About Region 157

Pacifica AYSO is an all volunteer recreational soccer league serving our local community for the last 30+ years. We offer a Fall soccer league, and also have a handful of teams who play in the Spring and have UK camps throughout the year. All of our coaches and referees are volunteers, most often parents of players. As part of the American Youth Soccer Organization, our vision is to provide world class youth soccer programs that enrich children's lives. Our board volunteers countless hours throughout the year. There are board members who have children who aged out of AYSO, yet they love the organizations and stick around year after year. The other board members have young children including the RC who was 6 months pregnant when she took on the role. Almost every board member works full-time, so you can imagine we don't like the excuse " I don't have time to coach or referee".  

Player registration is held each spring and ends by July. Our league play begins the weekend after Labor Day in September and lasts for 8-10 weeks. Our teams are scaled by age groups - younger players play with fewer players on the field to encourage a real "foot on the ball" experience. Team size gradually increases with each age group.

AYSO History
The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) was established in the Los Angeles area in 1964 with nine teams. It was the dream of a group of devoted soccer enthusiasts who started the organization in a garage. Today, AYSO has more than 50,000 teams and more than 700,000 players. It also employs 50 people at its National Support and Training Center in Torrance, California.

Over the years, AYSO has created many valuable programs and concepts. Most notably, AYSO revolutionized youth sports with its "Everyone Plays" and "Balanced Teams" philosophies. In AYSO, each child who registers is guaranteed to play at least half of every game. To help create evenly matched games, all AYSO players are placed on new or "balanced" teams each year. These decisions are made based on each player's skill level and the overall ability of the team.

AMERICAN YOUTH SOCCER ORGANIZATION is child-first and child focused. We are a soccer organization with happy, healthy kids as our passion. Every decision, every rule and every program has "what's good for kids" as its basis. Every girl and boy stepping on a soccer field for the first time can have fun. AYSO's child-first approach also makes it one of the finest player development programs. Everybody likes to win, but developing successful players and people is what's fundamental in AYSO.

With children's natural joy in running and kicking, soccer builds on these two skills and adds in techniques to control the ball and work as a team. It also encourages creative decision making and strategic thinking. And it's a fast game that keeps each player moving the entire time. In AYSO there's no spending the game on the bench! 

AYSO has age appropriate small-sided games. A full size soccer team has 11 players on the field. But smaller-sided teams for younger children allow more touches on the ball and a more successful soccer learning environment. 

AYSO small-sided games emulate classic "street soccer" where children of many skill levels choose up teams and play together for a fun neighborhood game. This is a similar environment to where many of the greatest soccer players in the world developed their skills. Small-sided games continue as excellent development