 

As this section develops, Norcal invites comments concerning inconsistencies, inaccuracies, other information needing to be added, information needing updating, and what should be deleted as no longer relevant. Over time, this will become a voluminous section, but no matter what the size – the information will be as easy to find as A, B, C. 

Please send ideas for what should be added to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject “A” to “Z”

THE “A” TO “Z”

 
| A | | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

A

Age group chart - 2006 

B

Behavior, Parent and Coaches:

Parent Behavior: All of us deeply involved in youth soccer know that the “common stories” concerning the amount of poor behavior on the part of parents and coaches are huge exaggerations. The great majority of parents are sensitive to the feelings of the players and the reputation of our sport in general. That said, even one unseemly incident is one too many, and continuing problems should not be tolerated.               

We ask that all adults in our Clubs be proactively  involved in discussions and policies that eliminate any behaviors that are destructive to the highest ideals of our wonderful sport. The banning of parents from games is obviously a final and extreme step, but that last resort has been effectivelyemployed by coaches and Clubs in the past.

Behavior, Player: 

Player Behavior:Overall, the sportsmanship at Norcal games has been excellent! However, there have been isolated examples of  foul and abusive language and even violence. Norcal is very concerned about foul and abusive language because it is well established that when it is tolerated  - the next step is often violence.               

The collective reputation of Norcal, our 125 Norcal Clubs, hundreds of teams, thousands of players and many thousands of parents and fans is more important than any small group of players. It is important that players have the self control and discipline to match their soccer skills. Norcal will not tolerate players who exhibit a lack of self control and discipline with displays of foul and abusive language or violence.               

All games with reports of foul and abusive language and/or violence will be investigated and strong action taken against the offending players.               

Parents and coaches should feel free to directly report any  actions by players that bring discredit to our sport. You may rest assured that your report will be appreciated and investigated.

C

Changing Games on Schedules - see this article.

Club Reports form Norcal (see reports)

Club Responsibility: All Norcal member Clubs must be responsible for and know the team(s) that play under their Club.  No Club may sponsor other teams(s) that are not Norcal members without first contacting the Norcal Administration and insuring that the teams and clubs are in good standing with Norcal.

Comments: Norcal welcomes your suggestions for new programs or improvements for thosealready organized. Please send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Communicating:Last year, many managers traveled the extra mile to communicate with teams that did not respond. This caused a lot of uncertainty and extra work for the mostly diligent teams. At the time, Norcal decided that because at least some of the problems were caused by the website switchover, they would not “sanction” the non-responding teams.  That will not be the case during the 2007 season.

Conditions for future competition in League (Rule 104 ) 

CORRECT (EXACT) SCORES - see scores

D

Data Bank /Database , Norcal :Norcal has an established system in place to protect the intergrity of the information stored in its “data bank”. All Club adminstrators are asked to update their Norcal Club and team pages on a systematic basis and to insurethat the information is entered correctly. Norcal will send out periodic remindersto the Norcal Adminstrator(s) and  Representaive(s) that this needs to be done.

Divisions for competition (Rule 202 )

Doubleheaders: The scheduling of doubleheaders requires special attention, cooperation and consideration. To enable home teams to have the flexibility to arrange “considerate”  schedules for teams traveling up to 200 miles, Norcal asks that these games be scheduled before any others. The ideal times for doubleheader games is no earlier  than 10am and no later than 2 or 3pm. This avoids having teams feel the need, as happened last year, to stay in expensive motels for 8am or 5pm games

Doubleheaders, How and why they work? 

Norcal uses doubleheaders extensively to decrease overall travel time between games.       Two teams usually, but not always, from the same area travel to four games with both teams playing an am game in towns not more than an hour apart. After the am game, they reverse towns and play a second game in the pm. An example, am games: Placer vs Merced and Sac U vs California Odyssey; pm games:Placer vs Odyssey and Sac U vs Merced. By playing two games instead of one, the Sacramento teams saved 350 miles of travel. At 15 cents a mile for 5 cars that is a saving of more than $250.00 for each team! 

E

Eligibility see this article.

F

Field, Information U9-U10 see this article.

Fields, Quality: 

Quality of fields:  It is not considerate, and not in the best interest of our League, to have high quality and serious teams travel up to 200 miles and then be expected  to play soccer on a sub-standard field.               

Your team or Club must have enough high quality fields available (minimum one field for each 8 teams entered) to guarantee that your home games will be played on decent fields. To ease field problems, as much as possible, Norcal will try to schedule games so that about half of your teams will always be away on any given day.               

This year, Norcal will accept “protests” based on poor fields, and if investigation reveals the field was sub-par -  will consider awarding a forfeit to the traveling team.

Forfeit - Forfeits are to be recorded as 3-0

Forms - see the NorCal Forms Directory

G

Games Changing on Schedules - see this article.

Games, times for Spring League (see times)

Good standing, team in (Rules 104 )

Guest Players see this article.

I 

INSURANCE Once players, coaches, volunteers and league officials have completed US Club Soccer’s registration process, they are fully insured.  Certificates of insurance are available upon request for both leagues and individual league teams.  Players and staff on league teams are given passcards, which provide insurance coverage until the end of the current registration year.  While a player, coach or staff member holds a valid passcard, they are fully insured for league play, indoor play and participation in any open event including US Club Soccer’s National Cup.  See more information on insurance at  http://www.usclubsoccer.org/main.aspx?sec_id=14&guid=e36819cd-8c73-4973-ab94-fb22cb47ede1 

M

Managers, Team:

Team Managers: Last year, Norcal benefited from the hard work and dedication of literally hundreds of Team Managers.  They  are essential  to the smooth operation of a League of this type. Every team needs a Team Manager who understands the importance of working  cooperatively to reach decisions helpful to and considerate of the other teams.

N

Noncompliance, Team in  (Rule 104 )

P

Problems?  If you have any type of problem with your Norcal experience, we want to hear            from you! For example, we have received complaints of scores being entered that are differentfrom the actual score. Another, and probably the most frequent problem, has been teamsnot responding to requests for scheduling information in a timely manner. Both of these situations are unacceptable, except, perhaps, under extremely unusual circumstances, and there have beena few of those. But it is our goal, to have your Norcal season as “problem free” as possible! Please email all problems to Shawna Ziemer at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Player Release - Having trouble having a player released by the last team or Club? Use the form on the backside of the US Club page – Player Release Form – and have the family complete it and send to US Club Soccer.  They will then contact the Club!

Quality of League, Overall

Striving for Quality: Many of the highest quality players in Northern California play in Norcal.  We know they will benefit from a League that strives to promote the highest quality of coaching, managing, refereeing, sportsmanship, fields, and general organization. We compliment the many Clubs that are making serious efforts to reach higher levels in these areas and will offer any help to Clubs wishing to begin that never ending journey towards excellence.

R

Referees, Quality

 Quality of Referees: Almost 30 years ago, a major German youth coach  told an American player and his fellow campers who were complaining about poor referees, that when he and his fellow players became better players, they would have better referees. I think we now have a lot of those better players and they deserve the best refereeing available. Please take those extra steps needed to provide the best referees available in your area.

Reports from Norcal, Club

If your Club would like either a report on all of your Home and Away games; or one listing
all of your Club Contacts, please contact Tony at webmaster@norcalpremier,com

Responsibility of Clubs: All Norcal member Clubs must be responsible for and know the team(s) that play under their Club.  No Club may sponsor other teams(s) that are not Norcal members without first contacting the Norcal Administration and insuring that the teams and clubs are in good standing with Norcal.

Rules of Play (NorCal State Cup 2007) 

S

SCORES, POSTING CORRECT (EXACT) : It is very important that our website and data bank contain correct information, including scores of games.  If we allow a casual attitude for a high scoring game that has little impact, we might soon find that same attitude about a score that is important. Please post exact scores! 

Seeding of teams: HOW THE NORCAL “SEEDING’ PROCESS WORKS:

Careful and proper “seeding” of teams is at the heart of the Norcal mission to provide individual players and teams the opportunity to play and develop their talents. The “seeding” process will be under constant review, and we invite you to contact the Chairpersons to offer your comments and suggestions.    For seeding purposes, the Norcal playing area has been divided into the following sections.

1. Marin, Sonoma, and Napa Counties
2. Sacramento Area
3. Modesto, Stockton, Manteca Area
4. Fresno, Madera, Merced Area
5. Sacramento to San Francisco Highway 80 Corridor
6. San Jose Area
7. San Mateo, San Francisco Counties
8. Highways 580 & 980 corridor – Oakland to San Jose
9. Livermore, Pleasanton, Danville, Concord, Lamorinda area  

THE SEEDING PROCESS: 

1. Upon receipt of the applications by the chairpersons of the “seeding committee” they will be sent to knowledgeable soccer coaches and managers in the teams playing area.
2. Every team will be given the opportunity to express their opinion concerning their own seeding.
3. Their recommendations and observations will be forwarded to the Chairpersons of the Boy’s (Gabe Rood) and Girl’s Divisions (Vinny Cortezzo).
4. The “seeding” committee will receive copies of all of the applications and the reports from the local experts.
5. The “seeding” committee will conference and make their decisions by majority rule. 

SCHEDULING  

Dear Norcal,
Our team has not decided if we are going to participate  in the Norcal Spring League, it depends how many times and how far we have to travel.  We are located in El Dorado County (near Sacramento). I heard that Sac United and River City are going to participate?  What other teams in the greater Sacro area are going to participate? How many games does the league include? Do you know approximately how many games we will have to travel further than Sacramento?  Do you know the furthest we will have to travel?                                Thanks, Dear El Dorado County,

Thanks for asking that important question while you still have time to withdraw before the schedules are finalized. I plan to send your question and my response to all of the other teams entered in Spring League. A lot depends on  in what group your team ends up seeded and the geographical configuration of that group. The Sacramento Area already has a lot of teams entered – 14 from Placer United and 8 from Sacramento United – 36 from all Sacramento Area Clubs,  but is also 100 miles distant from the other main soccer areas –  S.F. Bay Area, East Bay, S.F. Peninsula/San Jose area, Fresno, and North Bay.Overall, the Bay Area teams do the least traveling although last year a few made two trips to Sacramento.

If there are 12 teams (11 games) in your division which is quite common, with 3 from the Sacramento area you would probably play 3 doubleheaders and 5 single games against the other Sacramento area teams and maybe a team or 2 from Modesto or some other area. At least one of the doubleheaders would be home and two might be away. You would have 2 games in the Sacramento area against the other area teams, and probably another single game. You would play on 8 days and have 3 bye days. Ideally, you will have four home (Sacramento Area) days and four away, but in a few cases last year it turned out 5 home and 3 away, or vice versa.

You can go on the Norcal website under Archives 2006 - Spring League and check out some of the actual schedules from last year and see what type of travel was required for the Sacramento teams. However, I can tell you that under the best of scheduling circumstances in a 12 team division, Sacramento area teams travel more than any other area, except  Fresno where single teams sometimes have to play their home games in the Modesto area. If there are two Fresno teams in a division at least four of the other teams in that division will make a trip to Fresno for doubleheaders.

The Sacramento area Clubs are strong supporters of Norcal because it gives their teams the opportunity to play the best teams in Northern California – comparative to their own strength. However, it obviously requires more travel to play in a Northern California  League rather than an Area league – especially for a team 100 miles away from many of the stronger teams.    

The Norcal scheduling process is designed to use doubleheaders as a way to limit travel for your area teams and those traveling to Sacramento.From the feedback we have received, the great majority of teams feel that the level of the competition provided in Norcal is worth the extra travel time and expense.

Scheduling of Games: Last year, under the most difficult circumstances, some managers had their schedules virtually completed before their first game. Other teams caused problems throughout the season due to poor communications.  Following the example of the exemplary managers of last year, we have instituted a time-line for scheduling that must be followed.               

Learning from the successes of last year, Norcal does not want “one person” scheduling all of the Club games without input from both the home and away teams. A few phone calls or emails between team managers can create schedules that meet at least some of the needs of our busy Norcal coaches.The blanket approach  is appropriate for “home leagues”, but not for a League with teams traveling long distances and an organization  that needs and stresses cooperation between Clubs

Scheduling timeline: Ages U10 – U13, Spring League

Scheduling time-line:  Premier and Gold:
March 31st:             All doubleheaders scheduling finalized and on Norcal website

March 31st:              First two games scheduling finalized and on Norcal website

April 21st:                All games scheduled and posted on Norcal website            

Scheduling time-line:  Silver and Bronze               

April 7th:                All doubleheaders scheduling finalized and on Norcal website               

April 7th:                First two games scheduling finalized and on Norcal website           

April 28th:                All games scheduled and posted on Norcal website

Suggestions:

Norcal welcomes your suggestions for new programs or improvements for those already organized. Please send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Sunday Play

In spring league can games be scheduled on a Sunday if both teams agree to it?
 
Yes – if both teams agree,  but I know that some teams will not agree and would prefer to play the games on Saturdays set aside. If your team is planning to play many, most or all games on Sunday – from past expereince I think it would be best for that team not  play Norcal Spring League. We do not want to accept teams that will create mutliple scheduling problems for all of the teams in their division. I have seen it work where the team has 1 or 2 games they wish to play on  a Sunday, but basically Norcal has set up a Saturday League, and that is what we advertise and that is what the team have a right to expect.
 

T

Team in Good Standing (Rule 104 )

Termination of team (Rule 103 )  

Territories (Rule 102 )    

Time of Games, Spring League

U9 play days will be 3 games of 30 minutes, unless otherwise noted.
U10 will play 2x30 minutes with a 10-minute halftime and a size four ball
U11 will play 2x30 minutes with a 10-minute halftime and a size four ball
U12 will play 2x35 minutes with a 10-minute halftime and a size five ball
U13 will play 2x35 minutes with a 10-minute halftime
U14 will play 2x35 minutes with a 10-minute halftime
U15 will play 2x40 minutes with a 10-minute halftime
U16 will play 2x40 minutes with a 10-minute halftime
U17 will play 2x40 minutes with a 10-minute halftime

Transfer of Players see this article.