“Balanced Teams” is one of six Core AYSO philosophies and as a Head Coach it requires your help.  By rating your players using the guidelines below, we’ll have the best chance to form Balanced Teams next season, resulting in more balanced, competitive games.

More competitive games result in a more FUN playing experience for our players and a better environment for players to improve and develop both their soccer skills and Soccer IQ.

Head Coaches are asked to rate their players by making an honest, thoughtful assessment of each player on their team based on their impact on your games’ outcomes.

Below is detailed instruction on how/where to enter your players’ ratings as well as guidelines on how you should be assessing your players solely for the purpose of helping the league balance teams for next year.

Generally, players are rated on a scale of 1-5 with
‘5’ being a player most effective on the outcome of the game and
‘1’ being a player least effective on the outcome of the game:

5 = Exceptional skills and athleticism; one of the top players in the age division; can dominate a game with a combination of player’s soccer skills, speed/physicality, aggressiveness/effort, etc.

4 = Very skilled relative to peer players within division; very active player with strong effort and always contributing during games whether as an effective defender, attacker, or goal keeper (or all of the above.)

3 = Average or “typical” fundamental skills for their age and relative to peer players; player puts forth good effort; often active and contributes during games.

2 = Low-skilled player relative to peer players within division, but puts forth good effort OR average skill but puts forth low or very “distracted” effort.

1 = Unskilled or low-skilled player; player is perhaps just learning the game for the first time, or inactive, distracted or disinterested relative to the game going on around them.

A comments field is available for each player. Where applicable, please use the comments field for greater context to a player’s rating. Example: does player enjoy or is skilled as a goalkeeper; does a player have lots of conflicts effecting attendance? Is the player often disruptive in games or practice? These are all good things to know as we distribute players onto teams for next season.

Please rate your players as compared to ALL Players in their age/division and not as compared to only the other players on your team.  Consider the player’s effectiveness in all facets during games as compared to his/her peers in the division including any positional prowess such as defender, attacker, or goal-keeper.

A player’s general effectiveness or lack thereof may be derived from a combination of factors including the player’s skills, effort, focus, speed, size, aggressiveness, and attitude among others.

These ratings should be kept confidential and are not intended as a judgment on the player, but simply as an important metric to help Division Coordinators build balanced teams.

1. Log-in at https://ayso.bluesombrero.com/region1056

2. Upon logging in, Head and Co-Coaches should see a red banner across the screen. Click the button that says “Go to Ratings”

3. Under “Select a Team,” choose the team you wish to rate (if you coach multiple teams) and click on “Rate Players”

4. In the column marked “Overall Rating,” select a number 1-5, based on the Ratings Descriptions above, for each player.  If a player never played, leave the rating blank and state that in the comments.

5. In the comments section, include any comments you feel are important for Division Coordinators to consider as context for the player. Example: does the player like to play goal-keeper?  Is player’s attendance low?

6. Click “Save Ratings” and you’re done!  Once the rating updates have loaded, a message will show in a blue bar near the top of the page, “Player Ratings Saved!”