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About
Danvers Youth Soccer
Danvers
Youth Soccer (DYS) is a coed youth sports program with approximately
800 to 900 participants annually. The league consists of boys
and girls ranging in age from 5 to 18 years. Participation is
evenly distributed between boys and girls.
We
have two registration periods each year; June for all age groups
and December specifically for our U16 and up players. Our registration
fees are some of the lowest in town and include a family maximum
charge for those larger families. Players who are registered
for the fall season are registered for the spring at no additional
cost. Registration fees are adjusted periodically and are posted
on the registration page of the website.
The
number of teams we annually form varies depending on the participation
in the program, but typically we have 40 in town intramural teams
and approximately 25 travel teams (U12 – U18) who play
other teams within Essex County. The intramural and travel programs
both play two eight-week schedules. Eight games in the fall and
eight games in the spring. The number of teams in the spring
program increases due to the participation of our current High
School players in the U16 and U18 divisions. The DYS program
has been the feeder program for Danvers High School, Bishop Fenwick,
St. John’s Prep, and other local strong programs.
We
have over 120 adult volunteers who are coaches, assistant coaches
and volunteers who sit on the board of directors. DYS pays for
licensed training courses for all of our coaches. The courses
are run by the State (MYSA), and the coaches get their license
(G, F, E, etc), certified by the MYSA. All of our volunteers
devote many hours to the success of the organization. Our program
requires a large open space area for our U6 program and 16 to
18 soccer fields each week for all our other teams (U7 – U18)
to play. Our current main locations for practices and games are
the High School, Gates Field, John George Park, Smith School,
Essex Aggie, Plains Park and the YMCA.
We
have been successful in eliminating the need for our players
to do any in-town fundraising by hosting a very successful Memorial
Day tournament. Next year we look forward to hosting our 19th
Danvers Invitational Tournament. This tournament funds the continued
maintenance and development of our town soccer fields in conjunction
with the parks dept., capital expenditures such as soccer goals,
four annual high school scholarships. The funds have been used
in the past several years on projects such Gates Soccer field
and parking, Smith School fields, the YMCA field, Essex Aggie
fields, the Connector Road, the Senior Center, Friends of Danvers
Recreation, and the High School’s Project Graduation program.
Our tournament does take a tremendous amount of effort and brings
approximately 200 soccer teams to Danvers for the 3-day weekend.
The tournament benefits the community by bringing business to
local hotels, restaurants, stores, malls, and other establishments.
Our
monthly meeting is the first Wednesday of the month and our annual
general meeting is the third Thursday in November as stated in
our by-laws. DYS welcomes all interested people to our meetings.
Please send comments or suggestions for our site to web@danversyouthsoccer.org |