Here’s the tryout schedule and process, as best as we can describe it.

As always, please send questions to the captains when you have them!

Tryouts for 2010 Sockeye:

Our mission is to fulfill the following goals, which are not in order of importance.

• Create the best Sockeye 2010 team possible.
• Give all tryouts as fair of a chance as possible to show their talents and connect with Sockeye.
• Give all returning players honest feedback about their chances of making the team for 2010.
• Begin development towards playing our best at Worlds and Nationals.
• Run a sustainable process such that commitment requirements for both captains and players are manageable, exciting, and fair.

Towards those goals, here is the outline for Tryouts:

• Anyone can make the team, and only the 5-6 players on the Personnel Committee have guaranteed spots for 2010.
• All returning players are invited to all practices throughout the Tryout process (through the last weekend in April).
• New players will attend practices by invitation only. Invitations will be decided:
  • by the captains throughout the tryout process, or
  • by the best performances from the Combine (for more info, see the Tryout FAQs)
• New players may be given a spot on the team without a tryout. If this happens, it will be through a unanimous PC vote and after enough research to be sure that the player will be a good fit for the team.
• Returning Sockeye players can choose their level of involvement in the Spring season prior to tryouts. On April 23rd (the day before the final tryout weekend) all returners must make their commitment plans final and communicated to the captains.
• All tryouts will have an Agent, to streamline feedback and communication.
• All tryouts are closed following the Combine and are invite-only to practices.  To sign up for the Combine, please go send an email directly to info@seattlesockeye.org with your name, phone number, and previous teams you’ve played on.
• We are intentionally leaving the window open for players to play only the UPA series (skipping March through July for the Worlds focused-season), or only Worlds, given that that is the only possibility of that player’s participation. In doing this, we’ll need to make tough decisions comparing half-year apples to full-year oranges, and the PC will try to make their best decision to create the strongest team possible for both tournaments, which will involve finding the right combination of players, not necessarily the best individual super stars.