Soccer: Suburban Friendship League (SFL)

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience with SFL? (Suburban Friendship League soccer). Is the level of play greater than rec or are the team's simply from smaller clubs and they just need opponents? I have heard mixed things about the teams, but it might be from families on different level teams (A vs B).
http://www.sflsoccer.org

Any suggestions in close-in NOVA for a soccer team that is a step up from rec but not travel (kids play multiple sports/no time for travel) but is not a developmental team (no tournaments, no time!)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have experience with SFL? (Suburban Friendship League soccer). Is the level of play greater than rec or are the team's simply from smaller clubs and they just need opponents? I have heard mixed things about the teams, but it might be from families on different level teams (A vs B).
http://www.sflsoccer.org

Any suggestions in close-in NOVA for a soccer team that is a step up from rec but not travel (kids play multiple sports/no time for travel) but is not a developmental team (no tournaments, no time!)?

I've coached a SFL team (boys) for a couple of years. Each team plays 4 home games and 4 away games plus a two day end of season tournament.

There is a huge range in quality among the 50-60 odd teams in each SFL age group. Many of the teams that play Division 1 of SFL (10-15 teams in each age group self-selected by the participating club) have great players and coaches and are roughly equivalent in quality to mid-level NCSL travel teams (at least on the boys side).

My own team is full of multi-sport athletes (basketball, lacrosse, baseball players) who just cannot commit to the time involved in year-round travel soccer. We have scrimmaged against and beaten our club's mid-level NCSL team in our age group.

By contrast most of the 40-50 teams that play in Division 2 of SFL are house rec teams that simply need other clubs' rec teams for competition because there are no longer enough house teams in a single club at U13 or older.

A team that does well in Division 2 of SFL can move up to Division 1 for the next SFL season to find more challenging competition.

If you are looking for a level of play above regular rec I suggest you go to the SFL website at www.sflsoccer.com and see if there is a Division 1 SFL team at your club (or nearby club) and contact the coach.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, this information is very helpful!

[Anonymous]

Do they let clubs enter only some of their rec teams, or do they have to enter all of them? I heard they put in more restrictions in recent years.

I know they also have an admonition against entering "All-Star" teams -- if they get 10 teams from one club, they want those 10 teams to be relatively even. Do they enforce that at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they let clubs enter only some of their rec teams, or do they have to enter all of them? I heard they put in more restrictions in recent years.

I know they also have an admonition against entering "All-Star" teams -- if they get 10 teams from one club, they want those 10 teams to be relatively even. Do they enforce that at all?

Yes, there was a recent rule change in 2014 that requires a club to enter all of its rec teams at a particular age level in SFL or none. So clubs cannot send one or two teams to play in SFL and leave the rest of their rec teams in the club's house league.

It is up to the participating clubs to put together team rosters in whatever way the club sees fit so you see a wide range in practices there. Some clubs (like McLean I think) use a yearly player draft system to form teams and tend to have largely equal teams in terms of quality.

Other clubs allow players to request particular teams/coaches and those teams tend to maintain consistent rosters over the years. There is always some shakeup when teams hit U13. Often, four or five U11 or U12 rec teams in a club have to be combined and condensed into two or three teams when they reach U13 age due to fall off in participation and the increase in roster sizes needed for U13 play (11v.11).