By Peyton Celesti | Sports Writer

The Old Allegheny Soccer league for boys and girls of 5-13 years of age is back for another season. Although the league has been a mainstay in the community since the early 1990’s, the league has truly found a new home over the last 10 years or so at the beautiful turf soccer complex near Riverview Park.

The league is currently co-ed, and Old Allegheny Soccer president Brittany Mc-Comas sees the benefits of that.

“We are kind of smaller (in number this year),” McComas said. “At this age we believe playing together is really good for them.”

McComas, who has been coaching at Old Allegheny for 15 years and is entering her eighth year as president, reported that there are 140 kids signed up in total.

The in-house age groups for Old Allegheny Soccer are 5-7 (instructional league), 7-10 (b-league) and 10-13 (a-league). McComas said that kids are put in leagues depending on skill set, not just age.

During the first week of practice (Aug. 14-18) all kids were practicing at the same time. No teams had been set yet, as every player was under the evaluation process. According to McComas, the goal of the league is to make sure that all teams are close to evenly matched to allow for competitive games.

Each age group has different times for the two halves of soccer played. The instructional league (5-7) has 16 minute halves, while the b-league (7-10) has the 25 minute halves, and the a-league (10-13) has 30 minute periods. Adult soccer, of course, has 45 minute halves, so Old Allegheny certainly makes sure to put the safety of their players first.

Although Old Allegheny is primarily an in-house league, they do get travel teams playing together. This fall there will be a 14u team playing in the Pennsylvania West Soccer Association. They will play their home games at Riverview Park Field on Sundays.

The seasons for both the in-house league and the travel team begin the weekend after Labor Day.