5 DIFFERENT SETTINGS OF A TRANSPARENT EVALUATION PROCESS:  The player evaluation process is open, transparent, and strives to be objective, non-biased, and fair to all players.  It is important to acknowledge that WSA recognizes that player-coach relationships can impact evaluations and ultimately decisions, either positively or negatively.   WSA desires to be an organization that retains relational qualities in every process, as a community organization. At the same time WSA desires to create a Player Placement process that creates pathways to mitigate the player-coach relationship to help assist in objectivity and fairness.  The following are the 5 principle settings used for player evaluations for the purpose of "player placement". 



1. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT EVALUATIONS OF CURRENT WSA PLAYERS:  Players are evaluated throughout the entire time they spend playing soccer at WSA, which includes the most recent season.  These evaluations take place by the current coaching staff, and also by the club’s technical staff, assigned to provide feedback on players from fresh and objective perspectives.  These evaluations are fluid and ongoing throughout the year, and are increased in frequency during the Spring in closer proximity to the Player Placement Process for the subsequent year.  This evaluation is of high priority, because the player is evaluated in her/his natural environment, without the pressures of a normal trial or tryout, and the evaluation is more comprehensive than that of a single tryout or trial session which is inherently limited in scope and value.   Coaches, technical staff, coaching directors all might be attending games or even training sessions, sometimes unbeknownst to player, and generating an evaluative portfolio for the player. 

2. COLLABORATIVE STAFF EVALUATIONS:  Each Age Group is designed to be coordinated by an Age Group leader, who organizes regular meetings among the age group staff.  These meetings include and are open to all coaching staff, assistants, head coaches, and technical and coaching directors.  The primary purpose of these Age Group Staff Meetings is to develop community, in the effort to promote one of WSA’s primary values “Belonging to Something Bigger than Ourselves”.   A secondary purpose is to generate a collaborative environment in determining the “best fit” for all players.  Each coach in the age group is invested in EACH PLAYER in the age division, and the advocacy range for the player is expanded. 

3. AGE GROUP SESSION EVALUATIONS:  Similar to collaborative staff evaluations, the Age Group leaders will direct and coordinate several age group sessions throughout the year which are for current WSA team/club members.  These sessions will include staff from within the age group, and external technical staff and directors who can help provide fresh perspective, non-biased and objective evaluations of players while in their natural training environment. These sessions have the primary goal of socializing the WSA player by the value of a “sense of belonging to community and something bigger than one’s self”.  The sessions also help introduce players to various staff throughout the age division and staff to various players throughout the age group.

4. TRYOUT/OPEN SESSION:  Beginning on or after the National Signing Day for club soccer (which has been May 1 for more than the past decade and is now May 15 for Girls ECNL) the club will host dates for club “tryouts” and “open sessions”.  These provide direct opportunities for players to participate in an actual tryout.  These sessions are "open" to players outside of the club/team.  These tryout sessions allow coaches to evaluate "new players" in the existing team context. 

The club has designed a step-wise model to help interface the club’s National/Regional League Platform teams into the overall tryout process.  The purpose of this interface is to ensure that any player in the club has an opportunity for consideration for any team and league platform supported by the club.  Players should attend all Age Group and Open Sessions to expand opportunity for consideration.  Players may at any time contact their program director expressing an interest in an opportunity to be considered for another team or league platform. 

5. NEW PLAYER EVALUATIONS: New players may request to be evaluated by WSA Staff.  There is an open form via the WSA Website that can be completed to request an evaluation.  New players should initiate contact, expressing their interest in WSA Soccer and be pursuant to requesting evaluations.  WSA Soccer requires coaches to adhere to all league and state association recruiting rules to which WSA is a member.  This requires the "new player" interested in joining WSA to be proactive if they currently are a member of a different club inside WSA's network of league platforms or state associations. NOTE: New players who are out of the area, or not currently registered in a WSA-network league or association are welcome to attend participate freely in WSA hosted sessions.