American Youth Soccer Organization

A LITTLE HISTORY

AYSO was founded in 1964 in Torrance, California (near Los Angeles) with about 125 enthusiastic players. Over the past 35 years, we've become a vibrant national organization with nearly 630,000 players and 250,000 volunteers! Please visit our National Site

HOW WE DO IT

AYSO works because of dedicated volunteers committed to the five AYSO Philosophies:

Everyone Plays

We want kids to play soccer - so we mandate that every player on every team must play at least half of every game.

Balanced Teams

We require every region at the start of each season to set up teams as evenly as possible. It's more fun when teams are of equal ability.

Open Registration

Our programs are open to all children ages 5-18 who want to play soccer. Interest and enthusiasm are the only requirements for playing.

Positive Coaching

We train and encourage our coaches to make the extra effort to understand and offer positive help to our players, rather than use negative criticism. This approach builds a positive team spirit.

Good Sportsmanship

We create a positive environment based upon mutual respect, rather than a win-at-all-costs attitude. All of our programs are designed to instill good sportsmanship in our kids and our volunteers.

Our phenomenal growth underscores AYSO's commitment to a healthy competitive atmosphere for youth soccer players combined with dedicated volunteers all working towards developing responsible young people.

THE AYSO MISSION

To develop and deliver quality youth soccer programs
which promote a fun, family environment
based on our philosophies

THE AYSO VISION  

To be the nationally recognized youth soccer organization of choice.

STRUCTURE OVERVIEW

AYSO is founded upon community involvement.

The basic community program is the Region and the volunteer staff members are encouraged to organize their regions to best suit the needs of their community. Each Region is headed by a Regional Commissioner (RC) who, with the help of a Regional Board, conducts the region within the framework of AYSO's Five Philosophies, Rules and Regulations, and By-laws. A Region may have as few as 50 players or as many as 5,000 players grouped into girls and boys divisions based on age.

Several bordering regions comprise an Area, ours is Area D, headed by an Area Director (AD) who is responsible for the performance and growth of the Area. AD's report to Section Directors.

Several bordering areas comprise a Section, ours is Section 6, headed by a Section Director (SD) who is responsible for the general welfare and administration of a Section. A Section may cover several states, an entire state or a portion of a state. There are no such things as "state associations" in AYSO.

The AYSO National Support Center & Training Center (NSTC) in Hawthorne, California (near Los Angeles) works closely with all executive members, sections, areas and regions providing many vital services:

...And much more

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