AN: I did get a degree in music performance. I picked up my mom's guitar as a sophomore in high school and taught myself and just fell in love. Beyond falling in love, I thought I could make a living off of it. I had an internship at one time and was on the road a lot, and it just wasn't the family life that I was looking for, unfortunately. And so now, I'm just playing bedtime songs for my four kids.

AN: I played soccer my entire youth. I'm from Bismarck, North Dakota, so soccer was different growing up there. Our parents didn't play, so we were first-generation soccer players, growing up in a sport that nobody knew much about at the time. Playing competitively with the same team from Under-11 through Under-18 with the same coach created such an impression on me, that I always had this strong connection back to the sport.

AN: I entered college as kind of an undefined or a generalist. I took a semester off to have back surgery to correct the severe scoliosis I dealt with growing up. When I got back to school, I went into audio engineering and found out it wasn't the path I wanted. I kept my head down and finished the degree in music performance, but my passion really elevated when I got into communications, PR, and marketing.

After graduation, my wife and I packed up everything from Fargo, North Dakota, and moved to Vail, Colorado, for about six months. I worked as a bartender and lived the dream of snowboarding and hanging out with friends. When we came down the mountain, I started one of the worst jobs ever. I was a commission-only insurance salesman. Lasted just a few months. But it led me to my next job as the marketing and communications director for an athletic performance facility. One of our subcontractors was a company that helped nonprofits do marketing, events, and partnerships. I became a consultant there, and some of the major nonprofits that I worked with were soccer clubs. At any given point, I probably had in my oversight six to ten non-profit soccer clubs. I watched how these soccer clubs ran their business and thought that if I ever had the opportunity, I would do it in a very different way.

AN: My wife and I were going through marriage prep at our church, and the liturgist who was putting us through it was the president of a local soccer league. He let me know about a potential opening as an administrator for Skyline Soccer Association. It opened up and I got the job. 

The first day I started, they handed me the keys and said, “good luck.” I was a single employee with about 1,100-1,200 kids, ranging from 3 to 18 years old. The club was losing players to bigger clubs that had a bit of a deeper pathway. I doubled down on the long-term vision, which was to focus on the grassroots of the organization. Over the eight years I was there, we grew from roughly 1,200 players to over 4,000. The little kids’ program that built the foundation started with 50 kids in the first season, and it ended with 1,400 kids. We went from one full-time employee, me, to 11 full-time employees. We were the fastest-growing club in Colorado and received multiple awards from local magazines. I loved that growth mindset, the opportunistic pieces of coming in, fixing things, and growing the program.

AN: I made some great connections with people on the board running the club, and ultimately, made the move. At the time, there were about 20 full-time employees. They were historically called Colorado Fusion Soccer Club and eventually became the Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club.

AN: I joined the Rapids in April 2016 and the merger became binding in April 2018. Our club had about 3,000 players, and Colorado Storm had about 7,000. Talk about a very challenging time in my life. It was two very different cultures, two very different styles of leading, and two very different styles of operating. I got selected by both boards to not only run with the merger, but to be the new Executive Director of the larger organization. And within a month, I had to reorganize both organizations and hire and fire as quickly as possible.

AN: To be frank, I ask myself that all the time. If somebody had told me 15 years ago that I'd be sitting here doing what I'm doing, I'd say they’re joking. I honestly don't know why they picked me. But I think it comes down to communication. It’s one thing I harp on our staff all the time.

I’d have to go back to when I was asked by the club boards to come and present my vision to the executive leadership from all regions. As I was walking in, I got a text from one of the board members who said, "Hey, it's a bit hostile in here. I just wanted to give you a heads up."

I went into this room with probably 25 to 30 people, and not only did I have to sell myself, but I had to sell the vision of why people should buy into this. I'll never forget sitting in my car before the meeting and turning up the music like it was before a big game, trying to pump myself up. As I replay it in my mind, it's hilarious to think about, because I was so overwhelmed and underprepared. But I did it. I think what probably allowed me to be successful was the board's trust throughout the process. Even when I came to Rapids originally, it was like, "Hey Aaron, here's your first day. Go and lead."

Going back to communication, it's the heartbeat of what we can do well. I have a master's degree in public administration, which was good for public administration, but honestly, it was probably better for communication. I've just learned over the years how to communicate effectively, how to organize myself, and how to organize my thoughts in digestible ways. I think that's what was appealing to them. 

AN: "Read My Mind" by The Killers.

AN: One of the things that I think actually plays into the favor of club mergers is a slow leak of information that's not a public release. While we tried to keep it secret, that probably actually played somewhat into our favor. Because then you get the parents that'll call you and say, "Hey, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that?" I don't think there was anybody that didn't know what was coming by the time we announced it. People had already been calling me, whether with congratulations or concerns. We were having those conversations upfront to understand how to pitch the message and deliver the next steps before we even publicly needed to.

AN: The Storm organization at the time was losing about 500 players a season across its four regions. In the first year, we grew by 700 across the regions, which was great. And again, it came back to organization and communication. I think with the parents, we knew there was going to be attrition. We knew there was going to be some heartache. That's just part of doing business, unfortunately. You're not going to sell everybody on it. And to be frank, I could never make that guarantee to anybody. We made a lot of mistakes trying to go through the process, not only with staff, but with player placement, with communication, and with operations.

Within a year, we were back bigger and better than we had been previously. The bigger challenge with mergers is that if you've got a good coach, you think the club is great. If you've got a bad coach, the club is bad. Some of these coaches who had been with Storm for 10, 15, or even 20 years had made personal connections, whether they were good coaches or not. When you talk about moving on that individual, it’s hard for a lot of parents and players. That was probably the hardest thing we had to deal with. Moving on staff and coaches who had built relationships and trust over the years, but just didn't fit the next iteration of what we needed to do to be more successful for the long-term experience for the players.

AN: During COVID, the number of players in Colorado dropped to the 30,000 range, so there was a significant loss. At one time, I know it was in the 40s or 50s. I don't know if it ever got to 60,000, but yes, somewhere around 25% of the state's new registrants registered with us. We went through a merger in April with Westminster Soccer Club, so now we'll be serving about 13,000-14,000 players across the front range of Colorado, spanning about 100 miles.

AN: Over 70 full-time staff.

AN: You're talking over 1,000. 

AN: Getting into the daily mix. I enjoy the things that make the club move forward. I'm challenged with my personality here, it's not just “make a decision” and then things change. It's a lot more strategic. And I can enjoy that as well, but in the old days I would just knock out email after email. I miss that because there's some semblance of camaraderie within your soccer club when you're going through the difficult times leading up to the season. You build bonds with your staff, you build bonds with your coaches.

AN: To some extent, yes. The worry I have about youth soccer in America is the focus on needing to get the next best player versus focusing on a long-term opportunity to develop a child.

We just did a study with Harvard University to understand the social return on investment. The study looked at long-term health benefits, social benefits, mental benefits, and anxiety. We looked at the good we can do not only for our community, but for a child's health, mental state, and emotional state long term. The clubs that frustrate me the most are the ones that just focus on the best in terms of skill.

I did a stint at a club town hall when I first came in. We had 500 plus people show up and I said, "Listen, I'm here to win. I want to win at everything we do." In communication, operations, the website and registration system, the timeline from when you contact us to when we get back to you. It’s the faces you see on the field, the people we hire, that's how I want to win. I don't care what level your child plays at. There is no difference to me. If a player is 15 years old going to the national team, or 3 years old just starting, you will have my full attention and commitment. We’ll work together because each of those pathways is equally important. Getting a kid out there at 3, who may be an only child. Maybe they don't go to preschool. Perhaps they're attached to their tablet or mom and dad's smartphone. We're showing them a different view of this world. And that's what excites me. I love to watch great soccer, don't get me wrong. But I love it when kids succeed more in life than they do in the field.   

AN: I’m very reflective, probably to a fault. We have a massive data and analytics program here. The conversations I have with parents, mentors, and directors, even just listening, have given me little snippets that helped me understand what it is we're doing here. I don't think every club gets that, especially not from a strategy perspective. We have a real impact on kids. I was so young when I started, that I had no idea of the impact. I still remember being told, "When you have kids one day you'll understand." At the time, I took offense to that, but when you do start having kids, you understand. Little decisions, a lack of communication, or mismanagement of the organization. It becomes so profound. We're giving kids opportunities to succeed in life. At the end of the day, that's it. Soccer's just the avenue for them. That's the piece we get to have fun with. It's no different than Southwest Airlines. They pride themselves as a customer service company. They just do it with planes. We're a customer service organization. We just get to do it with soccer.

AN: At the end of the day, we say our niche is developing remarkable coaches. We have to provide our coaches with all of the resources on and off the field to be successful. When we went through this process in 2019 and we made that statement, we had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars just into the education and development of our coaches, in addition to getting them the most high-quality gear with our branding that we can. There's no piece of gear that our coaches can't have to be successful. Because at the end of the day, we don't want them to have any excuse to not deliver the best experience for the kids.

AN: I’m fortunate to have a great technical director that helps me lead the organization. He came from the Scottish Federation and our vision of what the Xs and 0s should be is very similar. There are two pathways we look at in coaches - an understanding of the game and an understanding of the person. For years we prioritized understanding of the game. We’re far from that nowadays. Understanding the emotions of kids and communicating well with parents are harder to learn than taking somebody who can already communicate well and who shows up physically and mentally to push the kids to be better. That person is harder to find. But when we find that person, we know that we can teach them the Xs and Os. So, when we look at that dichotomy, we're looking at how to find the right people and then develop them into great coaches. Because again, the foundation of who we are is developing remarkable coaches, but we can't develop remarkable coaches without a foundation of a good personality, positive characteristics, and true care for the child.

AN: I'm presenting on that exact question at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in January. When I was with Skyline, we hired an external person to come in and support me in developing a strategic 10-year plan. I think it was 2010 when we started and called it “Vision 2020.” We put time, energy, effort, and money into this for six months. Once it was done, we were already beyond what the iteration of that plan was and put it on a shelf. I don't think I ever opened it again. At Rapids, in 2019, we went through to understand our core values, niche, purpose, and targets. We looked at our yearly targets, our three-year targets, and even our ten-year targets as we went through a book called 'Traction.'

This is what I'm presenting on, the vision and strategy of our whole organization. We fit the vision for our entire club on a front and back sheet of paper. That's it. It's done more for us than anything we've ever done. We review it on an annual basis with our executive and regional leadership, and not a single thing on the front or back has changed in two years in where we're going as an organization. The foundation of what we said continues to be what we want to achieve. Developing remarkable coaches, that's up on our wall. Our six core values, win from within, keep it simple, keep it small, and enjoyment first, those sorts of things, are all up on our wall so that our staff members see them daily. And then we've got six to eight one-year targets, which include registration numbers, retention, and net promoter score.

AN: We developed the net promoter score for youth soccer which is now being implemented in roughly 10 to 15 other clubs. It has been the foundation of how we evaluate the success or failure of our organization on a seasonal basis. That develops into a three-year evaluation, which includes some elite success, some facility development, and some growth in strategic programming, which then fits into our 10-year target. We want to have a 60% net promoter score by 2030. We're in the 30s right now. That number started with wanting to become a destination youth soccer club. How do we quantify that? We want to be a destination for 3-year-olds starting the game, 15-year-olds starting the game, coaches who want to develop, players at the top of their game, and all that. We want to build out programming and experiences where people want to go because they’re going to get the best experience for their child or as a coach. In building that destination 60% net promoter score, that's direct feedback from our members telling us how we do every single season.

AN: The hope is that they do build this out and it becomes part of running a club. All the clubs win, the players win, the staff wins, and the board wins. How do we get these coaches to understand that your retention is not what you think it is? How your members feel about you as an organization is not what you think it is. We were the first ones to have that “a-ha” moment of our retention being a borderline nightmare when I first arrived. We were at about a 70% retention rate. So, if you imagine a club with 10,000 players at the time, turning over 3,000 kids. I was blown away.

There's nothing we do here that I'm not willing to share with other clubs. We took our data and analytics program and we made it public to help other clubs. The end goal is that we have a duty to our organization, but in my mind, we have a duty to kids in general across the United States, and potentially the world, to improve their experience with soccer. If we look at the legacy that any of us leave, it's the hope that one day, the United States is competing at the same level that the rest of the world is or even better. We've got the numbers, we've got the facilities, and we've got the people. 

AN: There are probably two things. When I grew up, I still remember taking my registration form on the first day of little league baseball. I still remember that day very clearly, and my parents weren't involved. You gave them your registration form, I think it was like 15-20 bucks, and they put you on teams. The parents just sat back. You got your schedule for the season, and you showed up, and that was it. 

The challenge we have today is the need for immediacy with our membership. Our members are always going to ask for more. Constantly meeting the customer service needs of our membership has been a massive challenge, and that's where organizations in my mind across the U.S. are going to start to split. Those that can keep up with that need are going to win long term. Maybe not in the next year or two, but the next five to ten years. And the ones that don't prioritize some of that immediacy or communicate effectively are the ones that are going to fall behind. During my time at Skyline, we focused on serving the customer, which helped us grow 300% over eight years.

AN: I would call us a very tech-forward company. We're always finding the next iteration of how we can improve the relationship between the club and our members. The challenge is that there's something new every day. Some people overdo it with that and some people underdo it. You've got to find that right median with the amount of tech that you have in an organization to truly be successful. Tech is going to continue to develop for youth soccer. I hope tech continues to develop in the off-field presence because that's going to allow us to do the on-field things better at the end of the day. And you get tech overload with parents. We had LeagueApps, we had GroupMe for one of my teams, and WhatsApp for another team. My wife sent me a meme one time that said, "Okay, it's your first day of soccer, download these 82 apps and he'll be ready to go." Again, keep it simple. 

AN: One of our core values is what we call the moment of truth. You look at when somebody comes into an organization, right? There are different moments of truth. We stole it a little bit from Disney. When you buy your tickets. What was that moment like? When you go to the gates, what's that moment like? Then you enter the facility, what's that moment like? And then you go to find the bathroom, what's that moment like? There are 100,000 different moments. One thing that we have made a massive priority is our website. As people look to talk less and make online decisions more, we want the website to allow members to make those decisions as easily as possible by giving them the information at their fingertips. It's a constant work in progress to keep up with some of the trends, but if there's one thing that we do well, it's hitting that first, second, and third moment of truth. We're constantly looking at how to improve the overall website experience. I don't think youth clubs in any sport can overstate the importance of a well-communicated, well-articulated, well-informed website to the success of their organization long-term.

AN: It's hard to understand its true impact until you start using something. As we get bigger or even at the size we are, we've got to be more careful about what tech we introduce, because we can’t try this one year, and then something else another year, and so on. Our due diligence process is becoming longer. It comes back to the question, how does this tech solve the problem that currently exists in the organization? And there's a lot of tech out there that doesn't solve problems. They provide opportunities, but the amount of problem-solving that we do daily means moving 50,000 people across Colorado on any given Saturday between referees, coaches, parents, and traffic. It's solving our problem of getting people to the right place at the right time. When it comes to PlayMetrics specifically, our site minimizes people reaching out to us again because the information is all there. Every phone call and every email is time, right? There's only so much bandwidth or real estate to give, so we need to bring in tech that saves us time and energy and improves the ultimate value to our membership.

AN: We had some friends over last night for dinner, and this conversation came up. I've been here with Rapids for six years, so there's a good chunk of people that know me, especially on my kids' team. So if there are any challenges, I tend to get flagged down a lot on the sidelines, which is not my favorite thing. One of my wife’s and my favorite things to do is to sit on the sideline with a coffee on a beautiful Colorado morning and just watch our kids play. I found myself, unfortunately, kind of standing off in the corners by myself a lot of these days. All four of my kids are loving soccer, but people expect my kids to be great because of my role, and that's not fair to them.

AN: From a leadership perspective, the hardest thing for me to learn over time has been how to let go and distance myself from certain things. Because to be frank, it’s what made me who I am today. It was that gentleman, Tony, giving me the keys to the office at Skyline and saying good luck. Even when I came to Rapids, they just said to show up and start going. And they saw me fail. There were difficult conversations along the way, so not being involved at every level of the organization and in every decision keeps me up at night. There's the desire and drive that I want to, but then there’s the fact that I know I cannot and should not.

AN: I think what makes a good leader is knowing that with every decision and every person, there's an opportunity, but there's also failure along the way. That's why I want one of the core values in this moment of truth to be the willingness to get out and line the fields, set up goals, or referee the games that don't have one. You're also going to learn what is truly happening in your organization. I fear the level of vision and expectation I have is not executed on to the degree that I would each and every day. I love to deliver great experiences to kids and I enjoy customer service. Not everyone has the same feelings towards customer service that I do, and that's hard for me.

AN: The people. It seems like some days we're failing and some days we're winning, but when I look back at where we've come from, it's the people and relationships that we've built that stand out. Not only between our staff but the culture we're trying to build and the communication between ourselves and members excites me. I go back to that town hall meeting. I love to win. How do I wake up and win with these people by my side every single day? They have the same desire that I do to improve these opportunities for these kids. That's what gets me excited every day.