Most of the regions that participate in PCSSL have a "3-before-4" policy or some other 75% playing time goal, therefore PCSSL supports these requirements for every PCSSL game.

Everybody Plays is an AYSO requirement, violations are an AYSO issue, not something penalized directly by PCSSL. However, PCSSL reserves the right to bring violations that we observe to the attention of the appropriate Regional Coach Administrators, Regional Commissioners, and if necessary Area Directors, who then will explore the question whether the parties involved are honoring the agreements that allow them to be entrusted with a team.

For 10U and 12U play, the use of the AYSO Substitution Timesheet is not applicable. In these divisions, the referees monitor and keep written record of the quarter-by-quarter substitutions on the game cards. For 14U, 16U, and 19U play, "free substitutions" are allowed [see the section 4 under Referees of the PCSSL Rules for specific definitions regarding when substitutions can take place], and at this level we rely on teams rather than the referees to maintain the written record.

In these upper age divisions with free substitutions there is a need for a finer grained method to track player time in the game, and our timesheets are the mechanism that records this tracking -- this method provides a rough (+/- 5 minutes) track of each player's time on the bench. The timesheet is a spreadsheet printed to hardcopy and brought to each game that provides a one-page overview of that game with one row for each player on the team and a column for each 5-minute segment of the game. 

Timesheet Mechanics

The spreadsheet is built with two tabs, the first tab is an "Entry Form", the second tab is the "Time Record" that is printed out and brought to the game. Before the game the "Entry Form" is filled out similarly to a game card -- enter team and coach information at the top, then each player's information, one entry for each player, sorted in ascending order based on their jersey number -- timekeepers are unlikely to know player names, so jersey number is how everyone will be identified. Once the information is entered then print out one or more copies of the "Time Record" tab and bring that to the game.  [There is no need to print or bring the "Entry Form" to the game.  At the game all that is needed is a printed copy of the "Time Record".]

Each team shall identify a timekeeper, that person will monitor the opposing team's players. The process is fairly simple. Every 5 minutes during the game the timekeeper notes which players are on the bench and makes an "X" mark in the box where that player's row intersects with the current 5-minute time period. The boxes then for the players out on the field will be left blank. After the game, rows that have many more "X" marks than the other rows suggest there have been problems satisfying Everybody Plays.

For players who are not present at the game (whether they are a "scratch" for the whole game or are coming late or leaving early), mark the corresponding boxes with an "A" (for 'absent'). For players coming late, switch from an "A" to an "X" only after the player is properly dressed and warmed up. For any player unable to play (injury, exhaustion, whatever), mark the corresponding boxes with an "I" (for 'injured'). For the rare cases where a player is sent-off from a game (red card) but is still on the bench (and hence not physically absent), the mark for the corresponding boxes can be "R" (for 'red card') or simply an "A" (the referee's report of the send-off will resolve this potential ambiguity in the timesheet).

These timesheets provide only a rough approximation of playing time, but precision is not the point.  Given that soccer is a flowing game often there may be periods a lot longer than 5-minutes without any substitution opportunity available; hence any time management system is either going to need to be very exacting (down to the second) or it will be rather rough.  For our purposes a rough approximation should suffice, so long as a reasonable attempt is made.  The question is not whether there are precisely 7 or 8 unmarked boxes on each row, the question is whether the team has demonstrated a concerted effort to get all players something resembling an even chance to play.

Each team is required to have a timekeeper at each game to record the opposing team's substitutions.  In order to reliably cover this responsibility it is suggested that each team prepare at least two assistant coaches or other parents.

Downloads

• To download the AYSO Substitution Timesheet (as an Excel spreadsheet)

• To view a sample substitution timesheet (see an example of what the "Entry Form" tab looks like, the part the coach fills out)

• To view a sample substitution timesheet (see an example of what the "Time Record" tab looks like, the sheet each team brings to a game)

• To view a sample substitution timesheet (see an example of what a used timesheet might look after a game)