Seasonal Timeline

spring 2024 Seasonal timeline –

Wednesday, January 31st – Team reservations due for ALL age divisions

         Wednesday, February 14th – Rosters due for 8U to 14U

         Wednesday, February 21st – Rosters due for 16U & 19U

Saturday, February 24th – First games for 8U to 14U

Sunday, March 3rd – First games for 16U & 19U

         Saturday, April 20th (youngers), 21st (olders) – Roster freeze for all age divisions

Saturday & Sunday, May 11th/12th – Playoffs for all age divisions (location TBD)

spring 2024 Placeholders – coming soon

General guidelines for the season:

Divisions

Our league has even number divisions for all age groups (ie. 8U, 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U and 19U).  Each division is coed up to 16U with teams placed based on developmental ability,  At 16U and 19U the divisions are separated based on gender.

  • We continue utilizing a promotion/relegation system for creating the division brackets for the coming season. The purpose is to ensure that our top A flight has a sufficient number of teams to create diversity of opponents and promote the development of our best teams.  Here is how it will work:
  1. The results of the previous season will be used to create place-holders for the upcoming season for the top 8 teams in each division.
  2. The top 6 teams will be used to create an A flight.
  3. The next 6-9 teams will be used to create a B flight. If there are more than 9 teams then there will be both a B and C flight with the higher ranked teams in the B flight.
  4. All clubs/teams entering a team in a specific division must utilize the place-holder, unless the team is able to secure a swap of flight position with another team (see #6 below).  In rare cases, the board can approve of a team move due to dramatic changes in the team roster from season to season.
  5. All teams who are new to BIHYSA enter at the bottom of the flights and must earn their movement up through the flights.
  6. If a team wants to play up to the next flight they must get a team in that flight to agree to move down to switch places.
  7. Teams will be moved up to the next ranking spot if a team does not return to the league the following season. So the ranking order is important to be maintained throughout each division.
  8. The top girls’ team in each division with two or more all girls’ teams who wins at least one game will be awarded a champions medal and trophy as the top all girls’ team for that division.  Also, 3rd place teams and team who promote from one flight to the next will win a medal for their efforts.
  • Our 8U division will be using the new model implemented in Fall 2019 for creating the season schedule.  Due to the variability in the the level of skill of 8U teams, BIHYSA will employ a method for scheduling 8U games which is similar to a tournament style of competition.  Basically, the 8U division will be divided into two groups of teams (relatively balanced).  A schedule will be generated for the 8U division for the first 5 weeks of competition.  At the end of those weekends, the top half of teams from each division will be grouped to form an A flight and the bottom half of each division will be grouped to form a B flight.  These two flights will play the remaining 5 weeks of games to determine seeding within their respective flights.  
  • 8U playoff will consist of a top 4 team playoff with semi-finals, championship and 3rd place game.  The remaining teams will be paired up based on final regular season standings to play a team of relative equal strength for a final friendly game.

Age Group

Your player’s age group is determined by his/her BIRTH YEAR.  The determine what division your players are in, please take the later year of the season and subtract the birth year.  For example: For the 2018-19 year, you take the 19 and subtract the birth year.  BIHYSA only has even number divisions.  So if the number is odd your child will play at the next even number higher than number calculated.  For instance, a player born in 2008 will play in 12U because 19-8 (from 2008) is 11 and therefore 12U.

Scoring

All division and flights will be scored to enable the placement of teams for playoffs in each division. Teams will be awarded 3 points for a win and 1 point for a tie. Forfeits will be scored as a 4-0 win for the non-forfeiting team. Tiebreakers are determined by first head to head competition then goals for (max of 4/game) and then goals against.

All teams who finish at the top of the B and C flights at the end of a season will receive a printed award stating that they were the regular season champions of their respective flights.

Playoffs

  1. At the end of the season, there will be a 4 game playoff between the top 4 teams in the A flight (2 semis, championship and 3rd place games).
  2. There will also be a 4 game promotion/relegation between the bottom 2 A flight teams and the top 2 B flight teams (2 semis, promotion and 3rd place games). 
  3. A similar set of promotion/relegation  games will be used if there is a C flight.
  4. These 8 games will order the top 8 teams in the league and create place-holders for the subsequent season.
  5. Regular season standings will be used to create ranking of teams not involved in the top 8 games.