East Meadow Girls U11 soccer program to hold final tryout June 13

The East Meadow Soccer Club’s U11 Girls Travel Program (for children born between Aug. 1, 1999 and July 31, 2000) is looking to create a third team that will play in a lower division -- 5, 6 or 7 -- of the Long Island Junior Soccer League, to compliment its two upper division teams that now play in Divisions 1 and 3. The GU11 program will hold its final tryout of 2010 on Sunday, June 13, at 5:30 p.m.

The U11 girls program offered the following Q&A about its travel program:

What’s the East Meadow Soccer Club?

The EMSC is a nonprofit youth organization committed to fostering participation in soccer. Founded in 1971, the club now boasts more than 2,000 families, and has travel teams for young people ages 9-19.

Why try travel soccer?

Three important reasons:

1. Travel soccer will offer your child the opportunity to receive professional lessons and guidance from a qualified, accredited trainer whose focus will be on skills building and team strategy.

2. Travel soccer will give your child critical experience with playing teams from nearby towns, preparing her for middle school soccer, which begins in two years.

3. Travel soccer will enable your child to continue playing the Beautiful Game throughout middle school and even high school, if that is her desire. The club’s intramural program will end in two years.

Isn’t there a big commitment to travel soccer?

That would depend on which team your child joins. If she joins the third team, the commitment level will be only slightly greater than intramurals, with once-a-week practices and games, as well as a couple of local, one- or two-day tournaments throughout the year.

Isn’t travel soccer expensive?

Because your child receives professional training from soccer experts, the cost is higher than for intramurals –– around $500 to $600 more for the year for the third team, which breaks down to less than $9 per hour of training and game time.

I hear that travel soccer players are under a lot of pressure to win. Is that true?

While it’s true that upper-division teams often "play to win," the