Bill Meyer League - Winter Travel Recreational Teams

First, and most important, a league must ‘rent’ fields typically from their city, or through a local school. The league has no control over the fields regarding the field operations. The city/school makes the decision whether to rent/not rent, or have the field to be open, or closed. If a decision to close a field has to be considered, the decision may be delayed until shortly before the usage date, to ensure that there is a need to close a field. Some decisions may be made earlier, from what appears to be a formidable weather forecast.

A common question can arise, when it comes to rain and field closures. A party may state ‘the weather is so nice now, why are the fields still closed?’ There are several items that factor into a decision to close a field. Some of these factors are:

·       The predicted upcoming weather

·       The type of grass

·       The composition of the soil

·       The slope, or lack of a slope, of the field, for determining how quickly the field will drain and dry

We will use Burmuda grass as an example of the grass type, which is in a good soil composition, with good drainage capabilities.

Bermudagrass forms a tight-knit, resilient playing surface with lots of lateral stems (rhizomes and stolons) growing on or near the surface. Bermudagrass wear tolerance is great during the summer and early fal, but it can be easily overused in late fall or early spring when the grass is dormant (brown). If the above-ground foliage is worn off during heavy fall play however, it is not likely to recuperate in the spring.

When you have steady rain for many days in a row, the ground gets very soft and the mud goes deep. It becomes very easy to tear the grass out of the ground in patches, because the ground is so soft.   Cleats can do a number on grass, in very soft grass fields.

A field may have been closed to due several days of rain. After the rain ended, it is sunny and bright, for the next two days, but yet the fields still are closed.   Many parents and coaches don’t understand why the fields need to be closed when they look dry and it’s been sunny out.

Even if the thin top layer of dirt seems dry from the sun, the inch or so of dirt below it will still be soft. Then it becomes very easy to tear the grass up, and as you’ve all seen in front of the goals (where it just wears down in normal use), once that layer of grass is gone, it takes a lot of time for it to fill back in, especially when the fields are in almost constant use. In very cold weather (below freezing) the field may be closed because if the rhizomes are frozen, simply walking on them can destroy the frozen internal cellular structure and kill the dormant layer. This is also why some areas will not allow you to walk on/play on fields which have frost on the ground. So even without rain, there are times the fields will be closed.

It can seem like dice are being rolled with decisions to open/close the fields. It can pour buckets for half a day, and the fields are open within 24 hours. Some water is on the ground, but the ground is firm. Play on and hope the goalie’s like mud – because their area is already bare. Yet it can moderately rain for a few days in a row, and the fields are closed for a week. We got less rain, but what we did get didn’t just run off, it soaked in deep, loosening the grass. We get rain that starts right before games and we play anyway. Yet it’s sunny and warm out for a few days after an extended rain storm, and the fields are closed.

Seems to not make sense – but hopefully now you see what goes into making these decisions. The cities want to protect the fields so the grass remains thick to endure the constant playing of soccer. As anyone has seen, once the grass is worn down to dirt, it’s very weak and very muddy. It then takes time, money, and total field closure, to get the field back into playing shape.

The cities/leagues appreciate everyone’s concern about missing practices/games, but a few missed practices/games during the fall/winter can mean plusher greener grass later for spring and in the Fall. Everyone wants good fields to play on, there is a price that must be paid to achieve this goal, which requires some degree of scheduling sacrificing. What is available to use in the fall/winter is always controlled by the weather, which no one has control over.

AVAILABILITY OF FIELDS FOR FALL/WINTER PLAY

The entry fee is a non-refundable fee, as follows:

U9 & up teams $275 per team

All red card reports and player passes must be sent to

Shirley Thompson
1239 Adam Street
Tracy, CA 95376

All red cards MUST be sent to me, postmarked by Monday.

Games are played throughout District 8. Each league with teams entered should be able to provide a reasonable amount of fields accordingly to the number of teams you enter and be available for 3-4 games a day per field. Fields must have rest rooms. The host team provides and pays for referees. Teams not providing fields/referees may have to defray costs of the providing team.

Any rules not covered above, refer to the

CYSA team manual

Bill Meyer Coordinator: Kim Nickerson
Email: ksnickerson@sbcglobal.net

Dennis O'Brien
dobrien@mysa-ajax.org

BML Tournament Action

MAIL IN THE COMMITMENT FORM AND PAYMENT TO THE DISTRICT REGISTRAR; POSTMARK DEADLINE IS December 10, 2019. INCLUDE: Team entry frees (make entry checks out to District 8), field availability and restrictions, (dates and times) and maps must accompany the entry form. Mail to the District Registrar.

                       Shirley Thompson
                       District VIII Commissioner
           1239 Adam Street
       Tracy, California 95376

Include the registration form, fees, and maps. Submissions that are not postmarked by the deadline will be charged a late fee of $50 per team.If the fine is not included in the registration check, it will be deducted from your league forfeiture deposit refund at the end of the season. Team entries received after 12/15 will be accepted or rejected at the District's discretion. Refer questions by email to Shirley Thompson:sthompson@calnorth.org

TEAM ROSTERS AND PHOTOS FOR PASSES MUST BE IN THE REGISTRATION DATABASE FOR APPROVAL BY THE DISTRICT 8 REGISTRAR BY DECEMBER15. (COACHES MUST HAVE DOJ/CYSA BACKGROUND CLEARANCE PRIOR TO APPROVAL, and have taken the on-line CDC Concussion course. )

Peter Kilpatrick
peterk27@yahoo.com

2019 BML Tournament Results

The Bill Meyer Winter League are District 8 Paper Teams for boys and girls in the U10 through U14 age group that allow players to participate in a higher level of soccer than played in the District VIII, fall recreational season, in an affiliated District VIII league. Leagues can use it as a building block for their competitive teams (although established boys and girls competitive teams are not permitted to play).

Players are only eligible if they:

Were currently registered recreational players for the fall recreational season with
District VIII affiliated leagues.
Soccer aged players 8-9 for U10 (younger players may not play up).
Have not been rostered on any competitive team during the past season.
No new player registration is allowed for this league.

Age groups are as follows:
Girls & Boys:
U12-U14
U10

The season runs from approximately Jan.-Mar..

All games are played under DISTRICT VIII rules
LEAGUE RULES DO NOT APPLY TO BML GAMES

1.) RED CARDS: Red carded players and coaches are at the mercy of the mails and should consider that any additional suspensions will probably be in two game increments. EXAMPLE: A player red carded in the first minute of the first game of the season, will miss the next game that day automatically, then if the decision is made for an added the game, the player will miss the NEXT game the following Saturday. Delays with the mail or the league delivering the card back to the coach could add another two games missed (NO PASS NO PLAY RULE.) Verification Form

2.) LENGTH OF GAMES:

UNDER 10 --     20 MINUTE HALVES
                                            UNDER 12 --     25 MINUTE HALVES
                                            UNDER 14 --     30 MINUTE HALVES

U10, U12, and U14 – Offside and direct kicks are called per FIFA rules

NOTE: The above is only a partial list of BML rules.The following documents contain all rules regarding BML play:

Bill Meyer Coordinator:
Email:

DISTRICT 8 REGISTRAR APRROVED CREDENTIALS (PLAYER PASSES, 1601 FORMS, AND ROSTER) MUST BE WITH THE COACH OR ASSISTANT COACH AT ALL PRACTICES AND GAMES (LEAGUE GAMES AND TOURNAMENT PLAY)