Girls Travel Programs

What is Travel Soccer? 

Travel soccer offers a more competitive level of soccer than Lebo Cup. Girls travel soccer currently includes 2010-2015 birth years (U10-U14). MLSA Travel teams are open only to Mt. Lebanon residents. 

Travel soccer is now broken into two seasons: Fall is the main season, and if your child wishes to continue in the spring, she may as well.
Travel teams generally play teams from other communities in southwestern PA. Teams play BOTH FALL AND SPRING seasons:

Fall REGISTRATION:  Now through April 30th.

Spring REGISTRATION: Closed

 

Dates: Fall: Late August/Early September – November; Spring: March – June

 

Tryout Dates:

TBA after registration closes.

 

 

Scope: Fall: Two evening practices per week (one professional trainer led, one coach led) and a game on Sunday; Spring: one evening practices per week (coach led) and a game on Sunday

 

Locations: Mt. Lebanon fields and other local fields; farthest team may be 60 minute drive

 
Equipment Needs: Size 3-5 ball (depending on age), shin guards and soccer cleats.

8 and under - Size 3
Ages 9-12 - Size 4
Ages 13 and up - Size 5

Selection to a travel team occurs through a competitive process involving a tryout. Not all players who try out will be offered a place on a team. MLSA travel teams are newly formed every year. All players wishing to play travel soccer must try out every year. 

 

Playing on a travel team does not guarantee a player a roster spot for the following year. Tryouts for travel teams normally occur in May for the upcoming fall/spring seasons. The exact dates and more detailed information about the tryouts will be posted on this website in March. Players will be notified whether they are being offered a roster spot by the MLSA soon after tryouts have happened.
 

What benefits does Travel Soccer offer?
All of our coaches for Travel are required to hold a US Soccer coaching license. Many in our ranks hold the national E license, while others hold higher distinctions. The minimum required license is the F license.

Matches played throughout the league are supervised by USSF certified referees. All travel game referees must hold this level of certification.

 

REGISTER HERE

 

Girls Travel Soccer Update (G3 Fall Academy)

We have received a few questions in the past month asking why MLSA does not offer a travel soccer option for U9 players in the fall as it does for boys.  It’s a fair question and one that our Girls Program Committee revisits from time to time.

First, a bit of background on MLSA.  MLSA does not run the Rec Departments soccer programs.  We don’t offer any programs – for boys or girls – until players are in 1st grade.  And while the Rec program is great, it doesn’t really prepare players for travel soccer.  For one thing, there are no referees or goalkeepers.

The development programs that MLSA offers for 1st and 2nd graders are intended to get players to the point where they are ready to pursue other soccer options.  Whether that’s Lebo Cup, travel soccer or club soccer is up to the player and parents, but we want to provide a solid foundation in fundamentals to facilitate that decision.

So why do we treat the boys and girls differently at U9?  There are two principal issues that we were trying to address.  And we relied upon a core group of critical stakeholders (parents, coaches, former players, etc.) to identify these issues and inform our proposed solutions.

First, though the goal of travel soccer is not, especially at U9, to win games, the fact is that getting beat a lot, sometimes by a lot, often drives down a player’s interest in soccer.  A player who is achieving some level of success playing Rec basketball or softball may gravitate to a game where, with greater frequency, there are winning moments.  What we noticed was that U9 girls – who would often be competing with U10 teams – were not having an enjoyable experience.  They would get better as the season wore on, but the initial exposure was not positive.  For some complicated reasons, our boys U9 teams were not consistently having the same experience.

The second reason is that because we offer fall and spring travel seasons as separate registrations, U9 girls who participate in the fall 3rd Grade Academy do have the opportunity to play travel soccer in the spring.  This delay helps us to achieve two objectives:  get the players more specifically prepared for travel soccer (versus a more general exposure in earlier academies) and help ensure that the girls who do play travel soccer at this age have the right support system in place through identifying great coaches and putting together complete teams that are more ready to play at this higher level.

Our feeling is that this approach offers a better introduction to competitive soccer, but we recognize that not everyone will agree.  However, the number of girls playing travel soccer has increased during the time since we’ve implemented this new approach.  Additionally, we have a number of teams playing at more competitive levels of travel soccer and have seen a huge jump in the number of Mt. Lebanon girls playing club soccer.  We believe that our approach has increased our girls’ interest in soccer.

The boys travel program is great, but it wasn’t quite working for the girls of all ages.  That is why we have a Girls Program Committee.  And we want you to know that we appreciate these questions and welcome your feedback.  We don’t have all the answers.  What we do today may not be what we decide to do tomorrow.  As circumstances change, we will continue to revisit, reevaluate, and recalibrate our decisions to ensure that they are working for the largest constituencies of our girls travel soccer participants.

If you have other ideas about how programs should be run, we welcome your feedback.  If you have a background in or passion for soccer, we would welcome your time as well.  We always need more volunteers.