Cal North Presidents Cup is the qualifying cup competition for the US Youth Soccer Region IV Presidents Cup. It is a competition created for mid-level Cal North Competitive teams. Recreational teams may also enter Presidents Cup although Founders’ Cup is a more appropriate cup product for the vast majority of Recreational teams. All eligible Cal North teams may apply to and participate in this tournament, although we generally recommend only mid-level teams that compete in the second or third-tier of a competitive league apply. The Cal North Presidents Cup hosts brackets in the U12, U13, U14, U15, U16, U17 and U18 age groups. Additional details can be located in the Presidents Cup section of Cal North website.
Who is eligible to attend the Cal North Presidents Cup?
Any Cal North registered U12 through U18 team that competes in a playing league hosted by a Cal North member league or a Cal North District is eligible to apply. President Cup is open only to teams that participated in playing leagues for Gold, Silver Elite, Silver, Bronze, Copper and Recreational teams and players but is recommended for teams that play in the Silver or higher divisions of CCSL or any comparable Cal North playing league. Each team must have a team roster that has been approved by its District Registrar in order to complete their application to Presidents Cup. The roster requirement also applies to teams that will participate in a 2012 Cal North CCSL Spring League or other official, recognized Cal North Spring playing league. Teams that competed in the 2012/2013 Far West Regional League or Premier division of a playing league OR teams that qualified for the 2011-2012 Cal North State Cup quarterfinals are not eligible to participate in the 2013 Cal North Presidents Cup.Cal North State Cup is available to accommodate those higher level teams.
When does the Cal North Presidents Cup take place?
The U12 and U13 Presidents Cup will take place in March. The U14-U17 age groups start play in early April after the high school CIF exclusionary period has ended and will conclude in early May. The Presidents Cup calendar can be located on the Presidents Cup page of the Cal North website.
What is the format of the Cal North Presidents Cup?
Teams are placed into brackets by random draw. During the preliminary round play on the first weekend of the cup, teams will play round-robin against the other teams in their bracket. Teams will have one or two games on Saturday and one or two games on Sunday. Teams qualify to advance to the single elimination rounds either as a bracket winner or as a second place team from a bracket with a designated "wild card". Teams advancing to the single elimination rounds will play "knock out" games where the winning teams advance to the following round of play and the losing team is eliminated from the competition. The winning team will continue to advance from each single elimination match. Second round games, round of 16 games, quarterfinals, semifinals and championship are scheduled over the course of subsequent weekends of the competition. The scheduling of the single elimination round games will be based on the number of brackets. The U12 – U18 groups play 11 v 11 matches and will play matches over the course of three or four competition weekends. In the event of weather-related field cancellations, the games may be postponed to alternate weekends or sometimes relocated to venues where the conditions allow play to continue. Presidents Cup Champion teams in age groups as specified by Region IV and US Youth Soccer will advance to US Youth Soccer Region IV Presidents Cup Championships. Currently U13-U17 state champions advance to Regionals and U14-U17 regional champions advance to Nationals. Should either Region IV or US Youth Soccer change the age groups that advance to these events, Cal North will follow suit.
Where are the games held?
The Cal North Presidents Cup tournament is a Northern California-wide event and therefore games can be hosted by any of the nine districts within Cal North’s territorial area (see the map of Cal North territory on the Cal North website). Teams must be prepared to travel anywhere within this area. Venues will be selected after we are able to confirm the number of applications in each age group. Only then can we can determine which venues will best suit the needs of teams in each age group/gender. Over the past several seasons games have been played at complexes throughout Northern California. The Morgan Hill Soccer Complex, Fremont Central Park, the Cherry Island Soccer Complex in Sacramento, Bartholomew Sports Park in Elk Grove, Mistlin Soccer Complex in Ripon, Hanford Soccer Complex, and Redding Soccer Park are some examples of venues at which Cal North Cup games have been held.
What cost is associated with the Cal North Presidents Cup Tournament?
The Presidents Cup entry fee is $625 for timely applications. The entry fee covers the costs of facility rental, field preparation, referees, support staff, awards, and other associated costs. Any cup-related costs incurred by the team for transportation, lodging, food, etc. are the responsibility of the team members.
What are the dates/deadlines associated with attending Presidents Cup?
In order to be accepted for Presidents Cup teams must complete an application which includes three components: (1) event registration (online entry which can be accessed on the Cal North website’s Presidents Cup page); (2) the entry fees (can be paid online with a credit card during the application process or sent via check/money order and (3) a copy of their authorized Cal North roster (scanned & emailed if paying online or by hard copy if paying by check)
The application deadline to submit an application for Presidents Cup is January 2 at 5:00 PM. Any applications completed after the deadline will be diverted to the Reserve Pool and will be placed in the Cup on a space available basis. Reserve Pool applicants are not guaranteed a spot in the competition.
What is the deadline for submitting a roster to Cal North?
The official team rosters must be submitted by the 1/2/13 deadline. Teams that will be playing in CCSL 2013 Spring League or other official, recognized Cal North 2013 spring league to fulfill their playing league requirement for Presidents Cup also must have a valid Cal North team roster authorized by their District Registrar and submitted as part of their Presidents Cup application by the application deadline. If the team does not already have a roster that has been approved by the district they should email their league registrar or District Registrar for specific timelines and deadlines that must be met in order to obtain an approved roster by the applicable Presidents Cup application deadline.
Can I make changes to my roster before attending Presidents Cup?
Teams can continue to make roster changes after they apply to a Cal North Cup. The team roster "freezes" on the Tuesday prior to the cup’s scheduled start date but all changes must be submitted by the league to the District Registrar on the Friday prior to the roster being frozen. During the season Cal North allows up to 5 inter league transfers per team (players moving from one league’s roster to another league’s roster), an unlimited number of intra league transfers (players moving from one roster to another within the same league and considered to be a "club pass") and an unlimited number of added players (players not on a Cal North roster this season. Although there is no freeze date for adding or deleting registered team officials (coaches, assistant coaches, managers, etc.) all player movement on and off the roster will stop on the freeze date. Throughout all roster changes, a team must retain a core of 9 players from their league roster to the Cup roster. U12-U13 teams may have a maximum of 18 rostered players. U14 and older teams may roster no more than 22 players Teams should contact their league registrars for guidance regarding roster changes and/or the timeline for submitting roster changes to the league and district prior to the roster freeze deadline.
Will my team have a realistic chance of being competitive in Cal North Presidents Cup?
There are many intangible and variable factors that contribute to the success of each team. Teams in Presidents Cup will compete against other mid-high Competitive-level teams from throughout Northern California. In this challenging qualifier event, participating teams will seek to win the championship in their age group and advance to Presidents Cup Regionals
Interested in Participating?
If your team is planning to apply for Cal North Presidents Cup first confirm that you have enough players who are committed to participate on all of the weekends that are noted on the Presidents Cup calendar. If not, you may want to consider transferring or adding players to supplement the roster. Keep in mind you will not be able to make changes to your Presidents Cup roster after the freeze date that teams and that Cal North rules require that the team must carry over a core of 9 players from their league roster to their Cup roster. U14 and older teams are allowed to roster up to 22 players however prior to each game the team will be required to designate no more than 18 players for the game roster.
Use your District Presidents Cup Representative and your League and District Registrars as a source of information to ensure your questions are answered and the Presidents Cup deadlines are met.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR TEAM’S PARTICIPATION IN CAL NORTH PRESIDENTS CUP!!!!