The Greece Girls Soccer League (GGSL) was established to provide girls in the Town of Greece, New York, with opportunities to do the following:

• Have fun
• Learn the skills necessary to play good soccer
• Develop physically and socially
• Learn to work as a member of a team toward a common goal

GGSL is a recreational house league, which means that we only play teams within our own organization, and we do not travel to play teams in other organizations. There are seven age groups: 5-6 (Tykes), 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16 and 17-19.

There are no try-outs for GGSL, and any girl who lives in the Town of Greece, New York, may join by filling out a registration form and paying the registration fee (provided we have enough teams available). Historically, registration for the next season is held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Registration forms are available at the registration location and through the Town of Greece Department of Human Services in November.

GGSL emphasizes making soccer fun for the players. Since the girls have the most fun when they're actually playing, GGSL requires that each girl play at least 1/2 of each game. The coaches are encouraged to even out the playing time as much as possible. In particular, no girl can play 4 quarters in a single game unless everyone on the team is playing at least 3 quarters.

All of the coaches in GGSL are volunteers. About 1/3 of our head coaches are new every year. Many of them have been assitant coaches in the past, but a few of our volunteers have had no previous experience coaching soccer. GGSL continues to try to find effective ways to train both our new coaches and our experienced house coaches so that the girls playing in the league get the best possible soccer experience.

All of the members of the Board of Directors of GGSL are also volunteers. There are no paid employees in the League. The number of people on the Board has continued to grow over the years as we have expanded the size and scope of our program. There were 18 Board of Directors positions authorized in the Greece Girls Soccer League Bylaws, September 10, 1992 edition. It has been our policy to increase the size of the Board whenever the workload of the Board members has gotten too large for them to handle comfortably, or when we needed a new function performed. We feel that the more people we can actively involve in the operation of the GGSL, the stronger the League will become.

Risk Management:
Our program intends to provide the safest environment for all girls participating. For that reason, we want to be sure that only those individuals who need information regarding players and their teams get such information, and that those who want the information for improper purposes be denied such information. For that reason, we have developed several policies that, in our estimation may be a bit less convenient for our teams and families, but in the long run will protect them from harm. In an effort to provide this additional protection for the girls playing in our league this season and based on recommendations from Risk Management experts and our legal counsel, the GGSL Board of Directors will implement a number of changes that will constitute the league’s Risk Management program. GGSL’s Risk Management policies are as follows:

• All coaches, assistant coaches, league officials, and league administrators, must file a personal disclosure statement with the NYSWYSA and obtain a coach’s/administrators pass, which will be valid for two years. You must have this to receive your equipment.
• There must be a minimum of two adults at every GGSL sanctioned event, i.e. practice, games, etc.
• No additional letters or numbers, of any kind, (i.e. names, nicknames, team names etc.) will be allowed on the uniforms provided to the players by GGSL.
• Web guidelines for www.ggsl.org:
• No individual names, nicknames, first names, or anything that would link a particular child to a particular team or event will be allowed on ggsl.org.
• No individual pictures or renderings of the players will be allowed on ggsl.org.
• All sections of the site, which contain scheduling, group photos, or action photos must be password protected. Your individual password can be obtained right from the ggsl.org web site.
• There will be no links from ggsl.org to a website for any individual house or recreational all-star teams affiliated w/GGSL.
• Any individual House or Select team that has established (or will establish) a web site or home page must abide by policies a-d enumerated above.

In summary, this is our initial approach to address the issue of Risk Management. Additional policy modifications will be made when appropriate. The GGSL Board trusts that you will be supportive of our efforts to provide a safe soccer environment for the girls of our league.