Team Weston,

Thank you for your patience as we prepared to open registration for our Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade programs.  The delay was due to the substantial changes to the rules for practicing and playing soccer that the state and Mass Youth Soccer have made recently in response to the rising COVID-19 case counts in Massachusetts.  These changes have led to extensive WSC Board discussions, a survey of families with players in the 3rd-8th grade, and the decision this weekend to withdraw from league play with other towns and run our Fall 2020 season as an in-town program.  We think that playing in-town gives us more control over the implementation of complex safety policies, and our families told us in overwhelming numbers that playing in-town this fall made them feel safer.  We can’t have fun without peace of mind.

We share that background with you to give you an idea of our approach to soccer in the Pre-K thru 2nd Grade programs this fall before you sign up.  We’ll prioritize safety, emphasize fun, and communicate proactively about what makes you feel most comfortable.

We’re thrilled to be working with Proformance as our coaching partner – Proformance has drawn rave reviews from our 2nd graders for several years and was supposed to run our whole Pre-k thru 2nd Grade program in the spring before the pandemic forced us to shut down.  We can’t wait to have them on the field with our young players.  Proformance has extensive experience coaching very young players all summer at camps and clinics and their coaches are well drilled in all of the safety precautions that will be so important this fall.

Here are some of the rules you should be aware of for Fall 2020.  These are mandatory state rules.  We can tighten them at our discretion, but we may not loosen them:

• Players must have masks looped around their ears at all times
  • They have the discretion to raise them when in close proximity to others and lower them when not.
  • If our young players cannot manage this process of adjusting masks our options include
    • Requiring masks to be raised for the full session
    • Running distanced sessions that keep the children far enough apart that they can keep their masks down (they would still have to have the masks “on”, looped around their ears, per state requirements)
    • We would expect to communicate with families re: your preferences about the tradeoff between distanced sessions and the need to raise masks when close to other players.

• No Deliberate Contact
  • Players must eliminate deliberate contact and minimize collisions.
  • Some incidental contact or proximity is unavoidable unless we run a fully distanced session, and the state deems that occasional incidental contact acceptable from a health perspective, but it is to be minimized/kept short.

• Please note that weekday training sessions and Sunday Game Day sessions are now spaced 20 minutes apart in compliance with state requirements.

Sunday Game Day

• Fans of K-2 Sunday Game Day will note that players of that age find the ball to have strangely magnetic properties that draw them all to gather close around it.  This tendency is a challenge in the context of the “No Deliberate Contact” rule.
• For this reason, the WSC Board has decided that Sunday Game Days will begin as a 2nd fun and challenging training session run by Proformance, not as competitive games; we will work with families in the early stages of the season to gauge comfort with and feasibility of moving to games.
• Please note that IF we move to games on Sunday Game Day we are now required to have a designated and SafeSport-certified coach for each team – don’t miss your chance to volunteer when you register!!  K-2 Age Director Mark Ferris will be recruiting, nudging and hand-holding throughout the process.
• This is not merely WSC policy, this is a legal requirement - our players CANNOT play games on Sunday without a SafeSport-certified coach to take charge of their team.  All of our coaches in older age groups are SafeSport-certified.  It’s a bit of work.  Our young players are worth it!

It’s important to understand that you’re not signing up for a specific program that looks like those of prior years; we can’t commit today to exactly what sessions and how Sunday Game Day will evolve.  We don’t know how young children will react to the required constraints, and we don’t know (yet) what you will all feel is best.

We can, however, commit to being focused on fun, development, and above all on peace of mind, and to communicating with you about how we think we can best achieve that goal.  We’re confident that we and Proformance can create a memorable experience for your young players.

Registration for the Fall 2020 season for our younger players is now open, and will remain open through Friday, 4 September.  Please note that we will begin play on Tuesday, 8 September.  Players may join later, without a late fee, but the deadline in order to be ready for the full season is 4 September.

As always, and especially in such unusual conditions, we welcome your questions and comments.  E-mail us at jpower11@me.com and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Welcome back to soccer, team.  It’s about time!!

JP

John Power

President, Weston Soccer Club

Jpower11@ me.com