General Frequently Asked Questions

1. Fulfill volunteer background check and paperwork at parish or school
2. Be current with Safe Environment Program requirements
3. Complete the Play Like A Champion Today coaches training
4. Complete the Lystedt Law training

The Play Like A Champion Today ® Educational Series (PLACT) is an innovative coach and parent education program that is transforming the culture of sports today. Based at the University of Notre Dame, Play Like A Champion Today® offers an athlete-centered, research-based approach to coaching and sport parenting by offering interactive coaches clinics and parent workshops.

The PLACT coaches training

1. Helps us recognize the spiritual nature of sports
2. Trains youth sport coaches to be effective ministers
3. Promotes the moral and character development of our youth

CYO Athletics believes that by participating in this training and implementing both what is learned in the session and what is contained in the associated manual, coaches will be empowered in their effectiveness beyond the technical aspects of sports, enhancing their ability to create and maintain the positive environment that will GROW their youth participants.

While many coaches have participated in the previously required Frank Smoll training or other coach presentations, we feel it is important that all coaches have the same training as they approach their role in CYO Athletics. While these other trainings, as well as those you may attend as a coach in other organizations, are excellent opportunities to grow as a coach, we see them as supplemental to the core training that we believe coaches obtain through PLACT.

We realize that experienced coaches may not get as much out of the training as beginning coaches but at the same time are hopeful that participating in the training will reinforce and affirm values and concepts experienced coaches are already practicing and perhaps even give new insights, perspective or tools into building on what they already do as a coach.

Training dates, times and locations are listed with the registration form.

Trainings not located at the Isaac Orr Conference Room will require a minimum of 15 coaches pre-registered. Pre-registered coaches will be notified on Friday before weekend trainings if the training is going to be cancelled due to a lack of pre-registrations.

Register for training using the PLACT Registration Form.

Although it is not an ideal time frame, we were asked to provide PLACT coaches trainings after our pre-season coaches meetings, and they actually have been well attended in general since we started providing that opportunity. These are not the only PLACT coaches trainings we offer however, and any parish or school willing to host a training may do so at a different time, as long as we meet the 15 pre-registered coaches requirement and as long as a PLACT trainer is available. A parish or school interested in hosting a PLACT coaches training should use the contact information above.

ALL coaches, assistant or head, high school-aged or not, are required to fulfill the coaches training requirements for CYO Athletics. The only exception is that coaches under the age of 18 years old are not required to fulfill the Safe Environment Program training for two primary reasons:

1. By Safe Environment guidelines anyone under 18 should never be left alone in a supervisory position in regards to youth
2. The material in the training is not appropriate for youth under the age of 18 years old

While the SEP training is not required, the basic principles and policies should be reviewed with any assistant coach under the age of 18 years old so that they are aware of how to protect children and themselves as volunteers.

Anyone who is involved in the capacity of team leadership or instruction at half the team practices and games is defined as a “coach” and is required to fulfill the training requirements for CYO Athletics.

It is a parent education program that compliments the PLACT Sports as Ministry (SAM) initiative and PLACT coaches training. Parents who attend PLACT Parent Workshops will be empowered to positively motivate their children to succeed in sports and enjoy their athletic experience.

At the end of the workshop, parents should walk away with:

• Techniques to become a “Champion Sports Parent”
• An understanding of the current trends in youth sport
• A recognition of the spiritual nature of sports
• An age-specific nutrition guide for young athletes
• A 66 page take-home manual to use as a reference during the sport season

A parish or school interested in hosting a PLACT parent workshop should contact the Athletics Office using the contact information above.

In 2002, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) drafted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in response to the crisis of sexual abuse of children in the Church. The Charter establishes norms for responding to allegations, promotes healing and reconciliation with victims and calls for the creation of safe environment programs in dioceses throughout the US.

Contact your parish or school for your records. In addition, you may contact the Safe Environment Program at sep@seattlearch.org for assistance. They keep track of the trainings you have already completed and which trainings are still required of you. If you know your log-in information, go to the SEP website to log-in and see your obligations.

On May 14, 2009, the Washington State Legislature passed the "The Zachary Lystedt Law" HB 1824, directing the education of coaches, players, and parents on the recognition and management of concussions as well as establishing return to play protocol for all youth athletes suspected of or having a concussion or brain injury.

1. The new law identifies that all school coaches will have to take training on the nature and risk of concussions and head injury including continuing to play after a concussion or head injury.
2. On a yearly basis, a concussion and head injury information sheet shall be signed and returned by the athlete and athlete’s parents/guardian prior to the youth athlete’s initiating practice or competition.
3. All athletes suspected of suffering a concussion or brain injury will be removed from practice or competition and not returned to play until cleared in writing by a licensed health care provider.

This affects CYO Athletics in that there are requirements for non-profit youth organizations using school facilities. Among them is that:

• All coaches, players and parents of youth teams shall have similar training as outlined for school coaches, players and parents prior to the start of any practice
• While CYO Athletics will work to make this information accessible, Parish/School Athletic Directors should ensure that Coaches, Parents and Athletes have complied with the rules. For clarification, please call CYO Athletics at (206) 654.4643
• More detailed information, forms and resources can be found on the Policies page under The Lystedt Law

The Lystedt Law video must be watched every year. For CYO Athletics, our program year starts with Soccer in the Fall. If you have not watched the video since last September, you will need to watch it again.

CYO Athletics is always looking for more officials, and CYO participants should keep an eye out for confident individuals with a passion for sports. It can be a great experience for high school and college students looking to work weekends and develop the skills to eventually work in higher levels of sports. Anyone interested in becoming a CYO Game Official should contact the CYO Athletics office using the contact information above.

In general, paid officials working for a referee association should be at least 16 years old. Exceptions may be made on a case by case basis. Volunteer officials working unpaid games at a parish or school will need to check with their parish or school for minimum age requirements.

Every referee association pays a little differently. For more information about pay for officials contact the Athletics Office using the contact information above.

In CYO Athletics individual child registrations are done through the parish or school. The Archdiocesan office only registers the teams from the parishes and schools, and does not participate in the process of registering the individual child. Please contact your parish or school office and ask for registration materials or the Athletic Director’s information. If necessary the Athletic Director can then assist you in the proper way to register your child for the sport they would like to play. If your parish or school does not currently participate in CYO Athletics contact the Athletics Office using the contact information above.

Just like registering a child for a sport, individual child registration fees are controlled at the parish or school level. The Archdiocesan office only collects payment for the team fees from the parishes or schools, and is not involved in the process of collecting payment for individual registrants. Different parishes and schools may have different protocols for refunding money. Therefore you will need to contact the parish or school Athletic Director for the program your child is involved with to inquire about refunds.

In CYO Athletics individual child registrations are done through the parish or school. The Archdiocesan office only registers the teams from the parishes and schools, and does not participate in the process of registering the individual child. Please contact your parish or school office and ask f or registration materials or the Athletic Director’s information. If necessary the Athletic Director can then assist you in the proper way to register your child for the sport they would like to play. If your parish or school does not currently participate in CYO Athletics contact the Athletics Office using the contact information above.

• Registration deadlines for each sport are roughly four weeks prior to the first games of each particular season. This gives us the maximum number of teams we will schedule, and the 1st stage of scheduling begins with this information.
• Field and gym request forms, which provide facility availability for scheduling, are also due at the same time as registrations. These forms are provided to CYO Athletics by both the individual parishes, and various City Parks and Recreation Departments depending on the sport. Scheduling either cannot begin, or is delayed until these forms are received.
• Team drops and changes in facility availability cause late schedule re-working, and thus delays in posting the schedule to the public.
• After the drop deadline, scheduling can take an additional week and a half, and is not complete until the week prior to the first games.
• Posting an accurate and complete schedule is one of our highest priorities, in order to minimize changes to the schedule once it is posted, and allowing families to plan their lives around their game schedule.

The registration deadlines are in place to make sure we are receiving accurate information on the maximum number of teams we will be scheduling. Parishes and schools are not allowed to register teams after the registration deadline has passed. Adding teams past this deadline results in division and schedule re-working, and thus delays the process. Teams looking to add past the registration deadline may be placed on the waitlist.

Any parish/school wishing to add a team after the registration deadline is placed on a first come/first served waiting list for that particular grade and gender. If a team drops after the registration deadline, the waitlisted team then has the option to assume the schedule of the dropped team. If no teams drop, the waitlisted teams will not be added to the schedule.

The drop deadline has been created to discourage dropping teams, originally registered, as they create changes to the schedule and thus cause delays. Team drop deadlines, are roughly two weeks after the registration deadline, and prior to the season beginning. Teams who drop on or prior to the drop deadline will not be charged the registration fee. All teams who drop after the drop deadline will be charged the full registration fee to CYO Athletics.

CYO Athletics divisions are divided out regionally as much as possible based on the teams registered per grade and gender. Sometimes the divisions cover a large geographic region. This is can happen for several reasons, some of these are logistic, and some of them are philosophical.

• Some schools have more than one team in a division. When at all possible we will put them in different regional divisions. This is why certain teams in certain divisions don’t necessarily play the nearest schools geographically. Athletic Directors can make a request to CYO Athletics to place their teams in the same division, at the time of registration, and on the registration form. An example would be St. Vincent de Paul in Federal Way having two teams in 5th grade boys basketball, and preferring their teams play each other, to minimize travel. We would then put them both in the same division. This is not usually done because Athletic Directors have found there can be a lot of taunting by the winning team, which disrupts classroom dynamics.
• Many parishes/schools in the south end are grouped together with parishes/schools on the Eastside. There are rarely enough teams registered in any given division to form divisions with these programs in just their particular region, and thus they are grouped together. Since the main concentration of parishes competing in the Archdiocese of Seattle CYO Athletics program are located in north or central Seattle those programs are grouped together, thus leaving the Eastside and south end schools to be combined. When enough teams register in a certain region we group those teams together to prevent as much travel as possible.
• In basketball and volleyball, middle school teams are separated by talent level to create the best experience possible for the kids on the court. If there are enough teams in AAA, AA, or JV divisions we separate them by region, but this depends on how many teams register.

Below are some of the parameters/pitfalls CYO Athletics deals with when scheduling a sports season.

• On average CYO Athletics schedules roughly 1300-1400 games per season in soccer and basketball, and 700-800 volleyball games per season.
• Many times forms submitted by the parishes/schools to CYO Athletics, to begin scheduling, are not submitted on time, or have inaccurate information. This delays the process, or causes CYO Athletics to change the schedule during the process which creates gaps, or alters where we must place certain teams.
• CYO Athletics works to make sure each team has at least 3 home games in a 7 game season, and 4 home games in an eight game season minimum. Sometimes those home games are not always at a parish/school’s home gym depending on other factors listed below.
• In soccer, and in other sports, many Parish/School Athletic Directors have requested the registration deadlines not be any earlier. The feeling was they would not have enough time to get all their information together to assess the proper amount of teams they would need to register due to when information is given back to them by the parents of their communities.
• Some parishes/schools do not have registration deadlines prior to CYO Athletics’ so as to provide accurate numbers at the time they are required to register teams. This eventually results in waitlisted teams which may or may not get into the schedule, or dropped teams.
• Some schools only allow their teams on their field or in their gym.
• Some schools require their team starts and ends the day at the gym, or is every other game.
• There are a number of gym-less and field-less schools CYO Athletics must schedule into other gyms, wherever there is available time.
• In order to accommodate parishioner parking for Mass on Saturday or Sunday, access to gyms or fields may be restricted leading in and out of those times.
• Catholic high school speech tournaments and entrance exams during basketball, where all 6th-8th grade games need to be scheduled on Sundays or late on Saturday night. This forces the younger grades to play on Saturdays, or Sundays where we can fit them.
• Catholic high school facilities are available only Sundays.
• Some schools will have more than one team in a division causing CYO Athletics to manually manipulate the schedule so these teams do not play each other.
• Coaches who coach more than one team and request travel time (case by case, if accommodations are even possible)
• Parishes/schools that provide only four days in their gym on which they have to be home, and away on the other 3 or 4 games. This does not work if the schedule puts two of these teams, against each other on the same day they both have to be at home.
• Parishes/schools will give us less gym time per day than the number of teams needing to be scheduled, or less time per weekend than teams needing to be scheduled. This forces CYO Athletics to schedule the younger grades’ “Home” games at another site as the older grades receive preference.
• Fields pulled year to year, and sometimes during the year after the schedule has been made due to renovations.
• In soccer, the oldest grades are scheduled first, which leaves only the available fields with a lot of time left for the younger grades.
• In basketball, CYO Athletics is required to block games together so referees are more likely to show, as the association has trouble scheduling referees for one game. Thus one game blocks of time at a gym become essentially useless in 5th-8th grade. In addition there is a different level of referee for 8th graders than 5th graders, so CYO Athletics must make sure there are two older grades back to back, and two 5th grade teams back to back in the schedule.
• In volleyball, CYO Athletics places the order of games in the schedule based on the net heights, so the gym monitors make the fewest number of changes. This is why when a team cancels their game at a gym, CYO Athletics is forced to move all the games after it, instead of simply taking the last game of the day and moving it into that time slot.

We want every coach on the same page, to hear the same uniform information from CYO Athletics in regards to procedures, expectations, trainings needed, and philosophy. For new coaches this provides the opportunity to ask questions about rules and procedures. We show a training video required by the state legislature on head injuries, which must be seen every year, as well as videos by Seattle Parks and Recreation for soccer and baseball maintenance. Coaches can hear any rule changes, or manual changes which may have taken place within the last year.

CYO Athletics schedules generally have 8 game days (7 game days for 1-3rd grade soccer, and 5 game days for Kindergarten soccer). We are limited when we schedule a season to only schedule games on these 8 game days. When a division has an odd number of teams (for example, 9 teams), there will be one team on each game day that will not have a game, because the odd number of teams results in one team having no opponent they can play. In the example of 9 teams, there will be four games on each game day, with 1 team receiving the “Bye” each week. Across an entire 8 game-day season, this will result in 8 teams having a “Bye” and one team being scheduled 8 games. For the one team that recieves an 8 game schedule (this team is randomly generated by our electronic scheduler), their first game of their season will be a “Non-counting” game.

If your schedule has 8 games, the first game on the schedule does not count in the standings for your team. If your first game is against a team that only has a 7 game schedule, the game will still count for your opponent, because all 7 games in their schedule will count in the standings. Every team has 7 counting games, and these 7 counting games are always the last 7 games each team plays during the regular season.