Greetings AYSO Tarrytown soccer parents.  I am Michael Weitzen and I volunteer for Sleepy Hollow Football Club (SHFC).  Our tryouts for children born 2014 and older begin April 29th.  I would like to share with you information about club soccer tryouts and invite your children to participate.  

What is the Sleepy Hollow Football Club? 

SHFC is the affiliated soccer club of AYSO Tarrytown.  While AYSO is considered recreational soccer, SHFC is travel soccer.  Unlike AYSO, SHFC has tryouts and plays at a higher level of competition.  SHFC has 21 different teams and participates in the Westchester Youth Soccer League.   We field teams for boys and girls with birth years 2010-2016.  The league we compete in has 50 other clubs and 900 other teams.  This large league allows each of our teams to be placed in appropriate divisions that enable good competition.  Teams get promoted to higher divisions or relegated to lower divisions based on performance.  

Why consider the Sleepy Hollow Football Club? 

There are other soccer clubs near-by such as Rivertowns United, Greenburgh United, Pleasantville, Mt Pleasant and Ossining.  The advantage of our club is that we exclusively have access to the town and school fields which keeps our practices and games local.  The villages of Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, Pocantico Hills, and their schools trust us with their fields often at no charge.  This translates into cost savings.  We also have all-volunteer coaches which leads us to being the lowest cost soccer club in Westchester.  We charge $400 for the fall 2023 through spring 2024 year, this is subject to change.  This includes approximately 10 games per season (20 per year) with paid referees, 20 practices or more a season, supplemental insurance, and equipment.  Individual teams also get a stipend to spend at their coaches’ discretion for additional gear, activities, tournaments, or paid trainers.  There is a separate cost for home and away uniforms which need to be purchased one time and then only when the player outgrows them.  That cost last year was approximately $110.  

Join our Tryouts: Annually in late April, Washington Irving School, Tarrytown

Tryouts for both girls and boys will be on a Saturday in late April at Washington Irving School Turf field, typically at 12:00 pm, see exact times by age above.  Please arrive 30 minutes early with shin guards and soccer shoes.  We will need to record your child's name, contact information, and assign your child a numbered tryout jersey.  We expect to form 1 boys and girls team per year but often can form two based on interest. Generally, a team will have 10-12 players.... as this age group plays with 7 players on the field.  Tryout times for older players will be listed on our website sleepyhollowfc.com.  Makeup tryouts will likely be the following Friday evening, at Washington Irving, but this will be announced.  It is best to go to both tryouts if possible.  Please arrive at makeup tryouts 30 minutes early for registration as well.  If your child was born in 2017 they are permitted to try out, but it is unusual for a younger player to make the team and we are biased toward appropriately- aged players.  

What can I expect for weekly practices and games? 

If your child makes a team, you can usually expect one week night practice and one Saturday practice with games on Sunday.  Games are half at home and half away with no game more than 35 miles away.  Although attendance at practices is expected, there are several players every year that miss for appropriate conflict.  We encourage players to participate in multiple sports and our coaches are flexible as long as there is communication.  Every coach is a volunteer and there are differences between teams.  Some teams practice more and some less.  Some teams have voluntary winter and summer programs.  We start each new team with a volunteer senior coach and then try to transition to a parent coach after 1-2 seasons.  The senior coach will have control over that transition.  There are tryouts every year to remain on a team but it is unusual to lose a spot unless there is attendance or behavior problems.  Our tryout process is not perfect and it is difficult to evaluate several children in 1 hour.  We do the best we can but sometimes a player we select does not belong at travel level and sometimes we miss players who do.  

Sleepy Hollow Football Club is a wonderful volunteer organization that provides a great product for our local youth soccer players.  We compete at a high level in the Westchester Youth Soccer League.  We hope your child comes to our tryout evaluation.  I am happy to answer more specific questions at the telephone or email number below.  Please explore our website www.sleepyhollowfc.com as well.

Thank you,

Michael Weitzen