Sorry OP. Sucks to see our kids disappointed, even if part of life. A bit late, but if your whole team was moving up, I would have asked the coach if he/she could use a waiver on your son. If he said yes, I wouldn't have even told my son that he didn't make it. At this point, agree with PPs advice. Also, tell your son that the assessors only had an hour to observe everyone and so maybe didn't get a real sense of what you're capable of. Also, if he's into professional sports, you could give examples of players who were cut when they played youth sports. For my generation, I always heard how Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team. Good luck.

PPA

Same thing happened to my DS last year. The MSI skills skills evaluation can be a little arbitrary for all but the most obviously talented and doesn't account for actual enthusiasm for the sport. One possible workaround: if your son has even a passing interest in playing goalkeeper, he can also try out as a goalkeeper at the next evaluation - which is exactly what DS did successfully last year. Once you make a team, there's no requirement to only play GK.

I believe classic teams have a waiver spot. So if his old team is starting a new classic team he could probably go with them and use their waiver spot. If he will be trying out for other classic teams, he still could try for their waiver spot but that obviously puts him starting out behind the 8-ball.

If it isn't too late, I think he can try the skills assessment again. I don't think MSI tracks that very well and I know people that didn't pass the first time but did the second.

I was surprised because I thought he was not great, but pretty good. He is very disappointed as all his friends from his team are in. Is there some other soccer team thing in close-in MoCo I could sign him up for?

thanks!