Attention 7th & 8th Grade Parents

To the Parents of next fall's 7th & 8th Graders

Each year we receive many questions regarding our fall boys and girls U13 & U14 ABYS soccer teams, schedules and practice commitments. Here is some information about the ABYS program. As more details about our fall program become available, we will send updates. If you have questions, or need additional information, please contact your division director.  They will do their best to help you.

The ABYS in-town league ends at U12. As many leagues around the country have combined age groups, so does BAYS at U13 and U14. All U13 players will play on ABYS travel teams in a BAYS U14 division. BAYS offers 4 divisions of play at U14 to accommodate teams and players of all skill levels. Two of these BAYS divisions are considered competitive, and two are considered recreational. The number of ABYS teams, their roster size, and the placement of teams within the BAYS U14 division will depend on the number of registrations received. At this time we expect there will be 4-5 teams in BU14 and 5-7 teams in GU14.

We encourage all players to register for the fall ABYS season by the June 19th deadline.

BAYS games for U14 divisions are played on Saturdays. Shortly before the fall season starts, ABYS team coaches will determine the practice schedule for their individual teams, and receive their game schedules from BAYS. There will be practices available for all the players. For those players practicing with the Jr. High team these practices may be considered optional.

We get many questions about the soccer teams at RJ Grey Jr. High.  Please note that the Jr. High soccer program is run by the Acton Boxborough Regional School system, not ABYS. Information about the Jr. High soccer program will be sent to all parents of incoming 7th graders with the other information from the school. After attending the Jr. High tryouts, should any player who makes a Jr. High team, decide not to play in the ABYS program, a refund will be issued upon request. 

Finally, regarding notification of your child's team placement, in this age group we cannot finalize rosters until after the AB junior high tryouts, as some players register for ABYS, but then if they make the junior high team, decide to drop ABYS and play only for the junior high.  We need to stay flexible so that we can make last minute adjustments to rosters as some players drop out, and also we find that some people register at the last minute and have to be added in.  Note that this will occur up until the 1st or 2nd game of the BAYS season, so please be patient and understanding with the process as it is not an easy one.

NOTE:  If you know your child is going to tryout out for the Junior High Team - please let your division director know whether your child will plan to play with both the Junior High Team and ABYS or if you will plan to drop ABYS - this will help them in their Fall Planning.

We hope this helps answer your questions. If you need more details or have additional questions please contact your division director: 

GU14 Tim Norman timnorman@verizon.net and BU14 Gillian Davies gilliandavies@comcast.net
GU13 - Scott McMillan st_mcmillan@comcast.net  and BU13 - Jim Cullen jim.cullen@comcast.net.   

Thank you, if you have any additional questions you can also contact the ABYS Registrar by email sreuther@comcast.net