AYSO United is excited to announce the tryout dates for the 2024-2025 Schedule. The tryouts will take place for all ages from 2013 through 2006. They will run from April 29th through May 2nd for all our East Valley teams. The Southeast Valley teams will run on xx and xx, at Pecos Park in Phoenix.

We also are looking to host a tryout for our 2015 girls' team, which will take place on April 23rd and 25th. More details to come.

Please visit our website AYSOUnitedSoccer.com to get more details about specific times and dates and sign up as soon as possible.

AYSO United Changes the Structure of the United Teams for the 2024 Season

To increase the success of United teams, our club is changing a fundamental element of the program in that we are looking to build teams to have the greatest likelihood of success. Under the new structure, teams will be identified with a new moniker of Navy, White, or Red. The teams designated as Navy will be our highest ranked team and coaches will be looking to identify players who can be successful at the level of play teams will need to achieve the most expense. Our teams designated as White, will be the next level team made up of competitive players, but not quite ready to be on the first level team. During our tryouts, all players from the same age group will be together to compete for spots on either team.

At the end of the tryout, parents may or may not be offered a spot on either one of these two teams. Parents have the ultimate decision-making power to choose which team they would like to have their child play on. However, all parents must understand that they cannot request to play on the Navy team if they are offered a spot only for the White team. There may be some teams where there is only one age group, and this would not apply to them.

We know this will be a change for many families, but for us to remain competitive in the club soccer environment, we felt we should provide our players with the best opportunity for success by building higher-level teams and appropriate skill-level teams. Players who are on the second team can earn a spot on the first team during the season provided they have demonstrated growth and development in their play. Conversely, players on the first team may be asked to move to the second team if they are not demonstrating growth and development consistent with the other players on the team.

AYSO United wants to congratulate Coach Dan Droen once again for being named the AYSO United AZ Coach of the Year. Coach Droen was selected due to his strong commitment to the core values of our club and the success he has had with his team. In addition to his award, Coach Droen received a $500 gift card to Soccer.com.

The Coach of the Year program is driven by parent nominations and then supported by speaking with referees, fellow coaches, and administrators. We believe that Coach Droen proved to be an excellent example of what is best about AYSO United. For more details regarding his nomination, please see our Facebook page.

AYSO United AZ also announced the 2023-2024 Players of the Year. Every year we like to recognize some of our amazing kids, who are fantastic both on and off the pitch. As always, we had some amazing candidates, but two high school players stood out a little bit more than the rest.

Nicholas Quinonez from Coach Rawls 2006 boys' team was named the Male Player of the Year. Nico is a junior with a 3.3 GPA. He is involved in the sports med program at school and is a member of the HOSA program. (HOSA, officially known as HOSA-Future Health Professionals, is the career and technical student organization (CTSO) specifically dedicated to preparing students for careers in a Health Science career).

Kyla Simon from Coach Buchanan's 2008 girls' team was named as the Female Player of the Year. Kyla is a sophomore with a 4.68 GPA while taking four honors classes as a freshman. She was recognized by her high school as being in the top 5% of her class. As a sophomore, she has maintained her GPA, while taking on an International Baccalaureate (IB) class. The (IB) program is academically rigorous and internationally accredited. Outside of her love of soccer, she is an accomplished dancer who choreographed two dances for her class to perform.

Kali Kennedy from Coach Hollar's 2010 girls' team was named the Junior Player of the Year. Kali is an 8th grader and a member of the Junior National Honor Society. Kali is CPR certified and helps teach kids aged 6 and younger to swim. She has volunteered multiple times with the "Feed My Starving Children" program in Mesa.

All three of these amazing players were nominated by their coaches and in addition to receiving their award, each player received a gift certificate from Soccer.com and was submitted as a candidate for the National Player of the Year Award.

AYSO United offers a lot of fun and interesting programs and to keep our costs down we are looking for sponsors. If you know of a business that would like to be recognized for sponsoring the 2024 Tryouts, Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, Summer Camp, Pre-Season Kick-Off Event, or our AYSO United AZ Cup, please have them reach out to Edalameda@aysounited.org. All sponsors will have their names included in our social media posts and on the website. If there is a shirt involved, sponsors will have their logo displayed on the back.

On behalf of AYSO United, I wanted to personally invite you to join me on some upcoming webinars on college recruitment and preparation. Anyone interested can register and listen. If the time does not work for them, they can always wait until the next one. I am hoping to reach more families this way.

College Recruitment Information Presentation (High School Aged Athletes 9th-12th Grade)- 4/5/2024 @ 5 pm PST Link to Register

Hour-long presentation on the ins and outs of collegiate soccer. Topics covered: Governing Bodies, Life of a college athlete, How to draft an email, Creating highlight reels, ID Camps, and more!

College Preparation Information Presentation (Pre-High School Aged Athletes 5th-8th Grade)- 4/7/2024 @ 5 pm PST Link to Register

Hour-long presentation to introduce information on playing high school soccer and collegiate soccer. Topics covered: Governing Bodies, Tips on things to focus on now, High School vs Club, and much more!

I look forward to seeing all of you there and hope these sessions help you on your college journey.

On behalf of all the training staff, we want to thank you for your participation in the 2023-2024 Skills and Keeper sessions. For those who came regularly, we saw a tremendous amount of growth. This week will be the last of the sessions as the staff starts to prepare to identify candidates for ID64, help teams get ready for the end-of-season tournaments, and start preparing for tryouts and the summer camp in late June. We enjoyed getting to know all the players who participated over the past year and wish you all the best of luck for the balance of the season.