GRASSHOPPER AND MUNCHKINS FRIEND REQUEST POLICY
With every season of Grasshopper and Munchkin programming here at Skyline, there is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes on to ensure each player is set up to have the best experience possible. One of the things we try to do in G&M is offer each player the chance to request to be on the same team as their friends. Due to the sheer number of registrants each season, which often reaches well over 1300 players for the spring season alone, it takes a delicate balancing act to create a roster. Below you’ll find our policy on friend requests as well as the reasoning behind it and some of the issues that often arise.
G&M is happy to accept friend requests from each player when they are registering for a season. Although we cannot guarantee your request, we always do our best to honor them and have a very high success rate at it. There are many factors why we cannot always honor a request, the most common ones are listed below. Due to this we suggest you register your player early and get your friend requests in early.
Reasons we cannot honor a request.
- The player you are requesting is already placed on a full team. The number of players that are on each team according to age group, Grasshopper or Munchkin, are restricted. Having too many players on one field can result in practice quality suffering and inability to run certain drills as well as coach to player ratios being insufficient. At this age, too many players on a field can cause scrimmages to run poorly or can make it impossible to play certain games, like Sharks and Minnows, due to lack of space and coaching resources. If you register closer to the deadline and the player you are requesting has already been placed on a team that is full, your friend request might not be able to be honored and your player will likely have to be placed on a different team.
- There are too many friend request for the same player or players. Often times we have a whole group of friends that want to play together. Groups of the same four-six players can usually be accommodated. When there are requests that result in over 10 kids being on one team, we will split that group into two separate teams. For instance if we have a group of 14 players all requesting each other through various friend requests, we will create two, 7 player teams and try to place those two teams fields next to each other at the park. When this happens, your player might be on a different team than one or more of their friends who might have been placed on the field next to them. For this reason, we suggest when adding a friend request, you select only a few friends and list the ones you would most like to play with. By doing so, we can try our best to add the first or second player you listed to the same team if we have to split a group. If you have 8 or more players who wish to play together, please contact program directors immediately.
What you can do to better your chances of a request being honored?
- Register early! We often try to start forming teams several weeks before the season starts. If the friend you are requesting has already registered with friend requests of their own and is on a full team with some of their own requests, your player will likely not be able to join that friend and will be added to a team that still has room on it.
- Be sure to include your friend requests first and last name. We use our best detective skills to match players to their friend requests but if there is no last name listed for a “Ben” or “Emily” and there is several players with that first name registered to play at your park, we may have to guess which might result in your playing not being on the team with the friend they requested.
- Check that the friend or friends that you are requesting are already registered for the season or will be registering soon. A lot of times we have requests for a player that isn’t registered for the season. This could be due to either that player not playing that season or perhaps that player is moving up to an older age group. When this happens we are unable to grant that friend request. We also run into issues honoring friend requests when your players friend request has not yet registered. If we roster your player and your friend requests waits too long to register, there is chance your team will be full and we will be unable to honor the request at that point.
- Make sure the friend you are requesting is in the same age group. Occasionally we will have players requesting someone who is no longer in their age group. This could be someone who was a Grasshopper one season but aged out into the Munchkin group the following season. We also have cases where a player might be a Munchkin in the Spring or Summer but is in the 6U program in the fall. Check with your friend requests to see if they will be in the same group as your player.
PRACTICE CANCELLATION
Practices will only be cancelled by the Skyline Organization for the following reasons:
1. Unsafe playing conditions, including lightning or heavy rain before or during a practice.
2. Field closures by Denver Parks and Recreation. When there is excessive rain or snow, Denver Parks and Recreation reserves the right to close their fields to all permit holders. In the event that Denver Parks and Recreation decides to close a field, Skyline Soccer will update their website to reflect the closures and the G&M Directors will notify all parents/guardians via email no later than 4:00pm on Weekdays and 8:00am on Weekends. If you don’t receive an email by 4:00pm on Weekdays or 8:00am on Weekends and the weather is questionable, you should assume that practice will go on as scheduled. WE CAN STILL CANCEL PRACTICE AT THE FIELDS.
NOTE: ALL PARK/FIELD CLOSURES ARE AT THE DISCRETION OF DENVER PARKS AND RECREATION, NOT SKYLINE SOCCER.
3. If the weather is questionable (ie dark skys or a weather forecast for heavy rain) but you do not receive an email from Johanna, we will plan on holding practice. If practice begins and during practice it starts to rain heavily or there is lighting, we can decide to cancel at the field. This is to eliminate having to cancel a practice just because weather looks bad, only to have it clear up at the beginning or during practice…you know, typical Colorado weather.
Please note: If Denver Parks and Recreation does NOT close a field due to weather we are required to attempt to hold practice if we hold the permit for that day and time. Failure to do so results in potentially having our field permits pulled for future use.
Practices will not be cancelled for:
1.Cold weather
2.Hot weather
3.Light rain/snow
