FAQs
Overview Of Fiya
Below are some Frequently Asked Questions about FIYA Athletic Events, updated for the 2024-25 school year. As a general rule of thumb, we encourage all incoming and returning FIYA participants to re-read these "FAQ About Athletic Events" and our Regulations Manual EACH YEAR as we update both documents annually before the start of the school year.
FIYA (pronounced FÍ-yuh) is the acronym for FOUNDATION FOR INTERSCHOLASTIC YOUTH ATHLETICS. Established in August 2011, FIYA is a nonprofit entity serving as a governing body for interscholastic youth sports offered to elementary schools (with a strong emphasis on middle schools) in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas.
For more detailed information about FIYA’s rules and protocols, please review the FIYA Regulation Manual which can be found in the About Tab of our website at onfiya.org.
FIYA offers three (3) divisions by grade level for competition:
- Division 1 is for students in grades 8 and below.
- Division 2 is for students in grades 6 and below.
- Division 3 is for students in grades 4 and below.
Please note that a player can play UP a division but cannot play DOWN a division. For example, a 6th grader can play on a Division 1 team but a 7th grader cannot play on a Division 2 team.
No high school student, regardless of his/her age, can play in a FIYA athletic event. Middle school and elementary school students must meet the age eligibility requirements as set forth in Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the FIYA Regulation Manual.
FIYA offers athletic events in two forms: LEAGUE EVENTS and TOURNAMENT EVENTS
- LEAGUE EVENTS occur over an 8 to 10-week period involving a regular season league schedule and playoffs (for qualifying Division 1 teams only). See Question 4 for the listing of FIYA league events.
- TOURNAMENT EVENTS can be designated as tournaments, meets or competitions and are generally one day or multiple day events that typically offer an individual competition as well as a team competition. See Question 6 for the listing of FIYA tournament events.
League Events by Season:
| Early Fall |
| Girls Volleyball |
| Boys Flag Football (7 v 7) |
| Girls Flag Football (5 v 5) |
| Late Fall |
| Girls Futsal (5 v 5 indoor; D1 only) |
| Boys Futsal (5 v 5 indoor; D1 only) |
| Coed Futsal (5 v 5 indoor; D1 only) |
| Winter |
| Girls Basketball |
| Boys Basketball |
| eSports (Fortnite) |
| Spring |
| Girls Soccer (11 v 11) |
| Boys Soccer (11 v 11) |
| Girls/Boys/Coed Futsal (D2/D3 only) |
| Boys/Coed Volleyball |
There are six general dates that you need to be aware of for each League Event, all of which can be found on our Calendar page:
(i) The Registration Deadline Date is the final day to register a school team for a League Event. Note that registrations requested AFTER the Registration Deadline Date go on our waitlist and there’s no guarantee late registrations will be admitted;
(ii) The Preseason Coaches Video Meeting Date is the week following the Registration Deadline Date. This is an invaluable meeting done through Google Meet (usually at 430 pm) for which coaches from each team should attend in order to be fully prepared for the upcoming season;
(iii) The Drop Date is the day after the Preseason Coaches Meeting Date. If you determine you will not have a school team for the League Event that you registered for, this is the final date to notify FIYA in writing. Note that dropping after the Drop Date, your school is still responsible for the registration fee.
(iv) The Draft Schedules Date is generally emailed one week after the Preseason Coaches Video Meeting Date. The goal is that there are very minimal changes needed because each school set forth its schedule requests during the registration process. In reviewing your school team’s draft schedule, each school must email any conflicts immediately;
(v) The Start Date and the End Date of the Regular Season for the League Event – these are posted on our calendar page; and
(vi) For Division 1 teams only, the start date and end date of Playoffs are posted on our calendar page.
Tournament Events by Season:
| Fall |
| 4-6 Cross Country Meets |
| Winter |
| 1 Cheer and Dance Competition |
| Spring |
| 4-6 Track & Field Meets |
There are three general dates that you need to be aware of for each Tournament Event, all of which can be found on our Calendar page:
(i) The Recorded Coaches Video Meeting Date is made available in advance of the tournament on our website and should be reviewed by coaches WELL PRIOR to the Registration Deadline Date. The information contained in the recorded coaches meeting will help ensure a team’s success in participating in the tournament.
(ii) The Registration Deadline Date is the final day to register a school team for a Tournament Event and is the Drop Date to cancel an existing registration. As Tournament Events generally include an individual component, the Registration Deadline Date also means entering your individual athletes into specific events.
(iii) The Date/Time of the Tournament Event is listed on our website. Please make sure the athletes that you register are available and plan to attend the tournament as schools are charged for the number of athletes registered for a Tournament Event, not the number of athletes who participate.
First, contact FIYA at INFO@ONFIYA.ORG to ensure that someone from your school is on the FIYA email distribution list. If your school does not already have an athletic director, we recommend that you appoint a school employee as the school’s athletic director or coordinator and this individual is the main contact for FIYA. FIYA sends periodic emails to our active email distribution list about upcoming events and important dates.
Second, go to the REGISTRATION tab of our website and view the information for the League and/or Tournament event for which your school is interested in participating.
Registration for all League Events and some Tournament Events are conducted through the FIYA LeagueApps Registration page. Complete the online registration for each team you wish to register. Instructions for how to do so are at the bottom of the registration page. LeagueApps also has extensive team management capabilities which you are encouraged but not required to use. Doing so will help ensure you and your team are always aware of the latest schedule updates.
Registration for cross country and track & field is done via Athletic.Net. Instructions for how to register can be found on the Cross Country and Track & Field pages of this website.
Links to both our LeagueApps and Athletic.Net pages can be found on the Registration Page of this website.
First, FIYA organizes its league events geographically. That is, we group school teams together based on their physical location in order to minimize travel. Second, based on the number of schools in a geographic area, we attempt to organize the school teams into leagues of similar quality based on our historical knowledge of the teams and any input we receive.
FIYA league events are centralized which means our games occur at a location in the region which hosts multiple games per day. The majority of our league events and tournament events occur on weekdays between the hours of 4 pm and 7 pm start times.
Yes. Our online registration form for League Events allows you to provide such requests. To the extent you have a field and/or gym (see Question 13), your requests will assuredly be met. If you do not have your own field and/or gym, we will do our best to work with your request but sometimes there’s no flexibility between your request and the facility for which you are designated to play. If we cannot find a match between your request and the facilities in your geographic area, we will inform you before the scheduling process begins.
The Registration Fee for League Events is $695 per team. However, please note for eSports, the Registration Fee is $100 per team per eSports league.
The Registration fee covers the entire expense for referees, game operators, facility and administrative fees for a 7 to 9 game regular season plus playoffs for Division 1 qualifiers.
The Registration Fee for Tournament Events is based per individual and is $20 per athlete unless otherwise stated.
Payment for League Events or Tournament Events can be by credit card or check. Unless a school is notified otherwise, payment is due as follows:
League Events: Payment due by the season start date. Please note on your LeagueApps dashboard, you are able to print your invoice which will provide an invoice number and FIYA’s name and address.
Tournament Events: Payment due upon receipt of invoice, which is typically sent at the conclusion of the entire tournament season. For example, one invoice will be sent after all cross country meets have been completed for the total amount due for all cross country meets that your school participated in.
With respect to the registration fee for a league event, if a school team drops from a league event on or before the Drop Date (see question 5), the school will not owe a registration fee. However, after the Drop Date, a school dropping from the finalized league schedule still owes the registration fee.
With respect to the registration fee for a tournament event, the school is charged for the number of athletes that it registers for the event regardless of the athlete’s participation on the day of the event.
FIYA strives to keep its costs as low as possible. FIYA works with schools to ensure that finances do not prevent their students from participating. In addition, schools that provide gyms and/or fields to host league games are given substantial discounts on the registration fee.
Yes, we can schedule games so that your school team has all or most of its games at home as long as the centralized model is adopted. That is, we need to schedule at least two games (back to back) at your school’s gym/field. Each FIYA game is no more than 1 hour in length.
In addition, a host facility agrees to assist in setting up its gym or field to be able to host a FIYA athletic match which may include securing a scorekeeper. FIYA discounts a hosting school’s registration fee based on the number of hours the school hosts FIYA games.
FIYA offers county-wide playoffs for all qualifying teams from Division 1 leagues. There are NO playoffs for Division 2 and Division 3 leagues. For Division 1 playoff teams, there may be multiple playoff brackets: Division 1 (usually first place teams or the highest skilled teams), Division 1A (the next highest level of skilled teams after Division 1) and Division 1AA (the remaining playoff qualifying teams not in Division 1 or Division 1AA).
FIYA awards league championship plaques to all first place teams in all divisions. For playoff teams, we award a championship trophy and a finalist trophy along with individual medals for the final 2 teams in the playoff brackets. Awards are also given for various tournament event winners.
Lastly, FIYA conducts an end of year Awards Assembly (the second Saturday in June) where we honor ALL FIYA ATHLETIC TEAMS, ALL FIYA ACADEMIC TEAMS AND ALL FIYA SPORTSMANSHIP TEAMS. In addition, a $500 Shanese Washington Scholarship is awarded to three (3) members of the All FIYA Sportsmanship Team.
With a few exceptions, FIYA generally does NOT supply any of these items. However, FIYA can and has provided referrals to obtain balls, practice equipment and uniforms at a discounted rate as well as aid with schools looking for individuals to coach their teams.
With respect to coaches, schools generally find their own coaches. However, if you need assistance, feel free to reach out to us. We also recommend that you refer your coaches to the information in the Regulation Manual, specifically in Article V which sets forth coaching requirements and guidelines.
Forming your roster PRIOR to the Registration Deadline Date is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. In addition, reviewing the provisions in Article VI will help you with your roster determination.
With the exception of Cross Country, there is no maximum number on the roster; you should carry a reasonable number of players based on the sport. We recommend that you carry a roster of two times the player requirement. For example, volleyball is for 6 players so your roster should be approximately 12 players or soccer is for 11 players so your roster should be approximately 22 players.
We typically offer a girls division and a boys division for our athletic events. For some sports, we also offer a coed division.
Yes females can play on a boys team even if your school has a girls team of the same sport during the same season so long as the school believes that there are no safety concerns. However, if your school has a girls team in the same sport during the same season, the female player cannot play on both the girls team and the boys team. Note that a male cannot play on a girls team.
It depends. One player can play on multiple teams as long as the sport differs OR the sport is offered in a different time period. For example, the same player can play on the girls volleyball team and run cross country during the fall season. In addition, the same player can play on the girls volleyball team in the fall and either the boys volleyball team or the coed volleyball team in the spring. However, the same player cannot play on the boys volleyball team AND the coed volleyball team in the spring. Lastly, if your school has two teams involved in the same sport - - for example, you have two boys basketball teams in Division 1 - - one player CANNOT play on BOTH teams but must remain on only one team throughout the season.
First, it is crucially important to communicate with FIYA first and foremost about any subsequent schedule issues for your team. Do NOT communicate with the opponent, the host facility or the referees.
Second, the timing of your communication is very important. In general, any communication occurring one week in advance, we will endeavor to work with the scheduling issue. If the communication occurs with less than a week’s notice, then it is less likely that your schedule issue can be resolved. In addition, your school team may receive a forfeit for last minute notice. Forfeits are frowned upon because it impacts many aspects outside of your school team. Consequently, school teams that forfeit will receive a minus 3 points in the standings and multiple infractions could jeopardize a school’s ability to participate in FIYA.