MSYSA State and Presidents Cup Participants,

As we have previously communicated with our teams, MSYSA has been committed to providing the state and presidents cup competitions for our teams as long as it was determined that we could provide a safe and healthy environment and were acting within the guidelines established by state and local governments along with the US Youth return-to-play policy.    After optimistically delaying any decisions until more information had been secured and with the hope that we would be able to follow the previously mentioned guidelines, we faced the unfortunate decision to have to cancel the 2020 state and presidents cup competitions for the 2020 season.    The decision was reached based on the following:

• Current and proposed government mandates on number of individuals in one location
• Currently we have begun Phase 1 of return-to-play which included upto 10 individuals at one time.    Phase 2 would include team training and intra-team scrimmaging.   Actual contests would not be permitted until Phase 3.   The timeline was developed with the thought that graduating into the next Phase would take a minimum of 2 to 4 weeks. 
• Making sure we kept the integrity of the competitions – many teams had reached out to us stating that they would no longer be able to adequately field a team this summer. 
• Conversations with other local leagues who have decided not to offer a summer program. 

All teams/clubs will receive up to a 100% credit towards next year’s competition with the following exceptions:

• 19u and 18u teams with at least 50% of their roster comprised of current seniors who have just graduated – these teams will receive a full refund as long as the club does not have an outstanding balance due to MSYSA (affiliate fees, player registration fees, background check fees, etc). 
• Any clubs/teams that have an outstanding balance with MSYSA (affiliate fees, player registration fees, background check fees, etc) will have credits towards next year's competition reduced to cover those balances.

Any other team requesting a refund (rather than a credit) would have to have extenuating circumstances and would have to complete their request within the GotSport system. 

CLICK THE LINK HERE: https://system.gotsport.com/forms/1368136A1

These requests will be reviewed and considered on a case-by-case basis for approval! 

Please note that this decision was not taken lightly or without a lot of conversation (we have met regularly as a group every Monday since the competitions were suspended).    In fact, Maryland is one of the last remaining states that had held out the possibility that we could hold the competition.   While we are all really disappointed, but in trying to meet the association’s goal of having an event this summer for the purpose of getting our players/teams back on the field and returning to some sort of normalcy before the fall season, we are looking at hosting a festival at the end of July for any teams that may be interested.   Teams can use either their 2019/20 or 2020/21 players cards at this event.   More information will be provided in the near future but registration would not begin until July 1st to provide additional time to make sure that this will be possible.

Thanks again and I hope everyone is safe and healthy.    Please contact Brad Roos ([email protected]) if you have any additional questions concerning any of the above information.

For previous cup notices see the msysa updates page here