BAY AREA SURF TRAVEL
Everything You Need Know
TEAM TRAVEL
2022-2023
Bay Area Surf has been recognized by US Soccer for excellence as one of the nation's leading girl’s programs developing female athletes both on and off the field. Our program has produced numerous national team players, won multiple National Championships, year after year placed student-athletes in power five conferences, and has created a top-notch travel program that helps players prepare to be young adults. Our travel program helps our athletes develop independence and self-reliance by teaching them how to prepare for competitions, recover after matches, manage time and schoolwork, get proper sleep, value friendships, balance nutritional needs, and much more.
Bay Area Surf team travel is for the U14 age group and older. Since our program has a vast amount of players that participate in US and other YNT programs, it is critical for our players to understand the importance of team travel by this age to ensure they are prepared and ready when called into these environments.
Team travel has many advantages for both players individually and teams as a whole. Team bonding and experiences on trips is priceless, becoming some of the fondest memories players will have from their days in youth soccer. Meeting new people, experiencing new cultures, and overcoming new challenges in a new place is always a great learning process for players. Our most successful teams started traveling as a team early on and now, as young adults, they talk about how these trips are some of the most memorable and how they tremendously helped them prepare for many different aspects of life and soccer.
WHY WE TRAVEL THIS WAY
Team Travel Promotes:
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Player and team performance: focusing on the competition
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Education: nutrition, recovery, and preparation
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Team and club bonding: Together Everyone Achieves More!
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Building player responsibility, confidence, independence and accountability
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Preparing players for what’s next: USYNT travel camps and college travel
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Experiences and memories that last a lifetime
Team Travel Enables Key Differentiators:
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Teams stay at the same hotel
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Enable team meetings
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Club bonding & mentorship
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Certified Athletic Trainer recovery sessions
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Allows Athletic Trainer to tend to injuries
PRIORITIES FOR THE TRIP
The most important focus for players is to take a professional approach and view the trip as an opportunity to prepare, grow, and compete at the highest level. As such, there will be times when entertainment or fun activities may not be an option. We do try to incorporate different group activities, when possible, to keep things balanced (e.g. college campus tours).
EXPECTATIONS
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Players who commit to the ECNL Program are financially committing to making themselves available for ALL training sessions, games, and showcases/events.
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Required travel showcases vary by age group within the ECNL. These venues change yearly throughout the country.
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We travel as a group (players, chaperones and staff) and work with a travel company to start the travel logistics as soon as possible once teams are accepted for the events by the ECNL.
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Early communication about conflicts is crucial to making sure we are as financially efficient as possible and will allow for conflicts to be worked around if addressed in a timely manner. We know there are changes that will arise from injuries or conflicts, but the earlier those things are communicated the better.
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As a player within our ECNL program, it is your responsibility to know the schedule of events for the year and update availability once posted. Changes to availability need to be communicated directly with your coach.
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Once travel rosters are sent out, the player will be invoiced for the trip. Payment(s) must be made by established due date (and paid in full prior to departure).
GENERAL TRAVEL GUIDELINES
We have travel guidelines that players and parents are expected to understand and follow. These guidelines ensure player safety and allow us to maintain positive relationships with the contacts we have in the travel industry. They will be presented to parents and players at the beginning of the season.
01
WHEN WE FLY
Players are dropped off at the
airport, and they travel together as teams with their chaperones.
Everything in between drop-off and pick-up is handled between the staff and the chaperones.
*Out of state event
02
WHILE AT EVENTS
Players are to remain on the
schedule and itinerary set by the
staff and are unable to
deviate from that to have personal time or events with family
03
WHEN TRAVELING
Players are expected to represent the club when traveling and wear Bay Area Surf gear only. Travel polo, warm-up pants / shorts, jacket and athletic shoes (no Game shorts, Birks sandals, Crocs, Vans or other casual shoe wear).
PLAYER SAFETY FIRST
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TWO Female chaperones per age group – One experienced lead plus another volunteer.
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Chaperones must maintain a current SAFESPORT CERTIFICATION, and approved US CLUB BACKGROUND CHECK.
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Players are to stay on the itinerary set by the club.
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Buddy system is employed in public places.
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Players must communicate to their chaperones where they are at; players not allowed to wander on their own (i.e. leave hotel, wander to take selfies, etc.)
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Players are not allowed at anytime to let anyone outside of their roommates/teammates into their rooms.
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Adults or coaches are NEVER allowed in players’ rooms. Only Chaperones when they are together.
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Chaperones are not allowed to consume alcohol while on trips.
FLIGHTS
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Players who are rostered for away events are financially responsible for the group ticket purchased in their name.
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Players cannot purchase their own tickets to fly separately*.
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Please Note: with group travel, all tickets are purchased as round trip (generally months ahead of the event). Depending on the airline, you may or may not be able to use a second leg of a flight only. It is impermissible to modify group tickets (for example, only use half a flight and fly back on a separate ticket).
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Travel Attire: Players are expected to represent Bay Area Surf when traveling. Surf gear should be worn on day(s) of travel.
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We highly recommend signing up for TSA Pre to make group travel even quicker and smoother - games can run late on last day of travel.
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Recommend players get their passports. Travel is generally domestic, however an international trip has been known to occur. We also have quite a few players asked to travel with youth national teams, and US Soccer often is unable to give a lot of notice in advance, so it’s good to have it for that reason as well.
* on special occasion, a situation may arise where an alternate arrangement may be required. Please coordinate with Annette Piper well in advance.
ACADEMICS
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We miss on average 3-5 days of school – some teams may be a little different. We recommend having up front conversations with teachers and counselors at the beginning of the year about our schedule (which will be released by then) so that conflicts can be worked out with plenty of time ahead of departure dates.
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It is up to each player to establish a dialogue with their teacher in advance of how to best navigate the absence. Most schools are generally quite open and accommodating.
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We have a proctored Study Hall on trips so that players can stay on top of their homework and classes. They will also have additional personal time on each trip to do schoolwork as well.
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We firmly believe in the importance of balancing school and soccer and supporting players to be the best student-athletes they can be. We expect players in our program to focus on and maintain the highest academic standard they can.
PLAYER EXPECTATIONS
Bay Area Surf prides itself on the excellent conduct and sportsmanship of our players, parents, coaches, and spectators. Each person associated with Bay Area Surf is responsible for his or her behavior. Parents should be aware that children tend to mimic adult behavior. Positive support for the team and staff is expected. It is a privilege to travel as a representative of our club. Our players, parents, coaches, and spectators are expected to always act appropriately. We have a reputation to uphold and therefore ask that all constituents remember that negative details of a team’s conduct travel much faster and farther than positive conduct / actions.
* Please refer to your player registration agreement for full version of our Player and Parent Codes of Conduct
ATHLETE
HEALTH
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We travel with our athletic trainer Janet Cortes
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She administers basic medical care and is especially equipped to help
rehab minor injuries.
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If a player is sick/ill and needs specific care, a chaperone will contact the parent for permission to administer over the counter medication or parent may be required to pick up their child, especially if they are contagious.
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Please ensure your child is healthy prior to going on trips and any medical concerns are communicated to Janet ahead of time.
Nutritional Information
The following Nutritional guidlines will be reviewed with players to help them understand the importance of proper nutrition for athletes performance and recovery.
In general we follow the US Olympic Committee’s recommendations for nutrition. Please find all resources here:
https://www.teamusa.org/nutrition
We do our best to make sure the players are eating the proper foods to increase their performance on the field and help their recovery off the field. Here are some helpful resources for your review.
ALLERGIES &
SPECIAL DIETARY NEEDS
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If there are allergies, or special medical needs please let us know in writing as soon as your daughter is rostered for the event in writing so we can make sure we accommodate.
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We work with hotels and restaurants directly and we give them a list of items so that they can cater to our guidelines.
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Email the staff at travel@bayareasurf.org with each player’s specific food allergy so we can make chaperones aware and we can make accommodations .
IT'S JUST ANOTHER REASON, WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT..
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Much like our coaching staff spends countless hours going through the details of our training plans and details in the coaching points, Annette Piper, our Girls Travel & Logistics Director, spends countless hours going through all the trip logistics details to ensure everything runs smoothly. Annette oversees all team travel logistics and volunteer staff for trips. This team does an extraordinary job of making the players’ experience professional and seamless – similar to how a college or national team trip would be. Annette’s work behind the scenes is invaluable and always puts the players safety first.
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We have had incredible and pro-active team managers over the past seasons. We’ve also had extremely organized and motivated parents to help hand out player profiles and help solve unexpected needs on trips. Delivering the club’s unique mission, for its 200+ female players, is a massive undertaking and to do it right requires everyone’s help & buy-in.
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We know from the past that some of our most successful teams have one common denominator; exceptional parent support. We cannot overlook or overstate the power of having families who are engaged, trusting, humble, friendly, civil, unselfish, and kind to each other and to every player in the program. This can absolutely make or break an age group and a team.
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We ask that everyone start from the perspective that each person is doing the best they can and that face-to-face conversations are often more effective at resolving conflict than sharing texts, emails, or rumors. We truly value the input of parents and their support of their children – we simply cannot provide the best possible environment for these players without you and your investment in this process.
We are always in search of volunteers to keep our teams and club operating smoothly. We have all different types of volunteer needs.
If you are interested, please reach out to us.
We would love to hear from you..
We need support in many ways when we are traveling. Not just chaperones. Parents that may be coming to the event for instance and have the ability to help here are just a few ways you can help:
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Bringing equipment
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Organizing special events (College days, BBQ, Socials, Dinners, etc.)
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Shopping runs
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Laundry
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Meal pick-ups
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Water or Ice runs
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Coffee to keep those chaperones going..
Interested in being volunteer? Click Below
SAFESPORT & VOLUNTEERING
Starting with the 22-23 season, US Club Soccer has mandated that all chaperones are required to take to register and complete all requirements including the “SafeSport Trained” course and US Club background check.
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To ensure the safety of all players, all of our coaches are SafeSport certified and we follow mandated SafeSport guidelines – more information can be found here: https://www.usef.org/forms- pubs/ZeXEaZoEt-k/fact-sheet-protecting-young-victims.
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Each family is asked to help us by understanding these guidelines and to help out in whatever role they can.
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We take two female chaperones per age group on away trips. Each team will have an experienced/primary chaperone whenever possible and we ask that each family volunteer for at least one trip to fill the second spot. There are some who do several and we are extremely grateful.
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Due to the same generous volunteers often being the ones to step up and help every time, and given that we will also need help with water, ice, canopy set-up and breakdown at all home games, the team manager for each age group will have a sign-up sheet in August for everyone to take a turn, so those parents can have a break and let others step up to help.
WHO IS REQUIRED TO COMPLETE STAFF REGISTRATION & BACKGROUND CHECK?
Without limitation, this includes individuals in the following roles:
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Member Organization Board of Directors
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Member Organization executives, directors, coaches, managers, administrators and other staff who have Regular Contact with or authority over Minor Athletes, regardless of whether the individual is an employee, independent contractor, or volunteer
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Anyone traveling as a member of a team delegation
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id2 / PDP staff and coaches
In-Program Contact: Any contact (including communications, interactions, or activities) between an Adult Participant and any Minor Athlete related to participation in sport. Examples include, but are not limited to, competition, practices, camps/clinics, training/instructional sessions, pre-/post-game meals or outings, team travel, review of game film, team- or sport-related relationship-building activities, celebrations, award ceremonies, banquets, team- or sport-related fundraising or community service, sport education or competition site visits.
GIRLS TRAVEL STAFF
Janet Cortes
Annette Piper
Director of Travel & Logistics
408-206-4472
To email the entire staff: