What is Northwest Kiwanis Youth Soccer?

A major emphasis for Kiwanis is youth and our soccer program is intended to provide a positive team experience for the youth in our community.  Our program stresses participation, sportsmanship, soccer skills and having fun in a team environment.  We have about 1400 children participate each year.  We are a recreational program and have leagues for both boys and girls.  Coaches for the kindergarten program are high school soccer players.

What does my child receive?

Each child is assigned to a team, plays at least half of each game (except due to injury or misconduct) and receives a team shirt and soccer ball.

What is the cost?

The cost is shown on the application form.

Who is eligible to participate?

The Northwest Kiwanis Club serves the communities of Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights and Marble Cliff.  Boys and girls in Kindergarten through 6^th grade, who live in, or go to school in, our service area are eligible to play.

What are your policies regarding information privacy, refunds, etc.?

Our privacy policy is available here. We do not offer refunds unless soccer participation is unavailable because we have reached capacity. You can read more about our Rain-Out policy here.

How can we reach you?

We respond promptly to contact forms or our email, soccer@northwestkiwanis.com. We do not have a dedicated telephone number for soccer, since we do not have fulltime staff.

For our first through sixth grader leagues:

Our 1^st – 6^th grade program has girls and boys leagues, divided into 1^st/2^nd grade teams (Bantam I League), 3^rd/4^th grade teams (Bantam II League) and 5^th/6^th grade teams (Intermediate League).  New teams are formed each fall.  If your child plays in the fall, you do not have to register again for the spring.

Why do we go by grade – because most children prefer to play with their classmates.

When are our seasons?

For grades 1 – 6, we have a fall season that runs from the third week of September to the first week in November and spring season that runs from mid-April until late May

When and where are the games?

All games for 1^st – 6^th grade, in both the fall and spring, are on Sunday afternoons.  The Bantam I girls play games at Ray Buck Park in Grandview, The Bantam I boys play at Northwest Park in U.A., the Bantam II girls play at Thompson (Lane Rd.) Park in U.A., the Bantam II boys play at either Thompson Park or Wyckliffe School, and both Intermediate Leagues play at Thompson Park.

When and where are practices?

For the 1^st – 6^th grade teams, each team has 1 – 2 practices per week.  As we have 54 – 60 teams, we do not tell the coaches when and where to practice.  The day and place are at the discretion of the coaches, but, since the teams are based around schools, coaches usually try to practice close-by.

When do I sign my child up?

We accept sign-ups for the fall program starting in mid-June.  The registration deadline for fall is late August, but we accept later registrations on a space available basis.  If your child registers and plays in the fall, he/she is automatically on the same team in the spring.  The spring sign-ups for grades 1 – 6 start in early March and run through the beginning of April – but are on a space available basis only.

Where do I get an application?

We mail applications to last year’s k – 5^th grade participants in June and again in late July.  If you have moved, the USPS will not forward the application.  Also, if you mail an application to us in mid to late July, your mailing and our second mailing may cross.  In this case, you will receive another application.  This should not be a concern.

Applications for the 1^st – 6^th graders are also on our website, at UA Parks & Rec. (UA Municipal Building) and at Grandview Parks (1515 Goodale) after June 15^th in the summer and after March 1^st for the spring.

Do we need coaches?

Our coaches for 1^st – 6^th grade are primarily interested parents.  We require about 150 – 160 coaches each year.  For this program to function, we need interested parents to be head or assistant coaches.  We can assure you that coaches children is both fun and rewarding.

When should I here from a coach?

In the fall, the coaches receive their rosters between Wednesday and Saturday, the week after Labor Day.  Do not expect to hear from them before the 10^th – 12^th of September.  In the spring, the coaches will call in late March for new sign-ups.

Does Northwest Kiwanis accept requests for certain children to play together?

We are, to the best of our knowledge, the only local sports program that will take requests. Requests written on the application will be read and all reasonable and possible requests are honored.  However, in order to achieve grade balance among teams, to form teams when not enough parents volunteer to coach, and other administrative reasons, not all requests can be honored.

Can a player change teams?

With a program of this size, it is administratively unmanageable to allow changes of teams once assignments are made except under very special circumstances.  Unless there has been an administrative error (e.g., a parent coach has been assigned to a different team from his/her child, brothers in the same league are assigned to different teams, a boy is assigned to a girls team, etc.), we do not allow changes of team assignments.

For our kindergarten program:

Our KIDS (Kindergarten Instructional & Developmental Soccer) program has about 250 – 260 kids each year and is geared to the way kindergarteners think.  The sessions are one hour per week and there are four weeks.  During the first 30 minutes the children will be part of a team of 6 – 7 kids and learn 1 – 2 skills each week.  The parents will also learn these skills in a separate area.  The last 30 minutes will be a scrimmage game against another team.  One hour is about all that any 5 or 6 year old is going to focus on any topic.  We have three time slots each session.

When is our season?

Our kindergarten program is a spring only program from mid-April to mid-May.

When are the games?

The spring program for kindergarteners is on Saturday mornings.

When and where are practices?

For the kindergarten program, each session is one hour on Saturday mornings.  Each Saturday has three time slots – 8:30 AM, 9:45 AM and 11:00 AM.  You can request a specific time period, but, as space in each session is limited, these are filled based on the postmark when the application is mailed.

When do I sign my child up?

The kindergarten sign-ups start in mid March and run until early April.

Where do I get an application?

For kindergarten, we send applications through the schools in March and have them at both Parks Departments and our website.

When should I hear from about when and where to come?

For kindergarteners, we will send a letter to you in early April explaining the program and telling you which time slot to come for.