SYA Soccer was founded in 1973 to serve the children of the communities of Centreville and Clifton. A small group of parents banded together to form the all-volunteer program -- they handled the coaching, administrative duties, and field maintenance themselves. Field lining was done early each Saturday morning, using modified grass- seed spreaders to lay lines made with lime that one father picked up at a local family-owned hardware. (Even the hardware store went the extra mile for local children to play soccer, its owner coming in early on Saturday mornings to help load the bags of lime!) The van then headed out to Clifton, as the fields were located at Kincheloe Park. Along the way, the van might have to stop as a flock of chickens wandered across the corner of Yates Ford and Kincheloe Roads, where there was a chicken farm. The birds could hold up traffic, but nobody really minded. The old gentleman spent much of each Saturday on his porch in his rocking chair, waving as families drove past. Once the van got to Kincheloe a group of parents quickly laid down lines, keeping a few bags aside to touch them up throughout the day, and the games began.

Now nearly 50 years later, SYA Soccer has grown tremendously, though a large group of volunteers still help make it possible for 2500 young athletes a season to play the game. Today, soccer uses fields at approximately fifteen sites around the area each season, and they are professionally maintained. SYA offers opportunities for children from preschool through high school to participate in both recreational and travel programs, and has a full-time staff dedicated to making sure that the children who play SYA soccer enjoy the experience!

Recreational Soccer is offered in the fall and spring, with games beginning the weekend after Labor Day in the fall and in late March or early April in the spring and running for about ten weeks. Coaches are parent volunteers, and teams are generally formed based on the elementary school the children attend. Teams practice once or twice a week, and games are held on Saturdays. At the end of the season, a tournament is held for older teams, with the winners and finalists taking home trophies. SYA Soccer also selects a number of players to compete for the club at local All-Star tournaments after each season.

Children who are especially committed to the game have the opportunity to try out for SYA’s Travel Soccer programs as well. The club fields teams from U9 (roughly 4 ^th grade) through high school. There is a developmental program offered for highly skilled 7-8 year olds as well, which leads them into the travel program. Games are played weekly throughout Virginia, Maryland, and DC, and some teams also travel to tournaments farther away from home. Each spring, the club celebrates a number of high school seniors who have made their dreams of playing collegiate soccer come true. Especially successful players have gone on to see time on youth and full national teams for the United States and other countries; recently Irvin Herrera has seen significant time for El Salvador’s full national team, while Jenna Richmond and Brittany Basinger have played on US Youth National Teams; Basinger is also playing locally for the Washington Spirit in the NWSL.

Since 1973, SYA Soccer has grown in many ways, but the central mission has remained the same: to provide our children with a positive environment as well as the level of competition and commitment each child seeks. For nearly half a century, SYA has believed that soccer really is “the game for all kids”!

SYA Cheerleading and SYA Extreme Competition Cheer elected a new Commissioner, Tammy McCarron, in May 2012. Since that time, the SYA Sideline Cheer Program has grown from 90 girls to approximately 120 girls and our Extreme Competition Cheer Program has grown from one team of 16 girls to a program now fielding FIVE teams: Extreme Tornado (Peewee Level 1), Extreme Lightning (Youth Level 1), Extreme Cyclone (Youth Level 2), Extreme Storm (Junior Level 2), and Extreme Thunder (Senior Level 3). 

Our athletes range in ages from five to 18, and attend various high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools serving Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties. Our largest team, SYA Extreme Thunder, fields 30 athletes, ages 11 to 18, and consists of one elementary school athlete, eight middle school athletes, and 21 high school athletes. 

SYA Sideline Teams cheer for SYA Football teams during the fall sideline season (August – November). Sideline teams participate in various community activities which may include local high school Homecoming Parades, cheering with high school cheerleaders at home football games, Centreville Day, and Performance Day. 

SYA Extreme Competition Cheer teams participate in sideline cheer during the fall season, but beginning in January, competition teams begin to compete locally, regionally, and nationally at cheer competitions mainly in Maryland and Virginia. 

Extreme Lightning has won at U.S. Finals in Virginia Beach, VA, on two occasions and Extreme Thunder has won at U.S. Finals on one occasion in the past four years. 

This season (2017-2018), Extreme teams have competed in five competitions so far and have accumulated 16 first place finishes, two third place finishes, three Grand Champions Awards, one Best Dance Award, two Paid Bids to U.S. Finals in Virginia Beach, VA, and two Paid Bids to The One in Orlando, FL. 

All five teams are scheduled to compete at our last regular season competition, Western Maryland Cheerstarz, on April 14, 2018, at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD. All five teams will then be traveling to Orlando, FL, the first weekend of May 2018, to compete in The One cheer competition, a first-ever experience for our program, with SYA Extreme Cyclone and SYA Extreme Thunder having won a Paid Bid to this event. We wish our athletes the BEST of LUCK at The One!!!

SYA Extreme also opened its own gym facility, The Atmosphere, located in Chantilly, VA, in August 2017.  The Atmosphere is “where Extreme weather happens!!!” 

Registration for our Fall Sideline Cheer Program opens in May 2018, and evaluations for our SYA Extreme Competition Cheer Program will be held from May 18-20, 2018, at The Atmosphere. No prior cheer experience is required!!! Details pertaining to evaluations can be found on our website under Competition Cheerleading – Team Evaluations. 

SYA Extreme will also be offering tumbling classes, flyer classes, and private tumbling lessons during the summer months for both programs, sideline and competition cheer. 

If you would like to join our email list or would like additional information pertaining to Sideline Cheer or our SYA Extreme Competition Cheer Program, please contact Tammy McCarron at [email protected].

Fairfax County Athletic Council News

The Fairfax County Athletic Council continues to meet to assist our area with sports related issues. The Council is most recently working on identifying improvement opportunities for all sports diversity issues.   

A quick update on Patriot Park North (this is the new park that is currently named LLV, located next to Willow Springs Elementary School): As reported in our last article, bonding was approved and Fairfax County is moving forward with the development of Patriot Park North.  The County is currently in the last planning stages of the park and we hope that construction will start as soon as 2019. SYA will temporarily lose two 60’ diamonds and one 90’ diamond during the construction. SYA is working with the County to develop alternative plans for playing fields during that period and we will continue to provide you updates. This will be the first multi field project in Fairfax County for diamonds. Go to the Fairfax County website for more information.

F.A.S.T – this acronym stands for Fairfax Athletes Stand Together. It is a program designed to help Fairfax County citizens and one that SYA participates in regularly.  To date, SYA has collected several THOUSAND pounds of food that are distributed amongst the many shelters throughout Fairfax County. Look to our website to find out about our next F.A.S.T. collection date!

Champions of Character awards. Nominations are now open and deadline for submission is August 1. This is a great opportunity to recognize volunteer athletes, coaches and parents. Go to the Fairfax County website for more information. 

Sports Park News

Great news for SYA members and our Sports Park! Our construction project -- paving the parking lot that we currently have, installing a road and bridge to the back part of the property, and adding a new parking area --will serve the next seven lit fields! Thanks to Hazel construction and Thurston Properties for all the work they have done and are doing managing the project for us. In our last newsletter we reported expectation to complete the project by early May. Well… we are ahead of schedule and hope to open the Park back up within the next week or two! Once completed we will begin work on a brand new two court outdoor Volleyball area! We are also on the path to creating our “parallel” website just for the Park. Please visit us for more information at www.syasports.org.