Get ready soccer fans, the season is almost here! Andover Recreation Soccer has begun open registration for the fall season. The last day to register your player is August 1.. This year, the Recreation Department is using the website SI Play to accommodate sport sign-ups electronically. Each family will be required to create an account with their family’s information. Once the information is inputted once, the website will store it for future use with other sports. Players entering Kindergarten through Sixth grade are eligible to sign up and teams will be formed based on how many players register. The link to the website can be found on the town website, the Andover Recreation Facebook page or by the following URL: andoverrecsports.Web site.siplay.com.
Andover is a member of the Merrimack Valley Soccer League which comprises about nineteen recreation soccer programs. All players in grades 3-6 will have two games per week, one during the weekday and one on Saturday. The first games will be starting the week of Sept 5 while the last games of the season will be held the weekend of October 14. Kindergarten, first and second graders will meet every Saturday morning starting the week after Labor Day. All participants will be required to have shin guards and cleats or sneakers. A mouth guard is also required for those players in grades 3 and above.
Registration fees have changed a bit from last year. For those players Third grade and above, the first player of each family will be charged $35.00. Each additional player in the same family will be charged $5.00 less than the previous child with a total per family not to exceed $100.00. Those players in Kindergarten, First, and Second grades will only be charged $15.00.
As always we are looking for coaches, referees and field maintenance volunteers. If you would like to help out but don’t know all the rules of the game, that is okay, we can help you with that. We will be putting together a coach’s clinic later in the summer to give you some ideas to help with practices. If you are interested please e-mail the Soccer Director, Heidi Murphy at: andoverrecsoccer@nullgmail.com, or you may call her at 735-4494.
Starting July 12, we will be having pick-up soccer for those players entering 3rd grade and up. We will meet on Wednesday nights at 6 PM and there is no cost. This will run throughout the month of July and early August at the Howard George field. Players must bring shin guards and cleats or sneakers. Hope to see you there.
Did you know? In China, the first soccer balls were made from sewn clothing that was filled with rubble. In Europe during the Middle Ages, soccer balls were made from inflated pig bladders.