The Upper House (UH) program provides a developmental structure, CYSA Division 3 or intermediate level, that gives advanced U10 through U12 players and teams a chance to experience a more competitive level of soccer than is offered in our recreational program. Division 3 soccer is sometimes refered to as "select soccer" because team are allowed to select their players via tryouts.

 

What Upper House Offers

Upper House offers all the benefits of Division 3 soccer (tryouts, FIFA youth rules, 3 paid refs, tournaments, etc) with the important distinction that all regular season Upper House games remain local to San Francisco. This latter point is a defining characteristic separating Upper House and other Division 3 leagues such as Redwood League which are commonly referred to as "Travel Leagues."

Upper House is based on the idea that teams play competitive soccer locally and then choose to travel to tournaments at each team's discretion. Tournaments provide the outlet to travel and an important way to test a team's skills against a wider set of opponents. Coaches can use tournaments as a way of establishing goals for the season (e.g. a team builds up all season using regular season games to prepare for a big season ending tournament), for breaking up the season by interspersing regular season games with tournaments, or simply for injecting some fun into the season and building the team cohesion that comes with traveling to a distant location and spending the weekend together in a hotel.

This kind of balance, a local competitive season punctuated by tournaments, allows teams more control over their schedule and is a far smaller travel burden for individual players and parents. It also allows for different teams to set their own development pace or goals: there are some teams which choose not to go to any tournaments at all and other teams which choose to go to three tournaments or more per season.

For players and teams which began with the PAL and Vikings recreational leagues Upper House provides a relatively natural transition to competitive soccer. The fields remain local, the registration process is all but identical, and Upper House has organized Jamborees to introduce teams to tournaments.

Key Features

Some of the key features and advantages of Upper House include:

Tryouts

Unlike our recreational divisions, Upper House allows teams to hold tryouts or otherwise select players for their roster.

Coaches design and implement tryouts themselves. They have full freedom to decide what kind of tryout process to use, or whether to have one at all.

A great advantage of tryouts for individual players is that it allows them easier access/movement to a great many teams. This is particularly the case in the spring when Upper House hosts tryouts in preparation for the fall season/registration for a great many Upper House teams on one set of fields over two weekends -- allowing players the opportunity to shop many teams in a short time and in one place.

While some teams move as complete teams to Upper House, there are many other teams which are formed simply by which kids show up to tryouts (as opposed to the school-based model that many recreational teams are formed under). Many other teams fall in between, with a core group of kids from an original team and new players added via tryouts.

Division 3 Soccer

Upper House follows typical Division 3 playing rules, standard FIFA youth rules governing substitutions, penalties, game length, etc.

All games include three paid referees: a center referee and two line referees.

Local

A key characteristic of Upper House is that it allows children to play competitive soccer within San Francisco district, without having to travel the long distances on weekends that travel teams must. For families who can't or don't want to travel out of district this can be critical.

All Upper House games are scheduled and posted at the beginning of the season, i.e. parents don't have to put their lives on hold waiting for last minute weekend game scheduling which can be the case with travel leagues.

 

Two Practices/Week

San Francisco teams are eligible for two free practice fields per week.

Year Round

Because the Upper House operates in the fall and the spring season it offers competitive teams year round Division 3 soccer. The existence of a local San Francisco futsal league, Jose Coronado Memorial Futsal League, rounds this out with a winter program of futsal that runs between the end of the Upper House fall season and the beginning of the Upper House spring season.

Tournaments

Upper House also introduces players and teams to tournaments. All Upper House teams are eligable to join CYSA Division 3 tournaments and are actively encouraged to do so. At the end of each fall season thus far the Upper House has been able to host a Jamboree with area travel teams as a way of introducing Upper House teams to tournaments in a familiar, local environment.

Upper House teams have participated in numerous area tournaments as well as the regional Association Cup. For the end of the fall 2009 season we had seven teams participating in the Association Cup, in U10, U11 and U12 divisions.

Upper House So Far

Upper House began in the fall of 2008 with U10 and U11 divisions for girls and for boys. It has operated in the fall and spring seasons ever since and begins its third year (fifth season) in the fall of 2010.

The Upper House has expanded with each year, growing to incorporate U12 divisions (boys and girls) in fall 2009, and with U13 divisions (boys and girls) planned for fall 2010. The numbers of teams have grown apace, with 24 teams in the inaugural fall 2008 season and 33 teams the following fall 2009. Each spring season sees an increase in team numbers as well, as the Upper House is joined by area travel teams. Previous seasons' team lists are preserved here; or click here for a list of the most recent season's team list, fall 2009.

Each season has seen new teams joining Upper House, not simply in the entry level U10 division but in many of the older divisions. Upper House teams come from three primary sources: (1) teams that have been formed specifically for Upper House via tryouts; (2) teams that have moved from the Vikings or PAL recreational leagues, often with a tryouts process that modified the team slightly or has merged two or more teams to create a new Upper House team and a new recreational team(s); (3) travel teams that like the structure Upper House provides.

How to Join Upper House

Teams interested in joining Upper House may contact the SF Vikings office by email or by phone: (415) 504-8131.

Players looking for teams can contact team coaches directly by going to the Upper House list of registered teams. They can also go to this page to enter their name and contact information in a database so that interested Upper House coaches to contact them.

Teams looking for players can likewise register on this page so that players may contact them directly.

Meeting for Prospective U9 Coaches

In February, Upper House will hold a meeting for all interested U9 coaches to answer questions about the transition from a U9 recreational division to U10 Upper House. We will cover topics such as tryouts, registration, and planning.

Upper House-wide Tryouts

Each winter, in late February or early March, the Upper House provides fields for teams to use for tryouts for the following fall season. This is a good opportunity for teams joining Upper House to hold tryouts. It's also a good opportunity for individual players interested in moving from recreational soccer to competitive soccer to shop for a team.