Schedules, Teams & Brackets
Spring season games start on March 8th and continue through finals on Sunday, May 18th. There are likely to be games on both Saturdays and Sundays given the number of teams and limited field space.
The schedule will hopefully be online Sunday, March 2nd. Keep checking your email for when you may begin signing up for games.
There are two levels of play in spring: Recreational and Select. The Select level is for new and returning Signature teams, and for teams that are seeking a higher level of competition. These are not officially “Signature” games, so there are no specific sign-up restrictions beyond the age of the players, but you should expect play to be at a Signature level when you sign up, especially if you take a center position. While I will try, I may or may not be able to differentiate the level of play on the referee schedule but you can look at the regular game schedule to see which teams are in which bracket.
In addition, for spring, the U10 Select bracket plays 60-minute 11v11 games in preparation for U11 Signature play in the fall.
Last I heard, there were around 270 teams registered to play games from U6 through U19. This is at least 15 more teams than last spring. Games are played throughout Orange County, plus Whittier, Diamond Bar, and West Covina, with JUSA providing referees only for U7 through U19 games held at JUSA fields.
There are quite a few U16/U19 teams signed up for spring. As usual, these games, when played at JUSA fields, will be manually assigned by Brendon Garabito. Since there are so many teams, he may need additional help with these games which pay the most at $1.40/minute. Spring is your chance to “try out” for U16/U19 games in the fall, so email Brendon at jusa_intercity@hotmail.com
Rule Differences
There are some important rule differences for JUSA spring soccer for all brackets (Recreational and Select):
- All age brackets allow free substitutions, at any stoppage, with permission of the referee, at all age levels.
- There are no quarter breaks like we usually have on the small-sided 8v8 games. Depending on weather, and with agreement of both coaches, you may stop the game for a brief “water break” if deemed necessary, but spring schedules are much tighter than fall so keep the games on time.
- Home team chooses which sideline they occupy. While this is not necessarily a refereeing issue, we are often asked to arbitrate such disagreements. Since spring games are played in many cities using many associations’ fields, the home team, per the schedule, is given the opportunity to choose a sideline at their own home field.
- Guest players: With teams often having players playing more than one spring sport, sometimes teams need to use guest players. I will get the final wording on guest players, but as I recall it being presented to the coaches at the coaches’ meeting two weeks ago, teams may only have guest players if they will not have enough players to have at least 2 substitutes and, I believe, the limit on guest players for any team for any single game is 2. No guest club players are allowed. There will be official rosters that will be “locked” after the 3rd weekend of play and no guest players will be allowed to participate in playoffs. I will send out further clarification on guest players in the next week or so.
Fees
Referee fees are mostly based on the Fall rates for Recreational games. A document outlining the fee schedule for spring is here:
U7/U8 games will be 1-referee, as usual. All other games, including 8v8 U9/U10, will use the 3-referee system.
There may be some new information regarding handling of “no-show” teams this spring. I will forward this information once it’s finalized.