Welcome Parents
Parents are a very important part of West Side Soccer League. You register your kids, volunteer your time, bring your kids to practices and games in all corners of Manhattan's fields, and support your children as they learn how to play soccer and all about being a good teammate, a good sport and a good competitor.
You are part of a very powerful community of parents who care and embrace our philosophies. We applaud you for being here with us and want to do everything we can from registration to trophies and everything in between the best that we possibly can.
Let us know how we are doing and please, check out the parent pages here for more information about important stuff!!
To Do List:
- Register early. This way we can plan the season better... and give you notification earlier of things you want to know. When families register late, it is hard to give you what you want on time... like team assignments, schedules, etc.
- Embrace our core philosophies and protect them by implementing them and by alerting us when they are not being followed.
- Get to know your Division Head. Your Division Head can help you in many ways -- with information, supporting your child and his/her development, with volunteer opportunities, scheduling particularly if you have more than one child playing in the league, and much more. Please do your part to support and compliment the hard work they do on your family's behalf.
- Volunteer for something... anything. Volunteering is a requirement, but you are on the honor system. We want you to want to help the League, even in a small way, because every little bit helps.
NOT To Do List:
- Don't register your child for WSSL unless you intend to commit to getting your child to every game and practice. By signing up and not showing up, you make the soccer program worse for all the kids on your child's team, the team volunteers and the opposing team's kids and volunteers too. It has a ripple effect.
- Don't make team requests. Your requests, while well intentioned and easy to make, interfere with our ability to make balanced teams and are very difficult for our volunteers to make without causing an avalance of problems. See more details on this below.
- Don't let others do all the volunteering. Even taking on a small task at the League, Division or Team level helps a lot. See For Volunteers.
- Don't use verbs on the sidelines. We know it's hard to bridle your enthusiasm as a sports fan, but we do implore you NOT to use VERBS. This way you are not directing your player, but rather watching and supporting them as they learn -- it's a process.
Team Placement Requests
This bears repeating. Every year WSSL receives numerous requests concerning team assignments. These requests are simple to make but they are not easy to grant. WSSL generally does not accept requests, except in the case of twin siblings. Further, WSSL does not accept conditional registrations, such as a registration conditional on a player being on a particular team or with a particular player or not practicing on a certain day.
WSSL reserves the right to cancel the registration of any player if we believe that the parent or guardian is harassing the Division Head about team assignments. Please remember - our Division Heads are volunteers and we ask you to be polite and understanding.
We reserve the right to adjust teams after the season has begun if necessary in order to balance teams. We draft teams to be equal, but teams can become unbalanced if, for example, a strong player drops out after teams have been assigned.
Publicity Policy and Waiver
By registering a child for West Side Soccer League, parents and/or guardians agree and consent that photographs and/or videotapes of the WSSL teams and their members may be used, from time to time, for publicity and promotional purposes. This release includes, but is not limited, to websites and other social media accounts maintined by WSSL, commercials, adverisements, press releases, electronic media and articles. It covers parents, family members and others who may not have signed a WSSL registration or volunteer form, and all such persons waive any rights to compensation. In using such photographs or vidoetapes, no player will be individually identified by WSSL at any time, without the express written permission of that player's parent or guardian.