El Cajon AYSO

SOCCER
English prep schools formalized soccer rules in 1863 in England when it and Rugby formally split and the Football Association of London, England was formed. The word “soccer” is derived from the word “association.” Many places in the world soccer is called “association football” to distinguish it from American football, Australian football, etc. Professional soccer began about 1870. By comparison, Baseball was created about 1850 by gentlemen in New York from the English child’s game of rounders with the first professional games about 1870. American football was created by American universities from rubgy and soccer in the late 1800s with the first professional game played in 1895.

AYSO
The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) was founded in Torrance, California in September 1964. That first year, AYSO's family included only nine teams. AYSO currently has 650,000 youth players organized into 1000 regions, which are the local leagues. Regions are organized into Areas and Areas into Sections, which report to the AYSO national headquarters in Hawthorne, CA. AYSO has 50 full time employees. All others are volunteers. AYSO is a member of the US soccer governing body, USSF, United States Soccer Foundation, which is a part of the worldwide governing body, FIFA, Federation International Football Association based in Zurich, Switzerland. FIFA encompasses about 240 million soccer players worldwide.

In 1974 La Mesa AYSO Region 89 was founded as the first AYSO region in San Diego County.

REGION 168
El Cajon/Rancho San Diego AYSO Region 168 began in 1978 with 1583 players after being carved out of La Mesa Region 89. Then Region 168 included El Cajon, Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, Rancho San Diego, Jamul, Santee, Lakeside, Alpine and points east. Byron Summers was our first Regional Commissioner. Region 168 has had between 1600 and 2000 players consistently for 30 years in spite of the creation from Region 168 of AYSO regions in Santee, Lakeside, Alpine, Spring Valley, Jamul and Mountain Empire. We have participated in the El Cajon Recreation Council since it began over 20 years ago.

• 1986 - Region 168 helped grass Ross Field at Rancho San Diego Elementary in cooperation with Rancho San Diego Little League. AYSO Region 168 contributed $20,000 to the project.
• 1987 - First Soccerfest.
• 1991 - Rick Mossay, Regional Commissioner.
• 1992 - Jim Cortez, Regional Commissioner: In 1993 Jim was instrumental in getting our first equipment storage unit installed at Cuyamaca Elementary.
• 1994 - Rick Tibbitts, Regional Commissioner
• 1995 - First Annual Invitational Tournament at Thanksgiving which last year hosted 58 teams U10 through U14 and contributed over $10,000 to our region’s finances.
• 1996 - Rex Beckham, Regional Commissioner.
• 1999 to 2001 - Larry Jach, Regional Commissioner. In 2000 Larry was instrumental in getting our second equipment storage unit, this one at Hillsdale Middle School with the cooperation of Craig Wollitz, Hillsdale Principle.
• 2002 - Ed Vogel and Steve Teincuff shared Regional Commissioner responsibilities. In 2002 Region 168 had 19 spring teams and over 140 regular season teams with 1700 players from 4 ½ to 19 years old including three special teams each year for kids with disabilities. Our annual budget is about $130,000. We scholarshipped 40 children while maintaining registration fees at an average of $60 per player including uniforms and team/individual pictures with no candy sales. We have a 25-member board with 375 volunteer staff including 300 coaches, assistant coaches, and team parents, 50 referees, 25 field workers and numerous volunteers at our annual Soccerfest season opener and our invitational Thanksgiving Tournament. Region 168 hosted classes for coaches, referees, child safety and basic administration.
• 2003 - Steve Teincuff, Regional Commissioner. We look forward to continuing our low-cost, all-volunteer, recreational soccer program with its emphasis on balanced teams (done by computer), open registration (no geographical, social or skill level boundaries), good sportsmanship, positive coaching and everyone plays (at least ¾ of each game for U6 through U14). We are also working with other parts of AYSO to develop a group of more advanced El Cajon AYSO players. We are looking forward to improving our 2003 spring and fall programs. We are also looking forward to the AYSO National General Meeting to be held in San Diego on May 23 through 27, 2003.