The tournament program is an intermediate step between Core soccer and Travel soccer. The structure of the Tournament program is as follows: players U8-U19 are invited to join a WSSL Tournament team based on tryouts. To participate on a Tournament team, a player must also be registered and playing weekly in Core soccer. NO EXCEPTIONS.
The Commitment:
Signing up for a tournament team means committing to weekly weekend practices per season to prepare for the tournaments (the exact fall weekend days will be sent out in August, and the spring weekend days will be sent out in March, when we set schedules).
These practices are in addition to their core weekend games. The practices are about learning to play together as a team and may involve a scrimmage against another tournament team. Players are required to be at a minimum of three of these practices but are encouraged to attend weekly to develop at the same pace as their teammates.
The Tournaments:
Tournament teams play tournaments on Columbus Day, Memorial Day and Father's Day weekends against other club travel and tournament teams. Tournaments require entire-day or two-day commitments and vary in terms of team sizes and format of play (and parents should keep these weekends free in their entirety before signing up as we often do not find out the schedule until one or two days before the date of the tournament). ATTENDANCE AT THE TOURNAMENTS IS MANDATORY.
The Teams:
Our tournament teams are coached by professional Red Bulls trainers who are educated in the Red Bulls Program and have backgrounds in playing and coaching soccer. In addition, trained parent coaches work with the Red Bulls trainers on each team.
All Red Bulls trainers have certifications in education programs by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and the U.S. Soccer Federation and all parent coaches have age-appropriate certification from AYSO. Training sessions follow a detailed plan and curriculum designed to improve individual and team skills.
For more information about the curriculum and trainers, see RED BULLS CURRICULUM.
We generally field one tournament team in each age group U9-14 and one for high school age children. Teams play with the following format at tournaments:
U8, U9, U10 - team size 10-12 - field play 7v7
U11, U12 - team size 12-14 - field play 9v9
U13, U14, U16 - team size 14-18 - field play 11v11
Fees/Refund Policy:
The fee for 2024-25 for our tournament teams is $900 per year per player and includes two tournament team jerseys, weekly training with a Red Bulls trainer, all tournament entry fees and registration fees for our core weekend recreational league ($200 for Fall 2024 and $200 for Spring 2025). All tournament team players are required to participate in our core program. Winter training is an additional $400-500 per player for tournament teams (gym contracts are finalized over the summer and the final cost of winter training will be sent out to families when registration for winter training opens in the Fall).
Financial aid is available. Please see details on our Scholarships page.
TOURNAMENT TEAM FEES ($500) ARE NOT REFUNDABLE EVEN IF YOU LATER WITHDRAW FROM THE TOURNAMENT TEAM OR FROM CORE FOR FALL 2024 OR SPRING 2025. Please consider conflicts carefully before registering, especially the commitment to keep the holiday weekends of the tournaments free. Refunds on core fees ($200 for fall and $200 for spring) remain subject to the applicable refund deadlines for withdrawal (July 15 for fall and March 1 for spring). However, if you withdraw from core, you will lose your place on the tournament team and the $500 tournament team fees will not be refunded or pro-rated.
Similar to our travel teams, WSSL will support team and player registration, provide uniforms and pay tournament fees, but teams and individual families will be responsible for arranging transportation (carpools, trains, etc.) to and from the tournaments, which can be up to an hour outside of the city. Please read our carpool policy carefully.
Training Schedule:
Visit our Schedules page to access the most up-to-date training schedule.