The process for placing players on to soccer teams is based on a mix of objective data and coach information gathered from multiple sources to ensure placements decisions are as unbiased, transparent and as fair as possible.
Years ago, the placement of soccer players in many town programs consisted of a few coaches getting together and deciding where they thought a player should be placed. These placements had the potential for tremendous bias and put all the power of placement decisions into a few people’s hands.
Today, many programs, including HYS, incorporate systems of evaluation that blend coach feedback with objective data into an open, transparent placement meeting process with significant oversight to ensure that players are not subject to any one or two person’s opinions.
At HYS we go several steps further. For example, during travel evaluations, we pay for and utilize independent professional coaches from the New England Revolution to evaluate the players.
In addition, if a parent who is coordinating an age group has a child who is placed on the first team, HYS policy prohibits that coordinator from also being a head coach, to ensure that too much decision making power isn’t centralized in any one person.