Warrington Soccer Club Travel Team Play-up Policy

Revised and Adopted: December 8, 2025

Definitions:

1. “Board” means the board of directors for Warrington Soccer Club (”WSC”).
2. “Age-appropriate” means playing in the age group set by the current age group formation guidelines. 
3. “Play-up” means playing up one or more years older than the player’s age-appropriate group. For example, a U12 player, playing on a U13 age group team.
4. "Travel Premier Team” means a team nominated by the Travel Director of Coaching, and approved by the Board, that competes at the highest levels of competition in the area and region. A team is so designated to distinguish the team from travel competitive level teams.
5. "Travel Committee” includes the Travel Director of Coaching, Travel Coordinators and Travel Registrar.

Policy Intent:

The Travel Team Play-up Policy is meant to ensure that long-term player development is at the core of any decisions made on individual players. It is secondarily meant to ensure a consistent expectation of the available player pool for coaches at the age-appropriate groupings. WSC believes that the vast majority of players should play age-appropriate, barring specific team and/or player circumstances.

Policy Coverage:

The Travel Team Play-up Policy covers all players at the club playing on Travel Teams. This policy expressly excludes the placement of a player into a play-up roster spot for the sole purpose of roster management. In this example a player is rostered as a play-up but still plays the majority of their games and practices with an age-appropriate team.

Policy:

1. U7 players wishing to be rostered as a play-up to a U8 team must have the approval of the Travel Committee AND finish tryouts in the top four of evaluations for the U8 tryout.
2. U8 through U10 players wishing to be rostered as a play-up to the next oldest age group must have the approval of the Travel Committee AND finish tryouts in the top six of evaluations for the older age group’s tryout. Players must make a reasonable attempt to attend both the age-appropriate and play-up tryout. Evaluations shall be shared between the age group coaches and accommodation shall be given to the player to coordinate their participation in both tryouts.
3. U11 through U14 players wishing to be rostered as a play-up to the next oldest age group must have the approval of the Travel Committee AND be selected by the first team coach following tryouts. Players may be offered a play-up roster spot to a second team only as a secondary player. Players are strongly encouraged to attend both the age-appropriate and play-up tryout. Evaluations shall be shared between the age group coaches and accommodation shall be given to the player to coordinate their participation in both tryouts.
4. Age-appropriate U15 through U19 players wishing to be rostered as a play-up to the next oldest age group have no restrictions on their ability to play-up to the next oldest age group.
5. Any adverse decision made under this policy may be appealed by the family of the player or the coach wishing to roster a player as a play-up. Appeals shall be emailed to the Risk Manager (riskmanager@warringtonsoccerpa.org) and Travel Coordinators (travel@warringtonsoccerpa.org) for review.