MHAA has Four Soccer Programs:
1) Preschool Soccer
2) Recreational Soccer
3) Premier Soccer
4) Technical Training Programs
This page gives you general details of our soccer program.
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The Preschool Soccer program is focused on developing skills with our youngest players. There is much less focus on competition because children of this age are not prepared for the emotional aspects of competition. Rather we focus on having fun and learning proper skills, which will be critical to success as the children get older and play more competitive soccer.
2)Recreational Soccer
MHAA Soccer Players age six and older compete against teams from other organizations in the NW Cincinnati SAY League.
SAY stands for Soccer Association for Youth. It is our governing organization. SAY has many leagues all over the country, but the national organization was formed and is headquartered right here in Cincinnati. SAY's vision is to provide an opportunity for all youth to play recreational soccer. For this reason, SAY takes the competitiveness down a notch by governing with rules such as:
1. All players must play at least one half of every game
2. Teams must be randomly drawn (no stacking) according to specific rules with a witness from another organization present
3. Players need not try out for teams - anyone can sign up and play
There are many SAY Soccer Leagues, including quite a few in Cincinnati alone. Our league is Northwest Cincinnati SAY. We play against teams from other organizations in the Northwest area of greater Cincinnati. Each season, half of our games are home games and the other half away, so some driving is necessary but it is all in our region. To find out more about Northwest Cincinnati SAY, visit it's website: www.nwsaysoccer.org
NW Cincinnati SAY Divisions
Within Northwest Cincinnati SAY, divisions are created according to age and gender. Age spans are two years and teams are all boys or all girls. Because each division has a two year span, if a child plays continuously, he or she will start out as one of the younger players and then eventually become one of the older players, allowing for alternating years of being older and younger within their age division.
MHAA fields as many teams as we need to in order to accommodate all the players who register. If we do not have enough players for a team in any particular division, we will refer those players to another organization who does have a team in that division. For example, in Fall of 2016, MHAA fielded one Boys Passers team, two Girls Passers teams, two girls Wings teams, one Boys Wings team, and two Girls Strikers teams, two Boys Strikers teams, one Girls Kickers team (jointly with White Oak Athletic Club) and one Girls Kickers team..
3) Premier Soccer
The Greater Cincinnati Premier Soccer Leageu (GCPSL) is an outdoor "select" soccer league associated with SAY soccer that encompasses all of Greater Cincinnati. Seasons run concurrent with NW Cincinnati SAY, but the age ranges for the different divisions and the games rules may vary slightly. MHAA will create teams and place them at the discretion of the Soccer Coordinators and Coaches depending on if we have interest level and ability level to be able to compete. "Select" means the players on the team can be chosen by the organization and we generally take the top players in our program in order to field an "all star team." Depending on interest level, we may hold tryouts to help decide which players to choose or we may select players based on their previous performance and the general knowledge of our coaches.
In addition to playing in the GCPSL, premier teams are also permitted to competed in a wide range of select level tournaments. Decisions on whether to play in tournaments and which ones to play in are made on a team by team basis.
Players that participate in the Premier Soccer are allowed, but not required to also play recreational soccer in the NW Cincinnati League and/or other select leagues with other organizations.
MHAA offers additional technical training programs (usually with professional trainers) for players who want to raise their skill level. Details of these programs and registration for them will advertised on our website.