Coaches should exhibit good sportsmanship and back off their goal-scoring opportunities to avoid lopsided scores.

Failure to follow this rule (winning by a margin of more than six goals) will result in.

First reported offense - Written warning from the league.

Second, reported offense – your team will be withdrawn from the schedule for the following week. One game suspension.

Once back from your one-game suspension if it happens again your team will be disbanded.

It is the losing coaches discretion whether they report the loss to the league or not 

if the coach feels the opposing coach did everything they could to help the situation he/she does not have to report it.

 

Avoiding Lopsided Scores

While no child probably will suffer any long-term harm from a season with a number of one-sided losses (especially if the coach explains that this is a normal part of sports), we believe a 6-goal margin is enough. The sportsmanship lesson of not kicking someone when they’re down is important both in sports and in life in general.

Though we do not publish scores or keep standings, we will be monitoring scoring differentials and contacting coaches when there are large margins in any age division.

 

1.   Explain during practice why blowouts should be avoided in the interests of good sportsmanship. Teach these steps in practice. Once a game is in progress, it is virtually impossible to introduce these ideas for the first time and expect the players to grasp and remember them.

2.   Begin using these steps when you are ahead by a three-goal margin since there still could be additional scoring despite these steps.

3.   If you are losing by a four goal margin you should add 1 player. (remove additional player if goal margin is reduced to three).

4.   Ball possession may involve a designated maximum number of touches by each player before passing the ball (e.g. 2,3), whatever is reasonable for the particular age group.

5.   Make 7 consecutive passes before attacking the goal. If possession is lost, the count resets. If you continue to score increase the number of passes needed to go the goal.

6.   Play / Shoot only with weaker foot.

7.   Allow two-touch passing in defensive end, one-touch in offensive end.

8.   Designate one or two shooters. Only those designated can take shots. Advise them that the shots should be taken from outside the 18-yard box and/or only with the other foot, and/or only after receiving a pass back from closer to the goal. All these help your players build their skills.

9.   Don’t always try to pass the ball to the designated shooter (s). Instead, practice possession and in the process, let defenders get some touches. This doesn’t mean we should play keepaway for long periods of time, but a couple of minutes at a time is good practice.

10. It is nice to give defenders a chance to play forward or midfield positions. Players should always play more than one position. They usually have more fun, increase their chances of getting more playing time when they reach higher levels and you may discover they are as good or better at the second position. However make the move when the goal margin is four, because defenders are often so anxious to score that moving them when the margin is six often leads to higher differentials.

11. Try to build the attack from the back through the midfield, instead of sending long balls into the offensive third of the field.

12. Bob's favorite - every possession your team has the ball has to go through your goalie before they can attack every time you lose possession you start again

The goal is to take these steps quietly, so they are not obvious to your opponent. Please don’t yell out, “Don’t score any more” or anything similar that could embarrass

The key to success in these situations will always be found by looking at the problem from the perspective of player development. There is no single "right" answer to this problem, but applying guidelines like the ones above can help you turn a disappointing match-up into a valuable learning opportunity for everyone involved.