A lot of kids are multi-sport. Unless you're on the top team and 1000% committed to soccer, school and other activities would impact who shows up on game day. We play so many games with no subs you cannot even fathom and let me tell you, at 11v11, playing great teams with no subs suck! Guest players work if scheduling works out - it's not always the case.

I agree that it's a bit overkill for 9v9 to have more than 12 players given that the field isn't that huge and it's really doable to play with no subs. If 11v11 can do it, 9v9 can def do it! LOL But FWIW, having x amount of players on team is very dependent on whether those players have other activities otherwise the numbers dwindle quickly.

Anonymous wrote:the only reason to have 16 if it is the spring before they go 11v11 and they are planning on have some 11v11 friendlies

Exactly. Why have so many otherwise?

the only reason to have 16 if it is the spring before they go 11v11 and they are planning on have some 11v11 friendlies

Anonymous wrote:So you show up to a U12 practice and on any given day have 8-10 players? As a coach you can hardly get anything done except foot skills or 4v4 game format.

If you have 16 players, expect 14 at practice and then you can go 7v7 if the coach plays GK.

This is 9v9. Just do the foot work, small sided stuff. 2v1, 3v2, etc. Get the kids ready for 11v11. Comfort on ball and footwork at this age.

I volunteered for our rec league last season and for *rec* 9v9, the player rosters were maxed at 12. Otherwise, I was told, there wasn't enough playtime.

There is no reason to take more than 14. If you want to try 11v11 at U12 in a tournament bring up a kid or two that you’re interested in from the next team.
Its about touches and 7 subs isn’t going to give the kids the game time to develop, IMHO.

Anonymous wrote:We have games where we can barely field a team of 9 even with a roster of 16.

This happened to me in challenge level, supposedly for more serious players. I had to go begging the league to reopen signups so I could get another player.

So you show up to a U12 practice and on any given day have 8-10 players? As a coach you can hardly get anything done except foot skills or 4v4 game format.

If you have 16 players, expect 14 at practice and then you can go 7v7 if the coach plays GK.

It’s a money making scam. No need to have more than 3-4 subs max for a a 9v9 team.

The max should be 12 or so for proper development. 16 kids on a team at 9v9 is too many. If a team of 12 is short, they can easily cover the gap by bringing up guest players from the 2nd or 3rd team or next age group down. Gives this kids extra playing time.

I saw a ton of kids at SYC tryouts, I wonder if they over-roster their teams?

Proper roster for 9v9 is 13 or 14. 16 is ridiculous.

DS's team plays 9v9 in one league and 11v11 in another. So the roster has to be large enough to field a team for 11v11. I'm sure it looks like we have way too many kids on the bench when we play 9v9 games