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North Carolina Youth Soccer Association Names PlayMetrics as Its Membership and Competition Operations Software

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:18:08 GMT

The decision aligns with the organization’s commitment to excellence and providing the best experience for their members

MORRISVILLE, NC (April 14, 2026) - PlayMetrics, a leading provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, today announced that it has been selected by North Carolina Youth Soccer Association (NCYSA) to power its membership and competition operations. The agreement equips NCYSA with a modern platform that unites governance, operations, and service – driving transparency, efficiency, and an elevated experience for every member.

“Our responsibility to our membership is to create a consistent, high-quality experience, and they expect a system that works the way they do,” said Bill Furjanic, Interim Executive Director & Technical Director of North Carolina Youth Soccer Association. “PlayMetrics gives us the foundation to do that with greater clarity, connectivity, and confidence as we look ahead to the future of youth soccer.”

NCYSA’s move to PlayMetrics provides access to a comprehensive, mobile-ready system that unifies registration, roster verification, scheduling, game-day workflows, and communication. As a result, affiliated clubs can more seamlessly collaborate with the state each season, ensuring a clear, dependable experience for all stakeholders, including administrators, directors, coaches, and families.

“Youth sports leaders – from the largest of state associations to smallest of clubs – are increasingly looking for ways to simplify operations without losing the flexibility they depend on,” said Tim Chain, Senior Vice President of Sales at PlayMetrics. “NCYSA’s decision to move their operations to the PlayMetrics Governing System signals to the youth soccer community that they are committed to delivering a better, more connected experience for their members.”

PlayMetrics serves thousands of youth sports organizations, from local clubs and leagues to State Associations and Governing Bodies. Building on nearly a decade of growth, the company continues to advance its goal of simplifying operations and uniting the youth sports community through modern technology.

About PlayMetrics

PlayMetrics, the most user-friendly and intuitive youth sports management platform, is purpose-built to simplify the unique complexities of running a club, league, tournament, or governing body. Trusted by forward-thinking leaders across a variety of sports, PlayMetrics empowers directors, coaches, administrators, and player families to modernize their daily operations with unified financial, operational, coaching, and communication tools. Learn more at https://home.playmetrics.com .

About North Carolina Youth Soccer Association (NCYSA)

As the backbone to the youth soccer ecosystem in North Carolina since 1976, NCYSA is vital to the success of more than 95 local soccer clubs and over 75,000 players. It impacts communities in every corner of the state by organizing leagues and tournaments, offering outreach programs for players of all ages and abilities and training coaches, administrators, and referees.

NCYSA is responsible for ensuring safe, inclusive environments for players by supporting local member clubs to provide access to structured athletic programs for children who might otherwise go without, while promoting teamwork, discipline, and leadership. NCYSA envisions that every individual in the state who wants to play soccer can do so with a North Carolina Youth Soccer Association Member Club in a safe, enjoyable, and respectful environment that leads to a lifelong love and participation in the sport. Learn more at www.ncsoccer.org .

Arkansas Soccer Association Chooses PlayMetrics as Its Membership and Competition Operations Software

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:59:29 GMT

The move will give Arkansas’ affiliated clubs access to a more streamlined, modern operating system

MORRISVILLE, NC (March 26, 2026) - PlayMetrics, a leading provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, today announced that it has been selected by Arkansas Soccer Association to power its membership and competition operations. The agreement provides Arkansas Soccer Association with an updated platform that unifies governance and operations, backed by strong service and delivers an elevated and seamless experience for members.

“Our move to PlayMetrics is about more than upgrading technology: it’s about setting our organization up for future growth,” said Jenny Williams, Executive Director of Arkansas Soccer Association. “The platform is intuitive, built for the way our member clubs already work, and gives us the flexibility we need as we continue to evolve. We’re confident this decision will support not just where we are today, but where we’re headed.”

With PlayMetrics, Arkansas Soccer Association will gain access to powerful tools that connect registration, roster verification, scheduling, game-day operations, and communication in a mobile-ready experience. Affiliated clubs will be able to more easily engage with the state each season, creating a reliable and transparent experience for everyone involved, from administrators and directors to coaches and families.

“State associations play a critical role in shaping the future of the game, and we’re seeing strong momentum across the industry toward more unified, purpose-built systems,” said Tim Chain, Senior Vice President of Sales at PlayMetrics. “By choosing PlayMetrics, Arkansas Soccer Association has signaled to their membership and the youth soccer ecosystem as a whole that they’re committed to modernizing operations and delivering a better, more connected experience.”

About PlayMetrics

About Arkansas Soccer Association

Arkansas Soccer Association (ASA) serves as the state governing body for youth and adult soccer in Arkansas. ASA is dedicated to supporting and advancing the game by serving member clubs and organizations across the state through registration, leagues and competitions, risk management, education, and developmental opportunities for players, coaches, referees, and administrators. In partnership with local leaders and communities, ASA helps provide the structure, standards, and pathways that support the game from grassroots participation through higher levels of competition. With a commitment to service, standards, and growth, ASA works to strengthen soccer and create positive experiences for all who are part of the game in Arkansas.

South Dakota Youth Soccer Association Selects PlayMetrics as Its Membership and Competition Operations Software

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:01:37 GMT

The move signals South Dakota’s ongoing commitment to providing a best-in-class experience for its member clubs

RALEIGH, NC (February 24, 2026) - PlayMetrics, a leading provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, today announced that it has been chosen by South Dakota Youth Soccer Association to power its membership and competition operations. The multi-year agreement allows the association to provide its member clubs with a modern platform that unites governance, efficiency, and streamlined operations.

“As an association that serves tens of thousands of players each year, it’s critical that we invest in technology that supports both our growth and how the game is evolving,” said Polly Dean, Executive Director of South Dakota Youth Soccer Association. “Moving to a unified platform like PlayMetrics allows us to better support our clubs, operate more efficiently, and position ourselves for long-term growth.”

With PlayMetrics, South Dakota Youth Soccer Association will gain access to powerful tools that connect registration, roster verification, scheduling, game-day operations, and communication in a mobile-ready experience. Affiliated clubs will be able to more easily engage with the state each season, creating a reliable and transparent experience for everyone involved, from administrators and directors to coaches and families.

“The future of youth soccer governance depends on unification,” said Tim Chain, Senior Vice President of Sales at PlayMetrics. “State associations need technology that connects their entire ecosystem on one platform, not a patchwork of tools. PlayMetrics is setting that standard and enabling associations to operate more strategically and with greater impact.”

About PlayMetrics

About South Dakota Youth Soccer Association

South Dakota Youth Soccer Association (SDYSA) promotes the game of soccer for all youth in South Dakota. SDYSA promotes the importance of education, self-esteem, diversity and teamwork in a fun and safe environment, allowing players to develop to their fullest potential in soccer and in life. As a member of U.S. Youth Soccer and the U.S. Soccer Federation, SDYSA boasts a membership of over 10,000 youth soccer players and offers everything from recreational to competitive programming, as well as the Olympic Development Program and TOPSoccer.

Youth Hockey Pricing Benchmarks: 10 Years of Data on What Families Pay

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:47:13 GMT

What do families actually pay for youth hockey – and how does your club compare?

If you’ve asked these questions recently, you’re not alone. To bring some clarity, we analyzed nearly ten years of registration data from youth hockey organizations using Crossbar, a PlayMetrics company and a leading platform for youth hockey registration and management, across the United States.

This isn't a full industry report, and we won't pretend it is. But it is a useful snapshot – something you can use to gut-check your pricing, understand your position within your tier and region, and support strategy discussions with your staff and board.

Here’s what we found:

The gap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 pricing is substantial.
Age groups don’t scale as predictably as you might assume.
The states with the highest fees aren’t necessarily the ones most people expect.

We also see a clear post-pandemic rebound that reshaped the financial landscape of youth hockey in ways still unfolding today.

Let’s dig in.

Three Periods of Change Across a Decade of Fees

Across the past ten years, youth hockey fees have followed a clear three-period pattern, each defined by its own dynamics.

2015–2020: Steady Growth

Fees increased gradually each season as clubs made routine adjustments for staffing, ice time, and operational expenses. Changes were modest and predictable enough for stable long-term planning.

2020–2022: Pandemic Disruption

The pandemic brought shortened seasons, reduced travel, and significant changes to programs. Average fees dropped nearly 20% as participation shifted and clubs adapted to widespread restrictions.

2022–Present: Sharp Rebound

Fees rose quickly – nearly 60% in three years. Most of the decade’s total increase occurred during this period as clubs rebuilt programming, restored staffing, and adjusted to higher operating costs. And this trend isn’t limited to hockey. Across all youth sports, rising expenses have become a defining pressure point. In fact, findings from the Future of Youth Sports Predictions Report show that 84% of clubs surveyed across all sports expect to increase membership fees in the coming seasons .

When you're planning 2026-27 pricing, you're operating in an environment where families have likely experienced cost increases across all their children's activities.

How Tier 1 and Tier 2 Costs Compare

Youth hockey operates in two distinct competitive environments, and the financial realities of each differ significantly.

Tier 2 programs – where most youth hockey athletes play – averaged $2,448 for the 2025 season.
Tier 1 programs averaged $7,055 , reflecting the higher travel demands, expanded competition schedules, and specialized development environments typical of AAA hockey.

The cost gap between the two tiers now exceeds $4,600 per season .

Looking across the decade within this dataset, the long-view shows the same upward direction for both tiers:

Tier 1 fees rose by about 36.4% from the earliest to the latest season.
Tier 2 fees rose by roughly 62.6% over the same span.

These figures aren’t from a fixed panel of the same clubs year over year, so they should be interpreted as directional rather than definitive . But the trend line is clear: both tiers have become more expensive over time, and the financial distance between them remains substantial.

A Look at “Typical” Tier 2 Fees

Tier 2 programs – where most youth hockey athletes play – averaged $2,448 for the 2025 season. These programs represent the primary competitive experience for the majority of travel hockey families. Across the full ten-year dataset, Tier 2 programs averaged $1,964 , with a steady increase leading to the current figure.

If you operate both tiers, one question becomes important: Do families see and understand the difference between the two programs, and what drives the higher cost at Tier 1?

Age Groups: Where Costs Climb (and Why)

If certain age groups feel more expensive, it's because they are. Fees increase as players move through youth hockey, and the data clearly shows that pattern.

In Tier 2, 8U teams average about $1,284 , the lowest point in the age ladder.

By 16U , that number more than doubles to $3,268 , the highest average in the dataset.

Fees dip slightly at 18U , but remain well above the younger levels.

This progression aligns with common operational realities: older teams typically skate more, travel more, and participate in higher-level tournaments and events.

Questions you might ask yourself:

Does your age-by-age pricing ladder follow a similar pattern to others in your area?
Are your travel, ice time, and tournament expectations aligned with what peers include at each age?
Are there jumps between age groups that might surprise families or warrant better communication?

Geography: Where Youth Hockey Hits Hardest

If you assume the highest fees sit in the northern hockey strongholds, the data points elsewhere. In Tier 2 for the 2025–26 season, the top averages show up in the Sun Belt and the East Coast – not the Upper Midwest.

Highest state averages (Tier 2, 2025–26):

Arizona: ~$5,912
Tennessee: ~$4,506
Connecticut: ~$4,498
Illinois: ~$3,989
Oklahoma: ~$3,539

Lowest state averages:

Alaska: ~$450
South Dakota: ~$595
West Virginia: ~$810
Wyoming: ~$890
North Dakota: ~$946

These ranges are striking. Arizona families pay more than 13 times what Alaska families pay for Tier 2 hockey. These differences reflect underlying structural factors such as facility access, travel requirements, competitive density, market size, and even the local cost of living.

Because of this, national averages often tell only part of the story. State-level patterns – and even more so – district-level patterns tend to offer clearer context.

A Note on USA Hockey Districts

District averages give a clearer sense of costs within similar competitive environments. For example, Pennsylvania spans multiple districts, so looking at district-level numbers can help make more relevant comparisons. They’re often more useful than national averages, as long as you keep sample size in mind.

We’ve created a tool to make it easier to see how your state stacks up when it comes to youth hockey fees. While not every state has available data, this tool aims to provide a clear, visual snapshot of where your state sits compared to others across the country, as well as within your district and nationally.

As you work your way through this tool, ask yourself questions like “How does your age-by-age ladder compare to your state or district's typical pattern?” or “Are there jumps between age groups that might surprise families or warrant better communication?” Use this tool as a way to spark discussion amongst your staff and volunteers.

Final Thoughts: Putting the Data in Context

This data isn’t about prescribing exact fees – it’s about giving your club a clearer lens to see how costs evolve across tiers, ages, and regions. As you consider your own programs, ask yourself: How clearly does your tier structure communicate value? Do your age-by-age fees align with what families might expect? And how does your club compare within your region?

The real value comes from using these insights to guide conversations, support planning, and help families understand the choices behind your programs. By reflecting on these patterns, you can make informed decisions and plan confidently for the seasons ahead.

Data derived from Crossbar registration records across Tier 1 and Tier 2 youth hockey organizations, 2015-2025 seasons. Geographic and age group averages based on available reporting; some state-level data reflect limited sample sizes and should be treated as directional.

How Club Leaders of All Sizes Can Avoid Burnout

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:46:14 GMT

“My board president and I have a running joke. Every year around January or February, I call her and she says: ‘I already know. You're going to resign.’ She knows I won't, but that's how real burnout is. It's going to happen without fail.”

Sean Cochran

Executive Director, Keystone FC

Sean Cochran

Executive Director, Keystone FC

If you’ve ever thought: “I can’t keep this pace up forever,” you’re not alone. Leading a small club is hard work, and the pressure can pile up quickly. The good news is that there are simple yet effective ways to protect yourself from burnout:

Stop trying to make everyone happy . Part of what leads to burnout for club leaders is this overwhelming need to please everyone around them. When you’re in a small club environment, your level of visibility is often much higher, so you know each member of the club - be it parent, player, or staff - very well. This can make you feel like you need to make them happy, no matter the cost to you. “One thing I’ve found in 20 years of the game is you can’t make everyone happy. It’s impossible,” says Mark Ryan, Chief Executive Officer at Loudoun Soccer.

Cochran shares that sentiment. “There are going to be times when you have to be able to lay your head down at night and just accept that not everyone is going to be happy. Not everyone is going to like you or the club, and that’s okay.”

Find your niche and stick to it . It’s important to do things well, but you don’t need to boil the ocean. Overextending yourself by trying to take on too much and perfect everything can lead you down the path to crashing quickly.

Take it from Beach FC Executive Director Steve Danbusky: “Start small and scale small. Don’t try to implement a million things at once. Pick one or two things that you think you can make incremental progress on.”

Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing . It’s easy to get caught up in the game of “they’re doing this, so I should be doing that too.” But if every single club looked exactly the same, there’s no way to differentiate yourself or attract players to yours.

“I can’t say it enough: stop looking around at what other clubs are doing. Set yourself apart by doing something different that you believe in and don’t deviate from it,” says Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC.

Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno, Executive Director at Indiana Impact SC, agrees. “If you’re just keeping up with the Joneses, it almost becomes like a square peg, round hole situation. You might push yourself into a position you’re not ready for.”

Don’t be afraid to seek advice from others . Start inside your local market and connect with other leaders who may be dealing with the same problems you are. “The youth sports community in our area is certainly on the smaller side, so we communicate with other clubs pretty regularly,” says Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration & Director of Operations at Far Post Soccer Club. “Regardless of size, we all have similar issues, so we trade ideas on how to keep kids who want to play multiple sports interested in the game, as well as other stuff too.”

If your local market is too competitive, look outside to other regions where you’re not competing for coaches or players to build a mentor network, as these are the people who may be more likely to want to help. Adds Forrest: “Making connections outside your market and building a network of individuals you can lean on who will be honest with you can really help. It’s also a good reminder that you’re not alone.”

Find your work/life balance . One of the fastest ways to burnout is not allowing room for work/life balance. Leaders don’t need to be available every hour of every day; instead, communicate clearly about availability and don’t be afraid to take vacation time.

“We tell our staff to take the vacation time when they need it. We want everyone to feel fresh and you can’t feel fresh if you’re constantly going with no break,” says Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC. He also emphasizes that taking mental health breaks matters, saying: “If you need a night mentally and you need someone to cover your practice? We got it. We support our coaches in that aspect.”

Steeno takes this approach with his own team. “I constantly tell my team: go take a break; take two weeks off. Nothing is that important that it can’t wait until you return and return refreshed.”

Another part of building a good work/life balance is letting yourself step away from email during those vacations and/or off-hours to allow for rest and recovery.

Forrest encourages leaders not to check email while on vacation or during certain hours and to use simple things like vacation or out-of-office responders. “This will help set expectations with families so they understand why you’re not getting back to them right away.”

Christian Hamm, Admin Director of Club Operations at Indy Eleven Academy, echoes this, noting that balance is essential. “The quickest way to burn out is being on 24/7/365,” he says. “With the right tools in place and the ability to bring on parent volunteers, leaders can take a lot off their plates.”

Don’t shy away from delegation . Part of finding balance is actually learning to delegate some core responsibilities to other trusted members of your staff. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking you have to touch everything, especially if your club is just starting out.

Tunis reflects on a time when he was first starting out: “When my partners and I first started our organization, we felt like we had to do everything ourselves. We couldn’t delegate. We realized pretty quickly that we needed help, and that was okay.”

Ryan had a similar experience, sharing that as a young Director of Coaching, he purposely made sure he involved himself in everything. “I would never reach out for help because I was afraid someone might think I was in over my head or not qualified for my role.” He warns that this sets a dangerous precedent of over-involvement, making it harder to step back later.

Delegating from the start also helps avoid those challenges in the future, while also giving you the mental break you deserve. As Ryan puts it: “Find the right people that you can trust to handle things while you step back. Let them know you’ll still be there if they need you, but that you trust they can take care of everything so you don’t have to look over their shoulders.”

Remember why you’re doing this . Avoiding burnout often comes down to reconnecting with the passion that brought you here in the first place. When the administrative work piles up, step back and remember your “why” - what brought you to this industry in the first place and why you’re passionate about it. Holding onto that passion keeps you energized and grounded, even during challenging seasons.

“Definitely find ways to remind yourself why you’re running a club,” says Cochran. “Hopefully, you’re doing it because you want to see the game grow. You want to help kids succeed and provide them opportunities to have fun as well.”

Cory Munro, Chief Business Officer at Charlotte Independence, says she reminds herself with a plaque on her wall: “It says, ‘When you feel like quitting, remember why you started.’” She describes the simple joy of “stepping out on the field, playing with the five-year-olds, and just seeing the kids that just love to run around and kick a ball that’s the size of their leg.” For her, that joy is the antidote to the frustration of the spreadsheets, balance sheets, and reports that pile up when you’re a leader.

Maintain solid boundaries with staff and parents . Remember to set expectations early on with everyone you communicate with, and don’t be afraid to reset them if needed. Clear communication and consistent boundaries help to build trust, reduce stress, and allow leaders to stay focused on their most important task: supporting athletes’ growth.

“I believe that 90% of burnout comes from dealing with parents and overworking,” says Tunis. “I think you can save yourself from emotional burnout by having consistent, clear lines of communication with parents. This way, you can avoid those moments of someone coming up to you after the game and yelling that their kid didn’t get enough playing time.”

This goes hand-in-hand with knowing what your non-negotiables are. Says Ryan: “Setting boundaries up front is important. Know when you’re not going to take a phone call or write an email. Know when you’re not going to respond immediately to a parent that’s upset, or even one that’s really happy, and communicate those boundaries.”

More often than not, anyone sending you an email past normal working hours likely isn’t expecting you to respond right away. People understand that club leaders have other responsibilities and, especially for those in a small club setting, other jobs.

Don’t ignore your mental or physical fatigue . It’s easy to continue running at full steam and to compartmentalize your exhaustion in pursuit of greatness. Nipping your fatigue in the bud early on will save you a lot of headaches - both literally and figuratively.

“If you’re not your best physically and mentally, that will affect you not only on the field, but off the field as well,” cautions Ryan. “Be careful not to push yourself to the point of breaking down. Always look after yourself first.”

The bottom line is: running a small club will always come with its share of challenges. The trick is remembering that you don’t have to do it all on your own. Lean on your network, set boundaries that protect your time, and give yourself permission to step back when you need to. Most importantly, try not to lose sight of the joy that brought you here in the first place. If you can hold onto that, the tough moments won’t feel quite as heavy, and you’ll be able to keep leading with energy and purpose.

Note: This post is part of a larger series called “ Small Clubs, Big Wins ” where top youth sports leaders share their wisdom with smaller clubs. For this purpose, smaller clubs are defined as organizations with 100 players or fewer.

Should Small Club Leaders Be Afraid to Talk to Larger Clubs? Experts Say No

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:25:07 GMT

“We're all dealing with the same challenges, no matter our sizes, so why wouldn't we share best practices?”

Steve Danbusky

Executive Director, Beach FC

“We're all dealing with the same challenges, no matter our sizes, so why wouldn't we share best practices?”

Steve Danbusky

Executive Director, Beach FC

The youth sports industry thrives on connection. Just like in other fields, networking and sharing ideas are essential for growth. Still, many small club leaders fall into the trap of thinking that competition means keeping their cards too close to the vest.

“A lot of clubs here don’t talk to other clubs because it’s highly competitive - and not by choice,” says Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC. “It’s a very difficult industry because of the saturation of clubs out there. You have to have points of differentiation to survive because we are all fighting over the same players.”

Sean Cochran, Executive Director at Keystone FC in Pennsylvania, agrees. “Many times, it’s a balancing act for some smaller clubs, because they’re concerned about their players coming and going. So those relationships with other clubs can be very touch-and-go.”

Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC, adds: “Whether that’s because they see others as competition, I’m not sure. I do believe, though, it must be hard to find leaders with a more altruistic view who are just trying to grow the sport as a whole.”

But that mindset is starting to change. Many small club leaders are realizing that collaboration is not only possible, but essential. “With clubs in our area, we’re competitors maybe two or three days out of the year. Other than that, we should be collaborators,” says Danbusky.

Mark Ryan, Chief Executive Officer at Loudoun Soccer, echoes the sentiment. “My team and I have pretty good relationships with the other clubs in our area. We’re constantly communicating, checking in, and sharing advice. Even club alumni who have moved on to other regions and are now coaching will call me from time to time for advice.”

For collaboration to truly flourish, larger clubs need to set the tone. “We make it clear to the smaller clubs in our area that we are open to help them however we can,” says Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno, Executive Director at Indiana Impact SC. “In fact, our state organization sends clubs to us all the time to talk shop, which is a testament to our people because they really genuinely care about just growing the sport.”

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that youth sports aren’t just about competition; they’re about community as well. Clubs that embrace collaboration with their peers may find that by sharing ideas and experiences, and supporting one another in small ways, they can ultimately grow the sport as a whole.

Three Small Ways Clubs Can Retain Top Coaches (Without Breaking the Bank)

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:14:00 GMT

“It could be detrimental for a smaller club if you’re continuously losing coaches and bringing in new ones. It’s like starting from scratch over and over.”

Matt Tunis

Partner & Director of Operations, Chicago Empire FC

“It could be detrimental for a smaller club if you’re continuously losing coaches and bringing in new ones. It’s like starting from scratch over and over.”

Matt Tunis

Partner & Director of Operations, Chicago Empire FC

For smaller clubs operating with tight budgets, losing experienced coaches can be devastating, as good coaches can make all the difference for your club’s growth. While financial compensation remains a top factor in retention, small clubs can still provide fulfilling environments that keep coaches engaged and committed to their clubs - regardless of whether or not they are taking home a paycheck. Here’s how successful club leaders are doing it:

Start with clear career conversations that create a sense of belonging . The foundation of coach retention isn’t just about perks; it’s about understanding what motivates each individual. “We continually have conversations with our coaches about their expectations and what their overall career goals are,” says Tunis. This signals to your coaches that you care about them on a human level and are committed to providing whatever resources you can to help them achieve their goals, even if it’s not immediate.

Regular check-ins can also help coaches feel valued as professionals instead of just cogs in the wheel, fostering long-term relationships that will benefit both sides. “When a coach feels a sense of belonging within a club, they’re more likely to stick around because they feel connected to the people and players on a different level,” explains Tunis.

Building this connection starts with involving coaches in decision-making that affects their daily experience. Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration & Director of Operations at Far Post Soccer Club, shares her approach: “We’ve been communicating more heavily with our coaching lineup this year, asking them what age group they want to coach so that we can ensure they’re placed in the role they’re most interested in. That’s a big part of job satisfaction.”

Invest in their professional growth . Professional development doesn’t have to break the bank. Creative clubs are finding ways to offer valuable learning opportunities by leveraging their existing networks and partnerships. “Providing coaches with in-house education opportunities that they might not get elsewhere is one way to keep coaches in the door,” says Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC. “As an example, one of our parents specializes in mental performance, so we’re going to be doing a session around that for coaches and players. That’s a unique offering for our club because of our network.”

Forrest takes a more structured approach. “We’re also trying to build more education opportunities for our coaches. We’ll pay for grassroots coaching classes up through a certain amount of licensure so they can continue to grow themselves. We’re also building out more mentorship opportunities within our own coaching system so they feel supported and like they’re part of a community.”

Respect the human behind the coach . Perhaps the most powerful retention strategy costs absolutely nothing: treating coaches like people first, not employees, and remembering they have lives outside of the sport. “Treating coaches like people can’t be undervalued. Understanding that people have lives and things happen. You must be flexible,” says Cory Munro, Chief Business Officer at Charlotte Independence. “That’s the biggest thing you can probably offer them outside of money: respect for their personal life.”

This means being understanding if and when family emergencies happen, offering flexible scheduling when possible, and recognizing that your coaches sometimes need a break. Small gestures like these during difficult times often create the strongest loyalty, as people will remember when you’re good to them when they need it most.

Retention for small clubs isn’t about competing with larger clubs who may have a bigger budget to play with. It’s about creating an environment where coaches feel supported and connected to something bigger than themselves. When a coach feels like a partner in your club’s overall mission, they are far more likely to stick around through the inevitable ups and downs. Clubs that master this balance don’t just keep their coaches; they create cultures that attract other quality candidates who want to be a part of something special - regardless of the paycheck size.

The Starting Point: How to Grow Your Small Club

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:08:21 GMT

“The people around you are what makes your club tick, so surround yourself with great people and put them in roles they are passionate about. You’re passionate about marketing? Boom; you’re in marketing. You’re an accountant as your day job? Perfect; do you want to be our treasurer? Build the best team you can.”

Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno

Executive Director, Indiana Impact SC

Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno

Executive Director, Indiana Impact SC

Running a youth sports club isn’t easy. As a small club leader, you’re probably wearing a dozen hats, stretching budgets, and trying to keep everything moving without burning out . The good news is you’re not alone. Large club leaders have faced these same challenges, and there’s a lot to learn from their growth playbook. Growth may not be easy, but it is achievable. Here are a few places our experts recommend you start:

Start with growing from the bottom of the pyramid up . “It’s very important that clubs start with a strong grassroots program that’s not competition-based, but about learning and falling in love with the game. That’s how you are going to build loyalty with your families and eventually grow your competitive teams,” says Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration and Director of Operations at Far Post Soccer Club.

Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC, agrees. “A lot of clubs fall into the trap of concentrating on their best performing teams, when in reality, the future of your club is your youngest players. The number one sign a club is not doing well is when you look at how many 8-9-year-olds they have registered and they only make up one team of seven. That’s the future of your club. Growth will always start with your youth.”

Understand your club’s role in the larger ecosystem . “Self-awareness is also tremendously important, and not every club has it,” says Steve Danbusky, Executive Director at Beach FC. “In order to grow, you need to understand your limitations and your role in the overall youth landscape. As a smaller club, maybe your role is developing players and helping them get access to better leagues, more professional coaching, or just the next step overall.”

Christian Hamm, Admin Director of Club Operations at Indy Eleven Academy, adds that by focusing on what your club is good at instead of trying to be what other clubs are, you can really move the needle in a better way. “You can still look at other clubs as a model, but you should just be learning from them, not trying to be something you’re not. Take those ideas and implement them in a way that is yours and growth will follow.”

Engage with your community . “There are so many ways you can reach out to your community,” says Loudoun Soccer Chief Executive Officer Mark Ryan. “Whether it’s through sponsorships, fundraising, or maybe hosting local events that tie to the game. Maybe it’s holding summer camps or daycare programs. All of these things provide benefits to your local community while still bringing in revenue that helps your club grow.”

Cory Munro, Chief Business Officer at Charlotte Independence, also placed high emphasis on sponsorships and growing relationships within your community. “What’s really helped us grow is the partnerships with municipalities and having them support and believe in us,” she says. “It’s helped us solidify our footprint in the community and is especially beneficial when you don’t own your own fields or property.”

Go through some strategic planning exercises . This allows you to take a moment to define where you want to go and set clear goals to help you get there. Danbusky notes: “When you have ambition to grow larger, you need to be ready to invest in both people and facilities, which is a big ask. Having a clear roadmap of how to get to a point where you can do that will help make navigating that journey easier.”

Ryan can’t emphasize enough the value of technology in helping you plan the future of your organization. “Make sure you’re set up with good technology. That is huge,” he says. “Good technology helps you forecast. It helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not. It helps with your budget, with deciding where you’re going to invest your resources, and it gives you accurate data. All of these things together will help make your club run smoother.”

Five Things Small Clubs Can't Afford to Overlook

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:49:16 GMT

“Just creating a more successful environment for the kids and being able to offer some ‘extras’ can make all the difference.”

Shelley Forrest

Head of Administration & Director of Operations, Far Post Soccer Club

“Just creating a more successful environment for the kids and being able to offer some ‘extras’ can make all the difference.”

Shelley Forrest

Head of Administration & Director of Operations, Far Post Soccer Club

Managing a youth sports club means being a jack of all trades, and it’s easy to forget a few key priorities along the way. Experts say these five things cannot be overlooked if you want your club to succeed:

Don’t forget about your youngest players . Your most junior players are the future of your club. “There are too many clubs that put too much emphasis on the thing that’s hot at the moment - college, pros, the next level. With that, they only focus on the top 5% of players, leaving 95% of the kids out,” says Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno, Executive Director at Indiana Impact SC.

“If you don’t have a juniors program or a recreational arm, I don’t think you’ll be able to be successful,” Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC, asserts. “The youth sports industry is essentially a subscription-based model. Every year, when tryouts come around, you start with zero subscriptions. You can’t guarantee that anyone is going to come back, so you have to continue to grow younger players and make them fall in love with the game to fill your pipeline.”

Highland FC Director of Coaching Matt Barry adds: “Building your rec program is imperative. And having good people running it makes all the difference.”

It’s not just focusing on the players, but also arming them with experienced coaches who can truly help them grow. “I would even go as far as to say that your leadership should be out there coaching your youngest players because that coach is going to be the face of your club,” continues Tunis.

Prioritize communication . “Establish your standards and processes, communicate them effectively, and apply them fairly and consistently. This is true whether you’re communicating to staff, players, or families,” says Cory Munro, Chief Business Officer at Charlotte Independence.

Steve Danbusky, Executive Director at Beach FC, echoes this. “Expectations from families are much higher now due to how everyone communicates in this day and age, so your ability to respond and to respond meaningfully is massively important.”

Munro adds: “I’ve found that parents and players will thrive when they feel you’re being transparent. They may not like the message, but if they understand it and it’s communicated clearly, they’ll respect it.”

Focus on mission, culture, and stability . Overall, it’s staying true to your club’s culture and values that will take you far. Sean Cochran, Executive Director at Keystone FC, notes: “Club culture is often overlooked, but can play a big role in defining a family’s expectation of your club. Your culture reflects who you want to be, the mission of the club, and your values. You want to attract people who fit within your culture.”

Steeno advises: “Don’t fake it ‘til you make it. Do focus on what your mission is and remain mission-driven in everything you do. You never know what doors will open from there.”

Munro also agrees, sharing that developing a stable base for your club will aid you in your future pursuits. “You have your footprint, you have who you are. Build who you want to be.”

Plan for growth and offer extras if you can . Mark Ryan, Chief Executive Officer at Loudoun Soccer, stresses the importance of having a long-term growth strategy. “Smaller clubs tend to live in the present, worrying about what they can do and what they have now. This is important, but you can’t lose sight of the long term.”

Forrest adds that unique offerings - like multi-age or multi-gender programming - could also set you apart and provide a positive experience for all players. “If you have access to the field space for an additional hour, offer something unique and fun for players. It’s better to offer a multi-age team than not to offer a team at all because you’re still delivering a positive experience for those kids.”

Keep the focus on the kids . Steeno says it best. “Put the kids first. Make sure they have a good experience. Great kids, kids that need the most development - they all should get the same experience. They should all get the fun development, pizza party, jump in the pool type-experience.”

Want Your Small Club to Operate at a High Level? Good Technology is a Must...

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:20:24 GMT

“ I do think your technology platform is very important. Having one that is all-encompassing that parents can see data from year to year makes a big difference. A single platform can be very useful. ”

Matt Barry

Director of Coaching, Highland FC

“I do think your technology platform is very important. Having one that is all-encompassing that parents can see data from year to year makes a big difference. A single platform can be very useful.”

Matt Barry

Director of Coaching, Highland FC

Whether your club is big or small, access to a connected operating system is no longer a “nice to have.” Smart, forward-thinking clubs of all sizes are beginning to realize that good technology makes everything run better.

Here are three key areas where our experts say having access to a solid, connected software system has made all the difference in their clubs’ overall operational health, and why small clubs shouldn’t ignore the value of a good platform.

Field Scheduling . A common challenge most clubs face, and something uncovered in our recent report on predictions for the future of youth sports, is getting access to field or court space. This can be exacerbated when you are working on an operating system that requires you to jump through a million hoops just to make a booking - or worse, makes you log out and into a new platform altogether.

“There aren’t that many fields in our area as it is, so we’re competing with every lacrosse team, soccer team, and ultimate frisbee team for time,” says Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration & Director of Operations at Far Post Soccer Club. “It’s a big issue that I think affects a lot of regions and is made worse when you don’t have good technology to help manage scheduling.”

When you’re trying to schedule time on already-crowded playing spaces, it’s also important to have a connected platform that is intuitive because it can help you avoid common issues like double bookings and communication errors.

“We were nomads at the beginning. We were in five different field locations in our first six years,” says Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC. “For coaches like myself who were coaching multiple teams, we could have practice at one field, then have to drive to another for the next. Communication had to be seamless for both coaches and parents to avoid any mixups, and that was a very big challenge for us with our old platforms.”

Staff Organization . Another area that can be made worse by a lack of good technology tools is keeping the staff efficient and connected. “When I was at a smaller club, we only had three full-time staff, so one person handled administrative stuff like field registrations and managing the website, while the others managed what was happening on the field. We had to find ways to be more connected and organized,” says Mark Ryan, Chief Executive Officer at Loudoun Soccer.

Sean Cochran, Executive Director at Keystone FC, echoes this, stating that for some small club leaders, it’s not their full-time job, so the need to make everything simpler was even greater. “Operationally, it can be a challenge when your time is split between two things that require most of your attention. Having a software system that is easy to navigate and helps cut back on the amount of time you’re spending on any given task becomes a necessity, not a luxury.”

Ryan also stresses the role that good technology plays when you are managing an environment with some increased turnover. “We really relied on volunteer help, which meant constantly having to onboard new members. We needed technology that could help alleviate some of that burden for us.”

Member Experience . Your club’s players and their families are the most important priority, so considering their areas of frustration is crucial to the health of your organization. According to a 2021 survey of sports parents across the country, 91% mentioned that the technology used by a club to manage operations impacts their overall experience, and an alarming 56% were not satisfied with the current technology their club was using.

“Finding something that could streamline our operations and eliminate the main pain points our families were having was pretty important,” says Barry. “You have to make sure you’re thinking about not only what affects your day-to-day, but your families as well.”

Forrest agrees that the right technology can help eliminate some of the issues communicating with families, like ensuring your messages are actually being read. “Communicating effectively and knowing that you’re reaching people is critical for small clubs,” she says. “We were doing everything through spreadsheets and sending emails manually.”

One thing is abundantly clear: it’s not just having a good software system that matters; it’s having one single source of truth for your entire operations. Says Christian Hamm, Admin Director of Club Operations at Indy Eleven Academy, “I don’t think it matters what size club you are. Having a connected app is beneficial to helping make sure your teams are being managed well and that communications are consistent, regardless of what level a team is playing at.”

Where Should Small Clubs Invest if Resources are Limited?

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:55:32 GMT

“Today’s environment has grown so much that there’s a lot more that has to happen off the field for the kids to even be on the field. I think you have to balance both club needs and business needs.”

Cory Munro

Chief Business Officer, Charlotte Independence

“ Today’s environment has grown so much that there’s a lot more that has to happen off the field for the kids to even be on the field. I think you have to balance both club needs and business needs. ”

Cory Munro

Chief Business Officer, Charlotte Independence

For smaller clubs, getting access to additional capital can prove to be a difficult task. Staying laser-focused on investing in a few key areas helps you make the most of the resources you have while still supporting growth. Even with a tight budget, clubs can grow effectively by focusing on these key priorities:

Facilities facilities facilities . “First and foremost: you need a home, a place to play,” says Indiana Impact SC Executive Director Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno, establishing the importance of having access to field space. “I liken it to selling cheeseburgers. If you have a bunch cooked but no place to sell them, what are you going to do with all those cheeseburgers?”

Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC, takes it a step further, adding: “I think it’s important to have a central, and safe, facility because it’s very difficult to build a culture when everyone is fragmented.”

A reliable tech platform . Technology underpins efficiency. “I truly believe that having a player software platform that’s communicative is extremely important. There are a lot of bad ones out there, so you need to find one that’s both easy to use and has a mobile side, because 95% of what parents are doing now is mobile-first,” says Tunis.

Christian Hamm, Admin Director of Club Operations at Indy Eleven Academy, echoes this sentiment. “Time is limited. Resources are limited. So what processes can I put in place that will help us be more efficient with both is pretty fundamental. It all comes down to your software.”

Even if your budget is tight, there are creative ways to get access to the technology you need. “Look into getting sponsorships to help support the kids by providing the funding to pay for the platform you need,” says Steeno. “If not that, then look at building it into the registration fees. It’s all about getting creative to deliver the solutions your families need.”

Solid coaches . The quality of your coaching staff sets the tone for the player experience. “Your coaches are often a player’s first touchpoint with your club, and if they don’t have a good coaching experience, it’s going to affect how they feel about the club overall,” says Mark Ryan, Chief Executive Officer at Loudoun Soccer.

Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC, likens it to your experience going to a restaurant for the first time. “If your food was good but the service was bad, people will remember that. So you’ve got to train your waiters to provide a good experience, because then, people are going to come back, even if the food was only okay.”

While it may be difficult to attract and even keep good coaches in the existing competitive landscape, it’s something you should not lose focus on.

Solid staff in general . Beyond coaches, your club must be stacked with dependable people who can be agile and fill in gaps that you have as you continue to expand.

“The one thing you have to invest in first is your people,” says Steve Danbusky, Executive Director at Beach FC. “We tend to focus just on the technical side - coaches, directors, the people on the field. But you also need staff who are adept at the administrative things like operating your registration platform, your operating system, scheduling, and more. Invest in people who check a lot of the boxes versus just a few.”

“Invest in a Director of Coaching if you don’t already have one because you have to have someone who can run your programming, advocate for your coaches, and hire the right people who are going to ultimately work with the kids,” adds Ryan. “But you can’t be a DOC and just be good on the field. You have to be able to do things off the field as well.”

The family experience . It comes down to making the club experience better for the families and players alike. “Anything that makes the families’ lives easier when it comes to keeping track of where they need to be and when is only going to grease the wheels for making your whole program better,” says Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration & Director of Operations at Far Post Soccer Club.

Keystone FC Executive Director Sean Cochran adds: “Focus on parent and player engagement, keeping them happy and captivated with your club. And it doesn’t have to cost you anything. Have a local university host a youth night for your teams. People want to be a part of a club that cares about them for more than what happens on the field.”

Communication . For Munro, it’s transparent communication that will really move the needle for a small club. “If you build your club on transparent, clear, and concise policies and you communicate those well to membership, that allows you to build a strong foundation that you’ll be able to grow off of.”

The path forward doesn’t have to be difficult to navigate. By investing in these key areas up front, small clubs can build a strong foundation that not only supports sustainable growth but ensures they never lose sight of what matters most: the experience they create for every family that walks through their doors.

Smart Ways Small Clubs Can Stand Out

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:02:42 GMT

“Providing pathways for kids at every playing level is important. Not every kid wants to move on to play professionally. If you’re able to develop programs for the competitors and for those who just want to have fun with their friends, you’ll be a lucky, healthy club.”

Mark Ryan

Chief Executive Officer, Loudoun Soccer

Mark Ryan

Chief Executive Officer, Loudoun Soccer

Let’s face it: there’s no shortage of youth sports options for kids out there, and even more clubs to choose from. It can be difficult to attract new players and keep your growth momentum, especially when going up against other clubs who may have more resources or capital. That said, small clubs can still differentiate themselves in practical, yet meaningful ways. Here are just a few:

Having a good social media presence. Families often get their first impression of a club from their online presence. They want to know how clubs promote their players, what types of programs and training they offer, and the overall culture of the club to see if it will be a good fit for them. “Both kids and their parents live on social media. If you want to reach people, you need to put together a great, authentic social media presence,” says Christian Hamm, Admin Director of Club Operations at Indy Eleven Academy.

Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration & Director of Operations for Far Post Soccer Club, echoes that sentiment. “A good social media presence plays a big role in today’s world. I’ve heard it said that Instagram is like the resume checker, so do some showing off. Don’t ignore it.”

If you don’t have the budget to hire a full-time social media coordinator, you can still uplevel your presence in creative ways. “Lean on your local high schools or colleges for help. Find out who might be willing to do some social media content to help build their portfolio. These kids are amazing, and most times, they’re looking for opportunities like this to show off their skills,” says Hamm.

Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno, Executive Director at Indiana Impact SC, emphasizes personality. “One of the most fun parts about youth sports is just nerding out with the kids. If you’re a smaller club, showcase that. Use social media to show your club’s personality and culture. A small club can make itself look bigger by just having a really good social media presence.”

Doing a few things really, really well. Many clubs try to do a hundred things really well, but fall short because they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. Instead of trying to do it all, narrow your focus to building a few core things you can do better than your competition. “I’d say developing your programming for young players ages 5-12 is an excellent place to start and is sometimes overlooked. You want to create great opportunities and programs at each year and level so the kids have consistent, positive experiences that help them grow,” says Ryan.

Sean Cochran, Executive Director at Keystone FC, reiterates the importance of focus and says it’s as simple as following through on what you say you’re all about. “If you say your mission and vision are centered around player development, then be laser-focused on player development. Don’t deviate.”

Providing unique opportunities other clubs aren’t . Seek out partnerships with other larger, influential clubs in your area for things you may not currently have the bandwidth to do, like programming and coach education.

“We’re working with a small club in a neighboring city to create a collaborative development program for 5-9-year-olds. Our club is taking on the administrative responsibilities so the other club can focus on what they want to do on the field,” shares Steve Danbusky, Executive Director at Beach FC. “We’re also providing the coaches with some in-house education opportunities, since we have the capacity and are more than happy to help support a fellow club.”

Forrest shares a similar initiative that her club is doing. “We ran a coaching class recently for emerging coaches in our area to help them start building the skills they need to be successful. We gave them tasks over the course of the program and provided real-time feedback to help better prepare them for a coaching job in the future. I don’t think that’s something everyone does.”

Setting your ego aside and focusing on player development . Being territorial about your players in a way that’s detrimental to their future playing career could turn off families from your club. Putting your ego in the back seat and the player’s best interest ahead of anything else - which seems like a no-brainer - is a great way to stand out from other clubs.

“I think it would be advantageous for smaller clubs to see themselves as talent developers. Focusing on making sure their individual players reach the highest level they can in their club and then helping them find the right placement at a larger club is doing right by the player at the end of the day,” says Hamm.

Remembering that your club is about more than just your top-level competitive players is also an ego check that every small club leader really needs to set themselves apart. “I’m a big believer in the base of your pyramid. You can’t forget that your competitive program will only be as healthy as your recreational program, because that’s where you’re developing a love of the game,” Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC shares.

Going above and beyond for your players . It’s not just about showing up for your players on the field; it’s about going that extra mile off the field as well. “We make an effort to have a relationship with our players off the field,” says Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC. “Checking in on their mental and physical health, watching tape with them, putting together PDP programs, and talking to college coaches for them. All these things help you stand out.”

But a word of caution from Steeno: if you’re going to make yourself stand out, be prepared to back it up. “I’m a firm believer in the purple cow,” he says, “but if you’re going to be the purple cow, you need to back it up with substance and show up as a well-organized club that provides good communication, player development, and an overall great time - always.”

Small Clubs: Stop Worrying About These Four Things

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:39:42 GMT

“Stop trying to be the big club and just embrace what you are. Don’t let other clubs live rent-free in your head, as the kids like to say. Focus on what you’re good at and what you can control.”

Christian Hamm

Admin Director of Club Operations, Indy Eleven Academy

Christian Hamm

Admin Director of Club Operations, Indy Eleven Academy

You know the feeling: the day is over, you’ve finally made it to bed, and your brain refuses to shut off. Instead of resting, you’re replaying worries you know aren’t worth your energy. Small club leaders face this all the time, falling victim to spinning their wheels over things they can’t control. That wasted energy takes focus away from your members and puts you on the fast track to burnout .

So what exactly should small clubs stop stressing over? Here are four concrete worries our experts say small club leaders should drop for good:

Other clubs : “At the end of the day, you’re providing a service, and if you don’t provide it at a high enough level, people will go somewhere else,” says Sean Cochran, Executive Director at Keystone FC. “You can’t beat what everyone has to offer, so stop worrying about it and focus on what’s in your control: doing what’s right for your club. That will take you further.”

Mark Ryan, Chief Executive Officer at Loudoun Soccer, agrees, especially if it’s something truly out of your control right now. “Keeping up with everyone around you and thinking you need to have a presence in every national league is a curse,” he says. “Sure, it’s natural to want to win and be the best, but that isn’t everything. Try not to chase something that may be unattainable for your club at this time, just because others are doing it.”

Achieving perfection . Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration & Director of Operations at Far Post Soccer Club, reminds leaders not to get too hung up on appearances. “Sometimes people get fussy about how their uniforms look - do they look special, do they look expensive?” she says. “Same with fields - we’d all love to be able to practice on perfectly gorgeous grass and turf fields, but just having the space to practice at all is what’s most important.”

In other words, flash and glitz may not move the needle that far when it comes to retaining players and growing your club. It’s the time and investment you put into developing your players that counts.

Holding onto every player . Just because you nurtured some players and turned them into exceptional athletes doesn’t mean you are entitled to keep them in your club forever. While retention is important for those worried about maintaining viable teams, holding players back from reaching their full potential is not the way to keep your numbers up.

“Stop treating players and families like possessions. If you have a player who has really developed well, be happy for them,” says Hamm.

Pleasing everyone in your organization . Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC, cautions: “You will never make everyone happy 100% of the time, and trying to do that may come at the detriment of your club, or worse, your own health.”

By focusing on what your club can control, small clubs free themselves from unnecessary stress and position themselves for more sustainable growth.

Redefining Success: It's About Growth - Not Just Wins

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:32:18 GMT

“If a kid leaves at the end of a season and says, ‘that was awesome! I want to do it again,’ that's true success. It’s not the wins and losses. Sure, you’re not playing to lose, but at the end of the day, the more important thing a player can take away from the game is: ‘What have I learned that I can transfer into life?’”

Christian Hamm

Admin Director of Club Operations, Indy Eleven Academy

Christian Hamm

Admin Director of Club Operations, Indy Eleven Academy

It’s easy for any club to fall into the trap of defining success as the number of wins in a season. So what do the leaders of top clubs view as the “right” metrics to measure success?

“It’s actually growth,” says Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC. “Even if it’s a small amount, adding players to your programs shows you’ve done a good job because people are returning and bringing others with them.”

Growth can encompass everything from gaining net-new players to developing and retaining talent - and retention is just as important (if not more) than new growth. Says Cory Munro, Chief Business Officer at Charlotte Independence, “With so much competition for membership from other clubs, other sports, and with children participating in multiple activities - if families choose to return to your club, it’s a strong sign that you’re doing things right.”

Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC, agrees. “If the majority of kids on the team are returning, even after having a losing season, that tells me we’re doing something right. Kids love the club, they love the coach, they love the sport.”

Retention - and growth overall - often begins at the grassroots level or with your youngest age groups. “When you’re building your club, start with your rec program,” says Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno, Executive Director at Indiana Impact SC. “That is where you’re going to see growth quickly. These are players you nurture and build passion for the game, and they eventually become your competitive players.”

But for Shelley Forrest, Head of Administration & Director of Operations at Far Post Soccer Club, it’s about more than retention - it’s about player development too. “Clubs can win in the short term, but you also need to develop players’ love for the game so they want to continue playing for the long term. That’s the recipe for success.”

“I would count player development as a win for sure,” says Steve Danbusky, Executive Director at Beach FC. “Even though you might not necessarily be growing numerically when sending developed players off to a higher level, you’re still growing the game qualitatively, and that’s a good thing.”

Chief Executive Officer at Loudon Soccer Mark Ryan agrees, but also adds that it’s about measuring the overall experience for the players in the club. “Ask yourself: ‘Have the players enjoyed our club’s program? Did families enjoy their experience with us?’” These marks are just as important because word of mouth can sink or swim your club. Happy families are more likely to help sell your club to the next generation of players who want a more intimate, small club experience.

Steeno sums it up succinctly. “Defining success is two-fold. Quantitatively, it means we were able to retain this many players. Qualitatively, it means everybody had a good review at the end of the season. Kids were smiling, coaches were high-fiving - everybody was buzzing about their experience.”

Four Things Large Club Leaders Miss Most From Their Small Clubs Days

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:12:19 GMT

“ When I was at a smaller club, soccer was a bit different. I think it was maybe a little more pure. We had less outside influences to the development of players and things were much less complicated. ”

Mark Ryan

Chief Executive Officer, Loudoun Soccer

“When I was at a smaller club, soccer was a bit different. I think it was maybe a little more pure. We had less outside influences to the development of players and things were much less complicated.”

Mark Ryan

Chief Executive Officer, Loudoun Soccer

While clubs of all sizes have their share of challenges, large club leaders often look back fondly on their small club days with a sense of nostalgia. We asked some what they missed most about their time at a smaller club, and their answers were consistent under four key areas:

Personal connections to staff and players . The hope of every large club leader is to know every single player, parent, and staff member in their club by name. But the reality is: it’s just not possible because of the sheer number of people that entails.

“Player and parent engagement is one of the main things I miss about being in a small club,” says Sean Cochran, Executive Director at Keystone FC. “I knew every player on every team and most of their parents and they knew me. That’s not the case anymore from both sides.”

Matt Barry, Director of Coaching at Highland FC, also agrees, reflecting on a time when he knew his players and their families so well, they got together off the field. “I went to my players’ graduations and college signings. There was a deeper relationship there that I think is hard to maintain when you scale up in size.”

“I do miss the connectivity to the full staff as well,” adds Steve Danbusky, Executive Director at Beach FC. “It could be weeks before I have a chance to get out onto the field and see the coaches and volunteers in action. Those interactive moments are fewer and farther between, and it’s harder to make meaningful connections.”

The sense of community . It’s common for a small club environment to feel more like a community, mostly because the size allows for a more intimate feel and makes morale-boosting activities more achievable.

“It’s much easier to do team-building events like barbecues and other club outings when you’re on the smaller side,” says Matt Tunis, Partner & Director of Operations at Chicago Empire FC. “That’s something I really miss and something I think all small clubs should take advantage of because it really helps with building club culture.”

These shared experiences become harder to manage, especially as you start to grow out of your primary space. Says Cory Munro, Chief Business Officer at Charlotte Independence: “In a small club, you’re all at one facility, so you have that daily interaction that makes you feel connected. You have to work hard to overcome the geographical separation in a larger club setting.”

The ability to be nimble in decision-making . With fewer layers and less red tape, small clubs can typically move more quickly and adapt on the fly. Leaders often find themselves missing that flexibility when they step into larger organizations.

“Decision making is much easier at a small club because those decisions impact far less people,” says Cochran. “That said, feedback is still an important part of running a club, and reaching out to your community is a great way to gather that. When you’re larger, that becomes harder to do.”

Indiana Impact SC Executive Director Chris "Fuzzy" Steeno agrees, adding: “When you’re a small club, you have fewer people you’re responsible for, so you can make decisions in the moment. You don’t have to worry about the snowball effect that your decision could have.”

The “little things.” Whether it’s personal calls or pitching in where needed, these “little things” are what often define the small club experience. While they may seem minor, they actually help to shape a leader’s overall club experience.

“If I needed a break or a change of scenery, I could go paint the fields or help out with the rec program - just get a little relief from the pressure of it all,” says Steeno. “It’s little things like that that I miss most.”

Barry agrees, sharing that for him, something as simple as being accessible to people is what he misses most. “Just recently, I had a parent who was new to the area call and ask if I could call and remind him about supplemental tryouts when we got closer to the date. Unfortunately, I had to say no, because the reality is I just don’t have the time or bandwidth for those personal touches anymore.”

While large clubs offer incredible opportunities for growth, it’s important to acknowledge that the flexibility and community feel you get in a small club represent genuine competitive advantages. Hold onto these capabilities for as long as you can and remember that no matter your club’s size, the overall goal remains the same: creating meaningful experiences for young athletes.

Minnesota Youth Soccer Association Chooses PlayMetrics as Its Operations Software

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 19:18:40 GMT

The decision reinforces Minnesota’s commitment to uniting the state’s soccer community

RALEIGH, NC (January 13, 2026) - PlayMetrics, a leading provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, today announced that it has been selected by Minnesota Youth Soccer Association to power its membership and competition operations. Under the agreement, Minnesota Youth Soccer Association will leverage the PlayMetrics platform to deliver a more streamlined, efficient, and scalable experience for its member clubs.

“For over 50 years, we’ve focused on creating a meaningful soccer experience for our members, and PlayMetrics helps us continue that tradition,” said Joe Dettlaff, Chief Member Services Officer of the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association. “The efficiency and user experience they provide are second to none, and we’re excited about what’s ahead.”

By partnering with PlayMetrics, Minnesota Youth Soccer Association will unlock an integrated, mobile-first platform that brings together registration, roster validation, scheduling, game-day management, and communication. This approach will make it easier for affiliated clubs to interact with the state throughout the season, delivering a more consistent, transparent experience for administrators, directors, coaches, and families alike.

“Minnesota Youth Soccer Association joining PlayMetrics is another important step in the evolution of our platform,” said Tim Chain, Senior Vice President of Sales at PlayMetrics. “Each new partner helps us expand and refine the system in ways that benefit the entire youth sports ecosystem. It’s a strong indication of where the industry is headed: toward fewer tools, better experiences, and more efficient operations at every level.”

About PlayMetrics

About Minnesota Youth Soccer Association

For more than 50 years, MYSA has been helping member clubs provide a safe and meaningful soccer experience for Minnesota youth. We were founded in 1969 as the Minnesota Junior Soccer League and incorporated in 1987 as the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association. MYSA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a member of US Youth Soccer and U.S. Soccer.

Nebraska State Soccer Selects PlayMetrics to Power Its Membership Operations

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 21:29:10 GMT

The move will honor Nebraska’s mission to improve the soccer experience and grow the game for its members

MORRISVILLE, NC (January 9, 2026) - PlayMetrics, a leading provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, announced today it has been selected to provide operations software for Nebraska State Soccer to power its membership and competition operations. The agreement provides Nebraska State Soccer with an updated platform that unifies governance and operations, supported by a high level of service, and reinforces a commitment to delivering an elevated, cohesive experience for its members.

“Our move to PlayMetrics is an investment in the future of youth soccer throughout Nebraska,” said Casey Mann, Executive Director at Nebraska State Soccer. “The platform gives us the tools to operate more efficiently, support our clubs better, and scale as we continue to grow.”

With PlayMetrics, Nebraska State Soccer will gain access to powerful tools that connect registration, roster verification, scheduling, game-day operations, and communication in a mobile-ready experience. Affiliated clubs will be able to more easily engage with the state each season, creating a reliable and transparent experience for everyone involved, from administrators and directors to coaches and families.

“Our goal is to unify the fragmented systems youth sports organizations rely on today into one modern platform,” said Tim Chain, Senior Vice President of Sales for PlayMetrics. “Bringing Nebraska onto PlayMetrics reinforces our belief that state associations want technology that simplifies operations without sacrificing flexibility.”

About PlayMetrics

About Nebraska State Soccer

Nebraska State Soccer is the premier governing body for soccer in Nebraska, dedicated to promoting and developing the sport at all levels. As an affiliate of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), United States Youth Soccer Association (USYSA), and United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA), Nebraska State Soccer oversees leagues, competitions, coaching education, and player development programs. With a mission to provide opportunities for all individuals to enjoy the game, Nebraska State Soccer strives to foster a positive soccer culture that inspires our over 22,000 players, coaches, referees, and administrators across the state. Nebraska State Soccer is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

Customer Success Story: Legends FC

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 21:48:21 GMT

From Outdated to Ahead of the Game: Legends FC's Journey to Becoming a Forward-Thinking Organization

What does it take to successfully manage 6,000 athletes across 300+ teams in 10 regions? Ask Legends FC, and they'll tell you it's not just about passion and dedication (although those are essential). It's about having the right systems in place to turn complete chaos into seamless operations.

It wasn’t always easy for them. Once plagued by multiple systems that wouldn’t integrate and stacks of paper checks and registration documents to dig through, the team at Legends spent countless hours manually inputting data and hoping that everything was accounted for. The margin for error was high.

Then, they tagged in PlayMetrics.

Here's the story of how one strategic technology decision transformed Legends FC from overwhelmed to optimized, setting a new standard for youth soccer club management in California.

CHALLENGE - When More Tools Mean More Problems

Since joining the organization in 2017 as a coach and admin support, Taylar Sklar-O’Sullivan has worn many hats - giving her a unique view into the operational challenges Legends FC faced. The main one? Their patchwork of systems was creating more work, not less.

The Paper Trail Nightmare

“During the registration process, we were collecting handwritten checks or cash. It made it difficult to track payments and who was past due,” said Sklar-O’Sullivan. “We also were handling physical copies of birth certificates and other legal documents, which was an added liability for us. Plus, all registrations and player evaluations were done on paper, so if we misplaced forms before entering them into the system, it was a huge headache.”

The logistics made everything worse. With offices separate from playing fields, that crucial stack of evaluation forms had to be physically transported after every tryout, multiplying the chances of losing critical information or missing a player in the team formation process.

The Integration Gap

In addition to the paper chaos, the Legends FC team was juggling multiple software systems, and none of them were integrated. They were using:

One platform for collecting registrations
Another to track player data
A third for communicating with families
Endless file folders - both physical and digital - holding sensitive information

“Nothing was speaking to each other,” Sklar-O’Sullivan explained. “Information had to be manually transferred from emails, sheets, and texts, making it more likely that something would get overlooked or lost in translation.”

To add insult to injury, the existing platforms were “outdated and very minimal” in terms of what functionalities they could perform, adding unnecessary time to already packed schedules for Taylar and the rest of the staff.

The need for a platform that could centrally manage everything had never been higher.

The Technology Problem

In a crowded market of software vendors promising to solve every youth sports management problem, Taylar and the team quickly realized none could deliver. The so-called “all-in-one” platforms left out critical pieces, while others couldn’t even meet the club’s basic needs because their technology was outdated. And to make matters worse, even the most routine tasks took far longer than they should.

“Making sure our rosters were accurate for different events and collecting money were two things I was spending the most time on previously,” said Sklar-O’Sullivan. “That and logging into a different app to communicate with families and monitor conversations.”

For a club constantly on the move, desktop-only software created major roadblocks. “With a lot of these software systems, you could only access certain things on a desktop. For example, our previous systems required you to complete your registrations through a website, which wasn’t easy for families to navigate on their phone.”

This created barriers for families who may not have had a computer at home. They either had to find a way to access one or struggle through a clunky mobile site experience. A dedicated mobile app was quickly becoming essential - yet few, if any, software providers could deliver.

SOLUTION - Finding Calm Among the Chaos

During the height of COVID - when frustration at the club was at its peak - a well-timed Social Media ad caught Taylar’s boss, CEO Josh Hodges, at just the right moment. He scheduled a demo for them with the PlayMetrics team. Their first impression? “Wow, this solves a lot of problems right now that could help us communicate more effectively to our entire membership and organization. In addition, this would allow us the ability to support every aspect of our operations and streamline a more efficient way to manage everything.” They quickly realized that a switch to PlayMetrics meant more efficiency and a better way of doing things.

Decision Time

“I remember when we brought PlayMetrics to our board of directors, they asked us how it would affect our families,” said Sklar-O’Sullivan. “We were able to tell them with confidence: ‘This is going to replace the three other services we’re paying for, and now all we have to ask our families to do is to download one single app.’” Having that single source of truth was going to change how the club operated and provide a more positive experience for families and staff.

What sealed the deal wasn’t just technology; it was the relationship the club was able to build. Says Sklar-O’Sullivan: “Throughout both the whole sales and onboarding processes with PlayMetrics, we really felt supported and listened to. That was important because I really value relationships and people.”

Even now, when my boss mentions other software companies reaching out, I’m like: ‘Nope! We’re not doing it! No way.’

TAYLAR SKLAR-O'SULLIVAN

Chief Operations Officer

Implementation, Impact, and Results

When asked how long it took for the team to see value after making the switch, Taylar’s response was instantaneous. “Immediate! It was immediate value. I could see who’s paid and who hasn’t, who’s on the team and who hasn’t accepted yet. It was all right there; I didn’t have to go hunting people down.”

The communication improvements were equally dramatic. Taylar was excited to see that she no longer had to copy email addresses and send messages one by one. With PlayMetrics, she could reach the entire club in a fraction of the time it took previously.

Field scheduling quickly stood out as another major win. “Being able to have the fields in one spot and be able to see where everybody is on any given day. Game-changer!”

But perhaps the biggest benefit was the fact that they could officially retire the outdated systems that were holding them back in favor of one single software. According to Taylar, this consolidation of tools to PlayMetrics led to 80% time savings that just couldn’t be found anywhere else. “That efficiency is unmatched,” she said. “Everything is easier. Communication, registration, reporting - even financials. We run a lot of outside programs, so now I know what those are bringing in. Even running our rec league, we see a huge improvement with being able to manage that in the same place as our competitive side.”

Other areas where the club saw marked improvement include team management and Team Accounts. “That was my ‘aha’ moment,” she said regarding the addition of Team Accounts to the suite of solutions PlayMetrics provides. Now, the club has real-time visibility into and control over individual team financials in the same place they manage everything else.

CLUB UPDATE - A New Standard of Operations

“PlayMetrics really helped professionalize our business. It looks good, feels good. It’s just easier to use than anything else out there.”

TAYLAR SKLAR-O'SULLIVAN

Chief Operations Officer

Today, Taylar has officially hung up her tracking gear. Where she once constantly chased after families and staff, trying to collect forms and payments, she now manages everything in her PlayMetrics app. With one click, she can make the adjustments she needs, shifting players’ statuses and sending communications to those who are behind schedule. “The beauty of having one operating system is that we can all work in it without having to be in the same location,” she says. “Our business runs faster and more efficiently because I don’t need to sit down with people to do tasks. Everything is at our fingertips.”

Thinking Ahead

Taylar and her team at Legends are looking forward to their future with PlayMetrics and the continued innovations to the platform. “It’s clear to us that PlayMetrics is driven to continue providing a complete, all-in-one platform for clubs. We see that with each new feature launch or product update that brings new ways to use the software. It’s exciting to be with them at the forefront of progress.”

PlayMetrics Completes Sale of Student Sports to Elysian Park Ventures

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 21:31:35 GMT

Transaction reinforces PlayMetrics’ core mission to deliver the most modern and unified platform that streamlines operations for youth sports organizations.

RALEIGH, NC (December 12, 2025) — PlayMetrics , a leading provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, today announced the sale of Student Sports to Elysian Park Ventures .

Student Sports operates Elite 11 and Area Code Baseball, two of the nation's most prestigious talent evaluation and development platforms for aspiring collegiate athletes. The business was a part of the Stack Sports portfolio prior to the June 2025 merger of PlayMetrics and Stack Sports, supported by Genstar Capital , a leading private equity firm.

“This move allows us to concentrate on where we can create the most impact,” said Mike Doernberg, CEO of PlayMetrics. “Our vision is to become the essential platform that youth sports organizations rely on to run their operations every day - a true operating backbone built for long-term reliability. Student Sports has an incredible legacy in athlete development, and Elysian Park Ventures is the ideal partner to support its continued growth.”

The Student Sports management team worked closely with Elysian Park throughout the transaction to shape a forward-looking strategy that preserves the brand’s culture and relationships. “Elite 11 and Area Code Baseball are the gold standard in athlete identification and development,” said Cole Van Nice, Managing Partner at Elysian Park Ventures. “We value the opportunity to collaborate with the Student Sports leadership team on the next chapter, and we’re excited to help these iconic platforms grow even stronger.”

The divestiture of Student Sports follows PlayMetrics' recently announced sale of video analysis tool Steva to Cardinal Sports Capital and reflects an ongoing strategy to sharpen the company's focus on its core mission. With thousands of clubs, leagues, tournaments, and governing bodies already running their operations on PlayMetrics, the company is accelerating its product roadmap and reinforcing its position as the definitive platform in youth sports operations management.

Boxwood Partners served as the exclusive financial advisor to PlayMetrics on the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

About PlayMetrics

PlayMetrics, the most user-friendly and intuitive Operating System in youth sports, is purpose-built to simplify the unique complexities of running a club, league, tournament, or governing body. Trusted by forward-thinking leaders across a variety of sports, PlayMetrics empowers directors, coaches, administrators, and player families to modernize their daily operations with unified financial, operational, coaching, and communication tools. Learn more at https://home.playmetrics.com .

About Elysian Park Ventures

Elysian Park is a global investment platform dedicated to building the future of sports. Backed by the ownership group of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Elysian Park backs companies at the intersection of sports and market adjacencies in health, culture, commerce, and technology. The firm invests from seed to growth and partners closely with entrepreneurs by providing capital, domain expertise, and strategic resources. To learn more, visit www.elysianpark.ventures .

About Genstar Capital

Genstar Capital ( www.gencap.com ) is a leading private equity firm that has been actively investing in high-quality companies for over 30 years. Based in San Francisco, Genstar works in partnership with its management teams and its network of strategic advisors to transform its portfolio companies into industry-leading businesses. Genstar currently has approximately $50 billion of assets under management and targets investments focused on targeted segments of the financial services, software, healthcare, and industrials industries.

About Boxwood Partners

Boxwood Partners, LLC , is a boutique investment bank based in Jupiter, Florida with offices in Richmond, Virginia. Boxwood Partners combines a unique blend of senior-level transaction advisory, business operating experience, and proven process execution skills to give its clients a distinct advantage in the market. The firm’s extensive relationships within the global capital and buyer communities (including U.S. and international private equity groups, corporations, and lenders) and other essential transaction-related service providers such as consultants, attorneys, and accountants, ensure that the firm’s clients receive the attention, service, and results they deserve. For more information about Boxwood Partners, please visit www.boxwoodpartners.com .

About Student Sports

For more than 25 years, Student Sports has been the leader in experiential and content marketing for the grassroots sports space. Through the Elite 11, Area Code Baseball and dozens of custom-built activations, Student Sports produces world-class events and original content that inspire, educate, and develop athletes across the globe, while also providing opportunities for brand partners to engage and positively impact future generations. For more information on Student Sports please visit www.studentsports.com or contact Zack Greer at Zack@studentsports.com

Iowa Soccer Selects PlayMetrics as Its Membership and Competition Operations Software

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:08:28 GMT

RALEIGH, NC (December 1, 2025) – PlayMetrics, a leading provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations, announced today it has been selected to provide membership and competition operations software for Iowa Soccer. The long-term agreement equips Iowa with a modern platform that unites governance, operations, and service - driving transparency, efficiency, and an elevated experience for every member.

“Upgrading to PlayMetrics represents an exciting step forward for our organization,” said Dan Cataldi, Chief Executive Officer at Iowa Soccer. “We pride ourselves on providing our clubs with the best possible experience, and that means staying at the forefront of innovative technology that enhances how we serve our members.”

With PlayMetrics, Iowa Soccer will gain access to powerful tools that connect registration, roster verification, scheduling, game-day operations, and communication in a mobile-ready experience. Affiliated clubs will be able to more easily engage with the state each season, creating a reliable, transparent experience for everyone involved, from administrators and directors to coaches and families.

“The collaboration with Iowa Soccer reflects our commitment to uniting the entire youth sports ecosystem, from state associations and leagues to individual clubs,” said Tim Chain, Senior Vice President of Sales for PlayMetrics. “By working together at the state level, we’re empowering organizations to communicate more effectively and operate more seamlessly across all aspects of their game.”

About PlayMetrics

About Iowa Soccer

Iowa Soccer’s mission is to provide meaningful soccer opportunities for players, coaches, clubs, and families across the state. Guided by the vision of making soccer the sport of choice in Iowa, the organization is committed to creating more pathways for participation, access, and engagement at every level of the game. Through strong partnerships, modern tools, and member-focused support, Iowa Soccer continues to build a safe, connected, and inspiring environment where the sport can grow and thrive.

Ten Predictions for Youth Sports That Actually Could Happen

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 19:06:12 GMT

Clearly defining the future of youth sports is easier said than done, especially when it could represent different things to different people. “The future” could mean how the structure of certain sports will change, what challenges organizations will be facing as the industry continues to evolve, what is expected to take center stage in training and development, or all of the above and more.

On our quest to build a better picture of the future, we asked a sampling of youth sports leaders across a variety of organizations about changes they expected to see in their sports. One thing we also asked was if they had any interesting predictions for the sports world as a whole.

Here are some of their out-of-the-box (and our favorite) predictions , with a little bit of color commentary from our team:

US Soccer gets rid of the “alphabet soup” of youth leagues and creates clear levels of play for clubs, similar to the way hockey does it. This model might allow for clearer player pathways and could help keep families from bouncing from club to club looking for the next best experience.

The US Men's National Team will win a top soccer competition. The question is: which major soccer tournament will it be? Who knows. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, though.

Girls flag football will be a sanctioned sport in all 50 states. Interest in the sport is rapidly growing already, with youth leagues popping up in many states. In fact, 15 states have already sanctioned it as a varsity sport, with more likely to follow.

Soccer will continue to become a rival sport of football in the US. We’d all love to see the sport rise in popularity here and continue to grow the next generation of players.

Synchronized skating will make it into the global games. This would be really cool. We’re all for the addition of new sports in the biggest multi-sport event in the world.

There will be no true amateur sports in five years; youth and high school players could be paid to play. What if money was used as a recruitment tool so clubs can create superteams? Would this change the world of youth sports entirely?

With yet another professional volleyball league being formed, volleyball will see more primetime media slots. Having more variety of sports on TV is a great thing, and seeing the addition of some different sports in the evening lineup would be a welcome change in our eyes.

Competitive youth soccer will move to a non-year-round model. This could be interesting, and a definite shake-up to the competitive soccer landscape, where ongoing training and development is seen as necessary for players to stay at the top of their game.

Women’s sports will overtake men’s sports on TV. We’re already seeing a rise in interest and fanfare around women’s sports, particularly in basketball. That said, we’re all for more women’s sports hitting our primetime TV screens.

What Youth Sports Leaders Want Most From Their Governing Bodies

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 22:05:04 GMT

Governing bodies play a crucial role in youth sports, often setting the tone for play by establishing clear sets of rules and enforcing safety standards. They are a guiding force for the game, ensuring every athlete has the development opportunities they need in a safe and fulfilling environment. But with that influence also comes a responsibility to listen and adapt to clubs’ needs, as these are ever-changing and dependent on a variety of outside factors.

We recently asked a sampling of youth sports leaders what changes they most desired from their governing bodies as part of a larger survey on the future of youth sports . Here are a few key terms we heard more than once from multiple people:

Simplification : Currently, it seems as though people feel that things within their governing body are a bit complicated. Many stated that the software system currently in use by their governing body was confusing and often required using multiple platforms to get access to everything they needed, something that causes frustration. Others felt there was a need to simplify processes and policies established to make the overall playing experience better for families and staff alike.

Reduction: By far the biggest change desired by club leaders is a reduction in fees. Many feel that the cost of participation places a significant burden on players and clubs of all sizes and age groups. From registration and participation fees to travel expenses and event entry costs, the financial demands quickly add up. High costs can make play unreachable for people in certain income brackets.

Some leaders also alluded to the fact that they thought there were too many leagues to choose from and a lot of value placed on certain ones. This is particularly tricky, especially when there are different sets of rules, costs, and opportunities for each. It makes it difficult to determine the best fit for players.

Affordability : Aside from the aforementioned affordability on the players’ side, respondents also raised concerns about costs for staff - particularly coaches. Education is a big part of coaching; clubs and their governing bodies want to ensure their coaches are going through the appropriate training and attaining the proper certifications and/or licenses needed to provide a healthy developmental environment for players. That said, licensing alone can cost upwards of $1,000 depending on the course, which puts a major financial burden on clubs who need to find creative ways to offset these costs.

Transparency : Some fees associated with participation in certain governing bodies and leagues can be somewhat murky, and clubs are craving more clarity on where their money is going. Knowing what they’re paying into might make the cost easier to swallow down the line. They also wish they had a clearer picture of what resources and services are available to them through their affiliation.

Consistency : This was a big theme across the board, as it was apparent through respondents’ answers that there doesn’t appear to be much regularity. Some commented on how there needs to be uniformity in the criteria for how clubs can participate in leagues so smaller clubs feel they’re given the same opportunities as larger clubs in terms of placement. Whether it’s in the rules and/or requirements you must follow as a player or a club, the registration process as a whole, or even the platforms and software used, it’s clear that alignment is needed across the board.

What’s Next for Youth Sports? Survey Says…

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:00:05 GMT

When you think about the future of youth sports, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Could it be enhanced technology offerings or a change in how much field space you have access to? Maybe it’s something unexpected, like the addition of Artificial Intelligence tools or a decline in the number of interested players. The possibilities are endless.

We recently surveyed a cross section of youth sports leaders spanning a range of sports and club sizes to get their take on trends in the future of youth sports.

So what exactly is keeping these leaders up at night? Let’s take a deeper dive.

Mental health is top of mind.

The future of youth sports will place major emphasis on player well-being:

67% of respondents representing large clubs said an added focus on mental health and well-being would be the top upcoming trend in their sport
65% and 60% of respondents, representing medium and small clubs respectively, said the same (this was also their top answer)
69% of executive-level respondents predict an added focus on mental health as a top trend, as do 60% of directorsents predict an added focus on mental health as a top trend, as do 60% of directors

Key takeaway : Players’ well-being may have always been high on your priority list, but get ready to focus a bit more on things that will stimulate them mentally as well as physically.

Trends are different depending on club size.

Technology adoption is a bit of a mixed bag:

71% of large clubs anticipated an increased use of data and analytics as a forecasted trend, and 55% of small clubs said the same
Artificial Intelligence ranked lowest among anticipated trends across all respondents

Key takeaway : While priorities differ based on the organization’s size, one thing is clear: technology will remain a critical part of youth sports. Shocking, right?

You can expect to see major financial changes.

Increases are coming from every direction:

84% of respondents anticipate increasing the cost of membership fees
63% will increase the amount of financial assistance offered to players
49% expect to increase their technology spend
Only 43% anticipate an increase in corporate sponsorship revenue

Key takeaway : In order to stay competitive in your sport, you’ll need to offset these financial increases somehow. Time to get creative.

There are other challenges to consider as well.

Infrastructure constraints and rising equipment costs are top of mind:

57% of all respondents said their biggest upcoming challenge would be outgrowing their current infrastructure
92% of these respondents said they would prioritize the purchase of new fields and/or upgrades to their facilities if they had additional capital to spend
80% also said rising expenses would be a major challenge, and 90% of them indicated they’d be increasing the cost of membership fees

Key takeaway : Unsurprisingly, field space is in high demand for most. Having your own fields may seem like a pipe dream, but don’t stop believing.

You can download the full report here .

Best Practices for an Impressive Youth Sports Website: Actionable Steps for Clubs & Leagues

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 19:14:25 GMT

If you think your organization’s website is just a formality, think again. From the first moment someone checks you out to the tenth time they go to register for a new season, your website quietly guides every interaction. It’s more than just a source of news and registration links; it’s one of the most important assets to your club or league. In 2025, the value of a youth sports website is greater than ever.

According to recent data, 82% of parents report having high expectations for the technology their club uses to communicate, schedule, register, and accept payments (including your site). Unfortunately, less than half are actually satisfied.

Time after time, the same errors are made by well-intentioned youth sports leaders – often rooted in misconceptions surrounding how to think about websites – and the end result falls short of expectations. Not only can this be damaging to your brand’s perception, danger lurks when it’s unclear what programs are available, how to register, or why parents should choose your club over the one across town.

By taking the time to develop a strategic and thoughtful approach to your website, your organization will be well positioned to stand out from the competition and give visitors exactly what they seek. We sat down with web developer and club marketing director Aldin Zmajevac from Zikoba Marketing , an agency specializing in youth sports organizations, to get his take on what makes a great website. Here’s what we learned.

Five Recurring Website Myths

More often than not, a problematic website stems from either a lack of resources or knowledge. Even if you’re not able to influence the resource side, identifying these false assumptions will put you one step closer to a successful website strategy:

Myth

Your website needs to do everything.
Your website needs to be flashy.
Your website needs to be custom designed.
You don’t need to worry about accessibility on your site.
Your work is done once your website is launched.

Let’s unpack each one in greater detail:

Myth #1: Your website needs to do everything.

Truth: Less is more. The primary need of site visitors is to get reliable information clearly and quickly without being overwhelmed by endless navigation paths or pop-ups. One practical way to streamline your site is making a list that ranks the most essential homepage information in order, allowing you to designate a proper location for the rest.

Myth #2: Your website needs to be flashy.

Truth: While there’s nothing wrong with wanting an impressive or dynamic website, too much flash quickly becomes confusing to navigate. It’s also important to consider that complex elements affect loading speeds and can be a distraction from the page’s intended goal (e.g., registering for tryouts) if not used in moderation.

Myth #3: Your website needs to be custom designed.

Truth: Custom sites come with both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, you (usually) get exactly what you want and can stand out more from templated youth sports sites. However, working with a developer and designer can be more costly and less flexible in regard to real-time updates. In the next section, we’ll cover how to determine if a custom site is right or not for your organization.

Myth #4: You don’t need to worry about mobile accessibility on your site.

Truth: Not everyone has a computer to view your site, and the majority of web traffic is likely happening from a mobile device. Optimizing your website for mobile is a crucial step for any organization, especially through the lens of accessibility. To accommodate special needs of site visitors, be sure to always use alt tags, high contrast with text, and captions on your videos. Not only will your visitors be better served, so will your site in regard to search engine optimization (SEO).

Myth #5: Your work is done once your website is launched.

Truth: Timely updates are essential to provide accurate information to site visitors. Any changes involving field availability, fees, camp offerings, registration links, seasonal events, and current staff should be reflected on your website as soon as possible.

Putting these misconceptions to rest will give you a clearer picture of what you want your website to accomplish. Next, it’s time to figure out how.

Forming Your Strategy: Key Questions to Ask

Most likely, your youth sports organization already has a website. That’s not the end goal; it’s the beginning. A website’s work is never finished, and your organization should always be analyzing, optimizing, and considering next steps. Whether you’re launching a new site or revamping one that’s been around for years, start by asking the following fundamental questions:

Who is your target audience?

Every sports organization will have both prospective and current members coming to their site, but you’ll need to dig deeper into your own unique situation. A newer club or league is focused more on introducing themselves, establishing their identity, and sharing their mission to generate interest. A more seasoned one will be looking to optimize the member experience, grow their impact in the community, or show off their accomplishments. Think about your organization’s unique position, who will be looking at your site, and the information they expect to find.

What do you want visitors to do on your site?

The main call-to-action (CTA) for most youth sports organizations is registration. This could mean signing up for tryouts, joining a rec program, or filling out an application. Depending on the nature of your organization, there might be a variety of other ways site visitors can participate, including volunteering to be a coach, donating to a fundraiser, or RSVPing to an event. CTAs should always correlate to the page they’re on. A sponsor page should have a way to become a sponsor, a financial aid page should have a way to apply for financial aid, and so on.

What is your current tech stack?

If your organization uses an operating system, does it include mobile communication features to give members real-time updates and team info? If not, your website may need to do more of the heavy lifting. It’s worth noting that the operating systems that offer a web builder usually have more direct integrations between the platform and your website than the ones that don’t.

What resources do you have to dedicate to the site?

Figuring out who is in charge of the site and how much time they have to monitor it will determine if you should manage internally or through an outside developer and designer. This will require taking stock of your internal web knowledge, budget, and timeline.

Once it’s clear who is involved and how you’ll manage the site, here are some best practices to consider.

Best Practices for Your Youth Sports Website

Maintaining a successful website requires some of the same qualities as running a successful youth sports organization. By that, we mean it’s imperative to focus on the fundamentals and make every effort to provide a great experience. (In addition to working on your headers, making sure you have the right fields, adjusting to high bounces, and other puns.) Along with each best practice, we’ve included an example of a youth sports website that’s acing it.

Design - Visual design can be somewhat subjective, but it tends to be true that the “cleaner” and more streamlined your website looks, the better.

Use your exact brand color codes for visual consistency. If you don’t know the HEX codes by heart, use an eye dropper tool to select and match colors.
Make sure font sizes and spacing are easy to read - we’d suggest at least 16pt for body paragraphs with 1.5 line spacing.
Remember to preview your site on mobile. If needed, reorganize page content for the mobile version so that it stacks and fits properly. (Remember, about 96% of parents register from a mobile device!)
Example: Lake Travis Football Club

Navigation - Organize navigation by topic and use dropdowns for an intuitive user experience. Your site visitors will find their way around the site using the predetermined tabs you set in the nav bar or menu.

Make the nav bar “sticky” on scroll — meaning site visitors will still be able to see the menu even if they’re toward the bottom of a page.
Navigation is valuable real estate, but it can quickly become overwhelming if there are too many tabs listed. This goes back to the need for a list of your most essential site information.
Use a high-resolution version of your club logo in the navigation bar with a transparent background. This will likely be either a PNG or SVG file.
Example: Prime Volleyball Club

Headers - Whether you use images, text, or videos, headers serve as the eye catchers that will set the tone for the rest of the following page.

For a header background, use images or videos that show off your culture. Think about high-quality action shots or photos of players having fun (and make sure you have permission to use them).
Put the most important information “above the fold.” This means the content you care most about displaying should be visible without scrolling.
Use large, bold text (2x the size of paragraph font) for headlines and a CTA button in the header for easy visibility.
Example: South Carolina United FC

Content - This is all the “stuff” you include on your site, including words and visual assets. Draft each text section in a separate document before it goes on your site, and write thoughtfully in a way that will speak to your audience.

Tell your organization’s story and highlight what makes you unique. Are you looking to position yourselves as prestigious and serious, casual and fun, or both? This will influence what you say and how you say it.
Add detail whenever possible. For example, rather than just listing an age group and sign-up link, consider including the training focus for that age group, the timeline of a typical season, or other details.
Incorporate patterns, images, and graphics that work with your branding and look sleek and sporty.

Calls-to-action (CTAs) - As we covered earlier, the goal for sports websites is typically straightforward: get registrations. Whether that means signing up for tryouts or paying to join an open program, CTAs should make it easy to participate.

The label for a CTA button should be clear and under four or five words. (“Register now” or “Sign up for tryouts”)
CTAs should lead directly to their destination whenever possible. If you’re taking them from your site to an operating system or registration form, remove any redundant steps from the process.
Display CTAs in more than one place so users don’t need to hunt for them. This could look like having one in the header and one at the bottom of the page.
Example: Southern California Blues Soccer Club

Footers - Other than the navigation bar, your footer will be the next place most site visitors look for things like contact information or quick links. Be sure to take advantage of this space without crowding in too many elements.

Add your social media links in the footer. You want visitors to stay on your site, and putting them too high up can be an easy opportunity to stray away from your site. Plus, this will be where most viewers will look for ways to connect.
Think about putting topics like financial aid, club policies, or the link to your fan store in the footer. This will ensure that they’re easy to find if they don’t have their own tab in navigation.
Copyright and any privacy notice links should be displayed here.
Example: RISE Soccer Club

FAQs - Listing out your most frequently asked questions will save your club admins from having to answer the same question over and over again. Plus, it shows that you’re willing to go the extra mile to anticipate and meet your members’ needs.

FAQs should cover the most pertinent questions, which may include things like the team placement process, uniform ordering, or coaching assignments.
Having a dedicated FAQ section boosts how your page ranks in search; Google often displays these answers when relevant questions are surfaced in a query.
Think about using an accordion or other collapsible page elements to list FAQS so you can pack more information into a section. Most web builder sites will have this as a page element or “widget.”
Example: Northern Nevada Juniors

Blog / Newsletter - This can be a great way to share recent updates and club highlights, but only if your organization has the means to update it regularly.

News sections are a great way to give a special shoutout to a team or coach. You could also use this space to post club announcements, season recaps, or tournament results.
If you want to display recent news on your site but don’t feel like committing to regularly writing or updating a blog, consider pulling in your social media feeds. Many web builder sites will offer this as a page widget that can easily be connected to your accounts.
If you display a blog as a main section and it's outdated by years, it will hurt your credibility. Consider the blog section when figuring out who is involved in maintaining your site during the strategy process.
Example: Kings Hammer Soccer Club

Sponsors - Including a dedicated sponsor section is a great way to thank your partners and display their logos proudly. This can also help with garnering new sponsorships, as brands like to be part of ongoing efforts to support the community.

These typically work best at the bottom of pages, either in the last section of the homepage or in the footer. A scrolling gallery or static rotator adds motion.
Ask your sponsors for a high quality logo file with a transparent background, and be sure to link to their websites.
In select cases, a marquee sponsor like your uniform provider or parent organization can be displayed in the header.
Example: Missoula Ski Education Foundation

Must-haves for any youth sports website

Being in the youth sports business typically means wearing many different hats. One minute you’re coaching, the next you’re working in communications, and the next you’re managing logistics. A successful website can (and should) make your life easier by centralizing everything members need. Each club or league will have its own mode of operating, but it’s non-negotiable that your website needs to:

1. Clearly communicate what your organization offers and what it doesn’t.

Consider the questions a new site visitor might have. They’ll want to know if you have competitive and recreational programs, how much it costs, where your facilities are located, and when the season starts and ends.

2. Work reliably.

Future and current members will be counting on your website to be dependable in terms of both performance and the information provided. Think about optimizing loading speeds, making sure there are no errors or dead pages, and that the mobile experience is just as smooth as desktop.

3. Showcase your club/league’s strengths and what makes you stand out.

This is permission to show off. Sharing your mission statement, club history, accomplishments, staff directory, training philosophy, and more will help tell your story and differentiate your organization from others.

4. Make joining easy.

Help your site visitors get where they need to be in as few clicks as possible. Think about basic ways to boost conversions, like having a tab in navigation for tryout registration. Actively seek feedback from members on how your site could improve, and take measures to make sure their feedback is addressed.

Closing thoughts

A great youth sports website will accomplish several things for your organization, including showcasing the results of your efforts and portraying your brand the way you want to. Not only does your site serve as your informational home base, it also houses the registration portals that funnel revenue into your business. By infusing intentionality and the best practices covered above, it’s sure to be a winner.

Youth Sports Registration Software: Everything You Need to Know

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 13:52:36 GMT

Managing youth sports programs can feel like a juggling act—coordinating registrations, processing payments, tracking compliance forms, and keeping families informed—all while balancing limited staff and resources. Youth sports registration software is a centralized digital platform designed to streamline enrollment, payment processing, communication, and compliance management for youth sports organizations. By automating repetitive tasks and providing a single source of truth, these tools empower organizations to focus on what matters most: developing young athletes. In this guide, we’ll explore why such software is essential, highlight key features to evaluate, and share how solutions like PlayMetrics can transform your program.

What is Youth Sports Registration Software?

Youth sports registration software is more than just an online form filler. It’s a comprehensive system that brings together registration, payments, scheduling, communication, and compliance into one intuitive interface. Traditional methods often rely on scattered spreadsheets, email threads, and paper forms, leading to errors, lost data, and frustrated families. Modern platforms centralize these operations, allowing administrators to create custom registration forms, track payments in real time, manage waitlists, and send updates to parents and coaches.

At its core, this software serves three primary purposes: efficiency, communication, and compliance. It eliminates the need to toggle between multiple apps or tools, reducing administrative overhead. For families, it provides a self-service mobile experience where they can register, pay, update contact information, and access schedules or game results. For governing bodies, it ensures that required forms—such as liability waivers, medical releases, or background checks—are completed and stored securely. This integration not only simplifies daily operations but also positions organizations to grow seamlessly as participation increases.

Why Youth Sports Registration Software Matters

The shift to dedicated youth sports management tools isn’t just a convenience: it’s a necessity in today’s fast-paced environment. Without a unified system, organizations often struggle with fragmented tools that create silos of information. For example, a league might use one app for registration, another for scheduling, and a third for communication. This fragmentation leads to outdated information, missed payments, and confused families. A single platform resolves these issues by consolidating all critical functions into one place.

Key Benefit: Time Savings

Automation is the greatest time-saver. Automated email reminders eliminate manual follow-ups for unpaid fees or missing forms. Bulk registration tools allow administrators to upload multiple participants at once, while integrated payment gateways process transactions instantly. According to a 2023 report by the National Alliance for Youth Sports, programs using digital registration tools cut administrative time by an average of 40% annually. This reclaimed time can be redirected toward coaching, program development, or improving player experiences.

Key Benefit: Enhanced Communication

Reliable, centralized communication is another cornerstone of effective youth sports management. Families receive real-time updates about practice schedules, game changes, or team news via email, SMS, or in-app notifications. Coaches can post announcements, share training videos, or distribute end-of-season feedback forms directly to families. This transparency reduces miscommunication and builds trust, ensuring everyone stays aligned throughout the season.

By providing a single source of truth , these platforms also enhance accountability. Coaches can view roster updates instantly, financial admins can monitor revenue and retention trends, and governing bodies can verify compliance status—all without requesting manual reports or digging through emails.

Essential Features to Evaluate

When selecting the best youth sports registration software , it’s crucial to assess whether a platform meets your program’s specific needs. While every organization has unique requirements, certain features consistently prove valuable across the board.

Form Builders & Custom Fields

Flexible form builders allow administrators to create tailored registration forms that capture all necessary data. Custom fields enable you to ask specific questions to help ensure compliance with governing bodies and allows the team to gather insights for future planning. For instance, a soccer or baseball club might include fields for player position preferences, while a volleyball or hockey organization could ask about previous competition history.

Secure Payment Processing

Handling payments securely and efficiently is non-negotiable. Look for platforms that offer payment processing for sports through trusted gateways and payment processors. Key considerations include support for multiple payment methods (credit cards, ACH, digital wallets), automatic late-payment reminders, and reimbursement tools. Some systems even integrate financial aid or installment plans, making participation more accessible for families facing financial constraints.

Waitlist & Financial Aid/Scholarship Management

Waitlists are common in popular programs, and managing them manually can be chaotic. Robust youth sports management tools provide automated waitlist tracking, enabling families to see their position in real time and receive notifications when a spot opens. Similarly, built-in financial aid processes allow organizations to award partial fee reductions based on criteria like need, merit, or geographic diversity. These features promote fairness and transparency while reducing administrative burden.

Family Accounts

Self-service family accounts empower parents to handle most interactions without contacting staff. Through these accounts, families can:

Submit or update emergency contact information
Pay fees or installments payment plans
Access schedules, rosters, and game summaries
Complete required compliance documents entirely in the mobile app
Communicate directly with coaches and other club leaders

Compliance & Risk Management

Navigating youth sports compliance can be complex, especially with varying rules across national or state governing bodies. The right software includes digital storage for critical documents such as waivers, medical forms, background check results, and automated alerts when renewals are due. Some platforms offer tools to help youth sports organizations collect and track compliance requirements, helping minimize oversight errors that could lead to legal issues.

How to Choose the Right Software

Selecting the ideal youth sports registration software requires a strategic approach. Begin by clearly defining your must-have versus nice-to-have features. For example, secure payment processing and mobile-friendly forms are often non-negotiable, while advanced analytics might be a secondary concern. Next, compare pricing models; some platforms charge per participant, while others offer flat-rate subscriptions. Small clubs may prefer low-cost, per-user plans, whereas larger leagues might benefit from enterprise packages.

Mobile compatibility is another critical factor. Families increasingly access information on smartphones, so ensure the platform offers a responsive design and has a dedicated mobile app. Look for platforms with high ratings for ease of use, support responsiveness, and feature completeness. Finally, assess customer support quality. Quick email responses, video calls, and a robust Help Center with articles tailored to your needs can make troubleshooting far less stressful during peak registration seasons.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Even the best systems encounter hurdles. Integrating with existing tools like calendar apps or accounting software can sometimes require custom APIs or manual data exports. Choosing platforms with pre-built integrations often streamlines this process.

Training staff and families is essential for smooth adoption. Most vendors offer onboarding calls, video tutorials, and downloadable guides. Ensure you include staff training and clear communications to families as part of your plan to transition to a new software. For handling peak registration periods, look for platforms that scale effortlessly.

FAQ: Youth Sports Registration Questions

What compliance forms are required?
Mandatory forms vary by jurisdiction and sport but usually include liability waivers, medical consent releases, and background check authorizations. The right software helps track expiration dates and sends renewal reminders.

What payment methods are supported?
Top-tier platforms accept major credit cards, ACH transfers, and popular digital wallets. They often include tax receipt generation and support for partial payments or scholarships.

Can I manage financial aid?
Yes. Advanced systems let administrators determine discount options or credits, apply them during registration, and track participation impact on revenue.

How is data security handled?
Reputable providers use encryption, store data in secure cloud environments, and adhere to data protection regulations. Always verify their security certifications before sharing sensitive information.

Conclusion

Youth sports registration software isn’t just a convenience: it’s a strategic investment that transforms how organizations operate. By centralizing enrollments, payments, communications, and compliance, these tools save time, reduce errors, and create better experiences for families and staff alike. Platforms like PlayMetrics exemplify this potential, offering scalable, user-friendly solutions tailored to the unique needs of youth sports organizations. As your program grows, the right software will scale with you, ensuring efficiency, compliance, and sustainable success for seasons to come.

Choosing Metrics that Matter: 12 KPIs Every Youth Sports Leader Should Know

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:36:35 GMT

Most people don’t get into youth sports for the board meetings. If data analysis and key performance indicators (KPIs) aren’t your bread and butter, don’t worry – you’re not the only one. That said, every mission-minded organization should have measures of success, and picking the right metrics is vital to seeing what’s under the hood of your business. Here’s how to determine the best benchmarks for your club, along with 12 worthy KPIs that can help track growth.

Getting the numbers right vs. getting the right numbers

With payments to collect, expenses to track, facilities to manage, and any list of programs to oversee, club management can already feel like drowning in an ocean of numbers. Plus, it feels like every part of your business can and should be measured at all times. Where do youth sports leaders even begin?

If there’s no plan in place, monitoring the performance of the club vis-à-vis its objectives fades into an afterthought at best. Questions like, “Are registration counts on pace to reach our goals?” may not have a clear answer. This can lead to missed growth opportunities, a program that’s losing money, or even a departure from the club’s original vision.

Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case. By selecting KPIs that are attainable, action-oriented, and aligned with the club’s mission, staff can cut out the noise and focus on the metrics that matter most.

Designing the club report card: key questions to ask

Before determining the KPIs your club will focus on, start by zooming out. Perhaps this looks like a conversation with the board of directors or executive staff. What questions about your organization do you want to answer?

Here are some starters to consider:

How are different age and gender groups performing year over year?
Are players returning from one season to the next?
What’s our fastest-growing program?
What is the financial impact by team, age and gender, including financial aid?
What are our biggest expenses and how are they trending?
Overall, how is the club performing from season to season, year over year?

Each of these areas of your organization (and more) can be assigned KPIs, providing insight into how your club is performing over time. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for youth sports staff, but if the KPI meets all of the following criteria then it’s probably one worth considering.

Attainable
Can this data be reliably accessed and distributed?
Is the KPI quantitative and specific?

Action-oriented
Does this measure something we have direct influence over?
Are we equipped to improve on this KPI over time?

Aligned
Would knowing this information help us better accomplish our goals and ambitions as an organization?
Is this topic an ongoing priority for our organization?

If the answer to any of these is “no” for a given metric, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not valuable. It just may not be one of the fundamental building blocks of your performance evaluations or weighed as heavily as others.

Unique to your organization

Recognizing your distinct priorities, opportunities, and personnel will give you clearer vision to see the right measures of success for your club and its goals.

Even within the same organization, the details will differ from program to program. Take a club with an in-house recreation league for example. If the mission of the rec program is “serving the community by providing accessible opportunities for local youth,” that will dictate what data is being taken and why.

The rec side is likely better suited to focus on membership growth rate or financial aid granted , while the competitive program works to maximize its percentage of fees collected or retention rate . Knowing what goals you’re working toward will help you put strategy into action, and following this do’s and dont’s checklist will help you get started.

Getting down to business and defining your KPIs

Selecting the right performance metrics might sound about as exciting as mowing the grass with a pair of scissors, but doing so is vital to understanding the complexities of your business. (The metrics, not the mowing.) Because whether your organization is a bustling non-profit with a team of directors or a solo venture run by the admin/president/registrar-in-one, it is a business at its core.

To continue serving your players’ best interests and maximize the needed resources to support them, it becomes necessary to operate like an efficient and effective business would.

So, what does “efficient and effective” look like?

Program

1. Program enrollment percentage

Formula: Number of players registered ÷ number of total spots
Example: “Our girls rec programs were down 10% this spring. How can we promote more participation this fall?”

2. Active participation rate

Formula: Active participants in program ÷ total program members in system
Example: “Our U12-U14 programs had the highest participation rates in summer camps at 95%.”

3. Membership growth rate

Formula: ((Current members - previous members) ÷ previous members)
Example: “ Overall, the club has grown by 83% since 2021.”

4. Player retention rate

Formula: ((Remaining number of players - new number of players) ÷ beginning number of players)
Example: “We retained 95% of players this year.”

Business

5. Operati ng expense ratio

Formula: Total operating expenses ÷ gross revenue
Example: “Field maintenance costs went up last year, putting our OER at 60%. Do we need to run a fundraiser to help compensate?”

6. Customer lifetime value

Formula: Average revenue × frequency × length of average lifetime
Example: $450 per season × 2 seasons per year × 5.5 years = $4,950 CLV

7. Financial aid

Formulas: Sum of amount granted, count of families served, or average amount granted
Example: “We met our goal of surpassing last year’s financial aid total, exceeding $22,500 in funds granted.”

8. Return on Assets

Formula: Net income ÷ total assets
Example: $ 150,000 ÷ $1,000,000 = 15%. “We netted $150,000 this year and our facilities are currently valued at $1,000,000. Should we invest in a new building?”

Experience

9. Player development

Formula: Average player score at end of season - Average player score at start of season
Example: “Our players went up by an average of 0.6 points on a 1-5 scale.”

10. Member satisfaction | Net Promoter Score

Formula: Average satisfaction rating on a 0-10 scale based on likelihood to recommend. (0-6 are detractors, 7-8 are passives, 9-10 are promoters)
Example: “ Our average satisfaction rating among parents dropped to 7.6. Are there areas we need to address?”

11. Staff & volunteer turnover rate

Formula: Number of staff who left ÷ total number of staff
Example: “Based on the previous turnover rate, we’ll need to bring in about 20 more coaches for the fall season.”

12. Volunteer Lifetime Value

Formula: Hourly value of work × hours worked per year × number of years)
Example: A volunteer mows for 2 hours a week from summer to fall. Valued at $20 per hour, for 26 weeks of the year over 2 years. ($20 × 52 hrs × 2 years = $2,080)

Forming an action plan

Committing to tracking KPIs is a great starting point, but without an action plan, the metrics lose their meaning.

Each KPI is meant to represent how your club is performing at a given point in time, and it’s up to your team to recognize opportunities for growth and improvement. Here are some tips for making the metrics actionable:

In youth sports, there’s a significant focus on player development. (How is Jonny doing this year compared to last year?) Yet, development of the club is just as important, and focusing on metrics that matter will play a role in helping shape your organization into the best version of itself.

PERSPECTIVES: How Some of the Top Youth Soccer Clubs Manage Their Tryouts

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:47:47 GMT

Tryouts: everybody (for the most part) has them. It can be a particularly stressful time for any club because there are so many moving parts to consider and so much planning that goes into each session. We sat down with some club leaders to learn more about their process for running tryouts, what their biggest pain points have been over the years, and what they think the future of youth soccer tryouts looks like.

THE EXPERTS:

Kathie Fleischer, Director of Academy Operations, SUSA FC
Steve Sawyer, Executive Director, West-Mont United Soccer Association
Jonella Rademacher, Director of Operations/Registrar/Admin, Rush WI West SC
Stephanie Bassuener, Admin Assistant, Rush WI West SC

Tell us a little about your role

KATHIE: At SUSA, I’m the Director of Academy Operations so I do all the registrations, oversee tryouts and send out the invites. I also set up the PlayMetrics platform for our organization to best fit our needs.

STEVE: I’ve been with the club since 2011. I started as a coach, then was a director overseeing a portion of our competitive side, and now I’m the Executive Director. So I’ve seen and touched on all different aspects of the club.

JONELLA: When I first started in 2015, I was President of the club, but I was doing a lot of stuff that a typical Director of Operations would do. Eventually, I moved solely into that role so we could separate the two and give me back some time to truly focus on what needed to be done.

STEPHANIE: I’ve also been with the club since 2015, as a parent to start. Over the last few years, though, I’ve moved into an administrative role.

What was your tryouts process like before PlayMetrics?

STEVE: Players registered for tryouts in one platform and that information was downloaded into spreadsheets and given to coaches ahead of time. They used them during the evaluation process to form their teams, so we’d get those spreadsheets back as a final roster after they’d sent their email invitations and players accepted. Then we’d have to import them into two different platforms - one for communication and scheduling and another for registration. Parents would then have to click a universal link, pick the team their child had made, and register for the right team. As you can imagine, that didn’t always happen correctly. Too many moving parts that made it really challenging.

JONELLA: We didn’t really conduct tryouts before we became Rush Wisconsin West because the old club was recreation only. Part of the reason for bringing Rush into the area was to build out a competitive soccer club that ran kids through tryouts and formed teams that way.

KATHIE: We were the club that had multiple platforms. We had one for registration, one for tryouts, and one for team communications, which meant we had to bring everyone up to speed on how to use three different software tools. People were registering for tryouts on one platform and we’d have to download all the information and upload it to a new platform so evaluators on the field during tryouts had all the information they needed. Then we’d have to build the teams and generate the invites in one place, and transfer the final rosters to ANOTHER platform so we could communicate. It was download upload download upload, which was pretty frustrating.

Can you elaborate on your biggest pain points at that time?

JONELLA: Our whole tryouts process was difficult. We had to upload the players from one platform to another so rather than invite them to their teams, we had to pull everybody over ourselves for registration. It just took extra time.

KATHIE: There was always a big disconnect internally as to who was responsible for adding all the players to the different platforms for each team. So we had to check and see: did the coaches add all their teams, did they do it correctly? It was a big frustration. We would have some players coming in at the last minute and coaches were letting them train, saying they’ll invite them to the team. Nobody ended up telling us so we had players who were participating that hadn’t been formally invited nor had they registered and paid.

STEVE: We definitely had a handful of system issues and user error too. Whether it was a family registering for the wrong team, or players who didn’t register at all but still got added to our scheduling and communication platform. We had players just flying under the radar and playing without paying or signing any waivers.

KATHIE: We’d also run into issues like someone didn’t get evaluated correctly or even recorded, so when we’d go to send out the invites, kids would get lost in the shuffle. Then we’d have kids that accepted their spot and made their payment but didn’t get loaded to the communication platform so they didn’t know where they needed to be.

JONELLA: The reason I brought PlayMetrics on was because there were so many things in our old platform that were difficult to do.

How did you handle walkups before?

STEVE: During our check-in process, if anyone arrived without having registered previously, we’d have to handwrite their information into printed versions of our spreadsheets and hand them to the right coach for evaluation. But it was still up to the families to then go online and register correctly so we had their contact information. Which, of course, didn’t always happen.

KATHIE: In the past when we had walkups, we’d have to write everything down by hand and then afterward, go in and create a profile for them on our registration app. At the end of tryouts, it wouldn’t be uncommon for us to have to go in and create profiles for about 40 or so households so we could register the kids. But it wouldn’t be synced with the pictures so we wouldn’t always remember who’s who.

JONELLA: Because we have so many kids, we have a lot of volunteers that help us with tryouts and we set them up by player age to make check-in a bit easier. The volunteers would then take the player pictures if needed and assign all the numbers for tryouts.

How is your tryouts experience different now that you’re on PlayMetrics?

JONELLA: I think one of the big improvements was that we don’t need to have different platforms for different things. For instance, if we want to send an alert to our entire club, we can do it through PlayMetrics. Basically, the parents now have one app on their phone where before they had three or four. PlayMetrics has streamlined everything and made it easier. For everybody.

STEPHANIE: We previously relied a lot on docs and spreadsheets. Now, with PlayMetrics, it’s a lot easier because we have the rating system and they can build out our rosters for us ahead of time. It’s a smoother process to run our tryouts just with those added features alone.

STEVE: Tryouts happen over one week, and we have 51 travel teams, so it can be difficult for our directors to fully engage in each tryout session. With PlayMetrics, if a director can’t make it to the session, they can still go in and easily see where players fall in the process. Also, the changes we saw to our communication process in terms of being able to offer players a spot on the roster were night and day as well - so much easier.

KATHIE: We used to have a running joke each night of tryouts about how many errors we had per day. We never had zero. Sometimes a coach couldn’t ID a kid, or a new player would show up and we didn’t capture all their information. With PlayMetrics, we didn’t have that. By the third night, we had zero errors and zero lines for check-in.

Do you think anything will change in the way you or other clubs in your market run tryouts?

STEVE: Tryouts in our region are kind of like the wild west. For the most part, there are no rules for when tryouts are held. A lot of clubs will host “ID showcases” in the winter for players from other clubs to come and see what it’s like to play for them, so unfortunately that can lead to kids moving clubs in the middle of the year. I would love to think that over time, this will no longer be the case.

KATHIE: We’re pretty buttoned up in our tryouts process. From a tactical and technical standpoint, what goes on out on the field is very predictable. The directors and coaches have meetings on how they’re going to run tryouts, what they’re going to look for the players to do, and what the expectations are going to be. I don’t know if there’s physically any other way to do what we do and get the results we get.

JONELLA: I have seen clubs in some other states that are doing something like an open or free training event where they’re analyzing kids so they can later access them for team formation. I haven’t seen that here in Wisconsin yet, but it’s probably going to come eventually.

KATHIE: I’m not really aware of any clubs in our area charging for tryouts, although I guess that could maybe be a thing in the future. The tryout process is a large part of a club’s growth. That’s where you’re going to add a fourth or fifth team in an age group. So to prohibit people from coming to a tryout because there’s a fee involved - I don’t really see that for us.

STEVE: My hope is that over time, the competition can just stay on the field and we can have more collaboration off the field. At the end of the day, we’re all in this to have as many kids as possible playing soccer and learning the life skills they need.

Switching gears a little, what is your favorite part about using PlayMetrics?

STEPHANIE: Everything is so easy to access. That said, if we need to reach out to tech support, the response is pretty much immediate. I would highly recommend the platform just from the customer service aspect alone.

KATHIE: I would say the ease of communicating with our membership. The ease of contacting exactly who you need to contact is amazing. It takes me less than five minutes to send an email to the whole club.

STEVE: I think one of my favorite things about PlayMetrics is the scheduling feature. As an organization that holds camps and trainings and has our own facilities, the ease of being able to manage everything in a way that allows us to prevent double bookings is huge.

JONELLA: We like the fact that you can put in player numbers and pictures right there on the platform when they check in and it will show up on the coaches’ phones when they’re managing them on the field.

KATHIE: The other ways you can message people outside of email is also very handy. I find myself using my physical email less and less. Ninety percent of what I’m doing internally is messaged through PlayMetrics.

STEVE: I’m also excited about utilizing the evaluation tools for tryouts. Being able to score players in a completely customizable and uniform way across our entire club gives directors and coaches the oversight they need to fully understand where players are in the process.

Any measurable differences you’ve seen since moving platforms?

KATHIE: The carding process was dramatically improved when we moved to PlayMetrics. We had everyone carded by the second week of August which has never happened before in the history of SUSA since I’ve been registrar. Also, in the past, it used to be an email inbox clutter for me and could take me weeks to get out. Now, we’re able to message everyone, get waivers back, and upload them to the carding site in 48 hours.

STEPHANIE: The time it took between tryouts and team invites was shortened from a couple of days to a couple of hours when we moved to PlayMetrics. You could send one blanket message to everybody because their emails were already in the system whereas before, we had to upload everyone’s contact information and THEN send it out per team.

STEVE: Our club has a lot going on. We have recreational and travel teams, we have our own facilities, we have camps and training programs. So being able to manage all that within one system and provide a consistent customer experience across our programs has been really important.

JONELLA: If a player wants to join my club, I request the transfer from wherever they’re coming from within the state, then the state office has it immediately in their inbox to manage. There’s no middle men, no arguing, no more meetings - all of that was eliminated. It happens now within two weeks instead of two months.

STEVE: Like most clubs, we’re a nonprofit, so resources - especially human resources - are limited. Any time we can increase efficiency is really powerful.

STEPHANIE: Having a state association that uses PlayMetrics has been huge for us too because it’s cut so much of the time we had to spend adding games and uploading players. We didn’t have to do the back and forth anymore because we’d load everything once and then the state would populate it out to everybody.

Any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with other clubs who may not be using PlayMetrics?

STEVE: I would say do your due diligence and make sure you find the best fit for you. PlayMetrics has definitely been the best fit for us and I think it is probably for most clubs out there.

JONELLA: From the time I started my journey with PlayMetrics, I felt like my questions were always being answered and answered quickly. I tell everyone I run into who asks that PlayMetrics is the best out there.

KATHIE: Don’t be afraid of change. Don’t be afraid to consolidate your platforms. One-stop shopping really does make you more efficient.

STEVE: We’re seeing a professionalization in this industry lately and PlayMetrics is certainly pushing clubs in that direction. Even smaller, volunteer-run clubs can benefit from a platform like this from a user experience perspective.

Closing thoughts?

STEVE: Our customers have a lot going on in their lives, so interacting with an organization that has a platform like PlayMetrics has made their lives easier and allowed them to enjoy more family time rather than having to sift through all this information in various places. That’s been pretty invaluable.

KATHIE: I was initially dragging my feet on moving over to PlayMetrics. Change is not easy, but when we met with the team and went through the specifics features such as Team Accounts made it easy. To know that our revenue streams could be combined into one visual platform that’s transparent to those who need to see it is really a considerable improvement to how we run our business.

STEVE: I love the way it’s going, especially into governance as well. I think the more impact the platform has on the entire soccer ecosystem, the easier it will be for us and other clubs.

JONELLA: I’ve looked at a lot of products. I’ve used a lot of products. I think PlayMetrics is the best product on the market. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it because you’re doing an amazing job.

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Best Sport Fundraising Ideas to Boost Team Spirit and Raise Funds in 2025

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 16:03:23 GMT

Fundraising is essential for sports teams to cover expenses such as equipment, travel, and tournament fees. Choosing the right fundraising strategy can make all the difference in meeting your goals while fostering team spirit. Whether you’re part of a youth sports league, high school team, or recreational group, here are the best sport fundraising ideas to inspire your next campaign.

1. Host a Sports-Themed Tournament

Organize a community tournament centered around your sport. For example, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament or a penalty shootout competition can attract players of all skill levels. Charge a registration fee for teams and offer prizes for winners. Local businesses might sponsor the event in exchange for advertising, which can further boost your fundraising efforts. Include food trucks or concession stands to add more revenue streams and create a lively event atmosphere.

Why It Works: People love engaging in competitive activities, and the local community often rallies around team events. Adding extra attractions like food and music can make the event even more appealing.

2. Sell Team Merchandise

Create custom-branded merchandise like t-shirts, hoodies, caps, or water bottles featuring your team’s logo. Platforms like Bonfire or Printify can help with production and distribution. Consider expanding your product range to include trendy items like tote bags, socks, or stickers to appeal to a wider audience.

Why It Works: Fans, family, and friends enjoy showing their support by wearing team gear, making this a great way to raise funds while increasing team visibility. Custom merchandise is also a long-lasting reminder of your team’s presence.

3. Host a Fun Run or Walkathon

Organize a fun run or walkathon where participants pledge donations for every mile completed. Encourage team members to spread the word and gather pledges from their personal networks. To add an element of excitement, include themes like costumes or glow-in-the-dark runs for evening events.

Why It Works: Fun runs appeal to a wide audience, from fitness enthusiasts to casual participants, creating a family-friendly event with significant fundraising potential. Adding a theme or competitive element can further increase participation.

4. Hold a Silent Auction

Reach out to local businesses for gift card donations, products, or services to auction off. Sports memorabilia or autographed items from local athletes can also attract bids. Make the event digital by hosting the auction online to reach a larger audience.

Why It Works: Silent auctions create an exciting opportunity for donors to win unique items while supporting your team. Online platforms can increase engagement and make bidding accessible to more participants.

5. Run a Car Wash Event

Gather your team and host a car wash in a busy parking lot or school grounds. Charge a fixed fee or operate on a donation basis. Add extra services like interior cleaning or windshield washing to maximize earnings.

Why It Works: Car washes are simple to organize, require minimal overhead, and provide a service that many people are willing to pay for. Extra services can boost your income while offering added value to customers.

6. Leverage Crowdfunding Platforms

Create a fundraising campaign on platforms like GoFundMe or Givebutter. Share your story, explain what the funds will support, and encourage your community to contribute. Use engaging videos or photos to make your appeal more compelling.

Why It Works: Crowdfunding expands your reach, allowing supporters from all over to donate. Visual storytelling can make your campaign stand out and resonate with potential donors.

7. Host a Sports Trivia Night

Partner with a local bar or community center to hold a trivia night focused on sports. Charge an entry fee and offer prizes for the winning teams. Include bonus rounds or raffles to keep participants engaged throughout the night.

Why It Works: Trivia nights are fun, interactive, and easy to organize, appealing to sports fans and community members alike. Adding extra layers of interaction can enhance the experience.

8. Sell Discount Cards

Collaborate with local businesses to create discount cards that offer special deals. Sell these cards to community members, with a portion of the proceeds going to your team. Include a mix of popular and niche deals to cater to a variety of preferences.

Why It Works: Buyers benefit from the discounts while supporting your team, making it a win-win situation. The variety of deals can make the cards more appealing to different audiences.

9. Organize a Bake Sale

Ask team members and their families to contribute baked goods to sell at games, school events, or local markets. Include options like gluten-free or vegan treats to accommodate dietary preferences.

Why It Works: Bake sales are a classic, low-cost fundraising option that always draws a crowd. Offering diverse options can help attract more buyers.

10. Host a Skills Clinic

If your team’s players or coaches are skilled, host a sports clinic to teach younger athletes. Charge a participation fee and provide attendees with tips, drills, and a fun experience. Include a Q&A session with the players to create a more interactive experience.

Why It Works: Clinics offer value to attendees while showcasing your team’s expertise and fostering community engagement. A personal touch, like a Q&A, can make the event more memorable.

11. Create a Sponsor-a-Player Program

Encourage local businesses or community members to sponsor individual players. Sponsors can cover a portion of the player’s expenses in exchange for recognition on your team’s website or social media. Offer tiered sponsorship levels with added benefits for higher contributions.

Why It Works: Personal connections make sponsorships appealing, and it spreads the financial load among multiple contributors. Tiered options can attract a wider range of sponsors.

12. Raffle Off Prizes

Organize a raffle featuring enticing prizes like gift cards, electronics, or a season pass to your team’s games. Sell tickets at games, online, or through community events. Create bundles of smaller prizes to keep more participants engaged.

Why It Works: Raffles are easy to promote and generate excitement around high-value prizes. Bundling prizes can increase participation by offering multiple chances to win.

Tips for a Successful Sports Fundraiser

Set Clear Goals: Know how much money you need and communicate this to participants and donors.
Promote Widely: Use social media, email campaigns, and community bulletin boards to spread the word. Share updates and countdowns to maintain excitement.
Engage Your Team: Encourage every team member to contribute their efforts, whether by selling tickets or helping with event setup. Assign specific roles to ensure efficiency.
Show Gratitude: Always thank your supporters and sponsors publicly to build lasting relationships. Use social media shoutouts or personalized thank-you notes.

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

PERSPECTIVES: Rec Insights from Some of the Top Soccer Clubs

tfilippi@eminorinc.com (Tyler Filippi) — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 15:07:15 GMT

We recently sat down with club directors across the country to talk all things rec soccer - from unique challenges for their programs to how the right tools make all the difference for all parties involved. See what they had to say about how they’ve shaped the best rec experience for the kids in their charge.

INTERVIEWEES:

Barry Slagle, Director of Recreation, Charlotte Independence
Mike Gaziano, Director of Operations, NASA Tophat
Conor Edmondson, Director of Soccer Operations, FC Westlake
Wayne Price, Executive Director, Bend FC

What do you think makes a good rec director or rec program?

CONOR: “You have to be extremely organized and transparent. People want to know what they’re signing up for so they can manage the rest of the activities that all their kids do.

BARRY: “I think in order to be a good rec director, you have to have the passion for getting kids to play soccer.”

Why is rec so important for kids?

BARRY: “Recreation sports are amazing for kids because you have the social dynamics, the opportunity to learn from somebody that’s not your mom and dad, to have skill acquisition and really instill a growth mindset that if you practice, you will get better at something.”

WAYNE: “I think every single kid on the planet has a right to play the sport regardless of their individual circumstances. It would break my heart if I knew somebody wasn’t signing up because of money or something.”

CONOR: “I love rec because it has allowed my daughter to go and find the thing she loves without me being a pushy parent. I get to sit and watch her fall in love with something, gain confidence, run around and laugh. This is the foundation of what we do; without a rec program to sow the seeds of love for the sport, we're not able to get to where we are.”

WAYNE: “It is also really important for the community. For example, when we moved and our boys joined teams, that’s how we made friends as a family.”

BARRY: “We’re looking at a magnitude of hours - something like 80,000 or 120,000 hours over the course of the year - of kids playing soccer in a safe, fun environment. That speaks for itself in the impact it’s having in the communities.”

What do you think are some unique challenges for rec programs?

MIKE: “I think the biggest thing is the disparate range of parental involvement. You have some parents who are running from thing to thing, or they have other children who are in other activities, and trying to balance all of those things. Then you have parents who are convinced their kid is the next superstar... so it’s trying to distribute information to the whole spectrum that’s the most challenging.”

CONOR: “One of the things we have struggled with in the past was the communication piece between club to volunteer coach to parents. We were using mail merge and lots of spreadsheets. Now we’ve reduced the number of spreadsheets and have been able to get everything into PlayMetrics, which has been nice.”

BARRY: “Rec is soccer at scale, so it’s incredibly important for us to have systems in place to provide a quality product. PlayMetrics does our website, player registration, team building, scheduling, communication, messaging, and alert systems for all parties involved. So it allows us to provide a quality product efficiently with a small staff across 300+ soccer teams per season.”

What makes PlayMetrics different from other tools you have used previously?

BARRY: “I really like the ability to custom filter the information when we’re building teams because we have 300+ teams over five different locations and thousands of kids and we try to meet a lot of requests in our recreation program. That’s a big quality of life feature.”

WAYNE: “If I wanted to see on a particular team how many times someone has or hasn’t been to practice, you can use data to see that, whereas with other platforms, you’d have to go back and check every single one. It wouldn’t give you that data.”

CONOR: “Our past process was super time-consuming. There was a lot of sweat equity that went into using our old platform and relying on volunteers to disseminate information. If they got busy with their own lives and weren’t able to get the information out, we didn’t really have control over that. It was challenging. Since moving to PlayMetrics, we have more control over the messaging in a more efficient way.”

MIKE: “Being able to communicate effectively. I asked myself if we are able to tell all 18,000 people we have tryouts coming up, but are we also able to send something directly to two teams that are playing each other in a couple hours? Essentially, are we able to reach people where they are? PlayMetrics quickly proved that it was going to be that platform for us.”

BARRY: “The communication piece is incredibly important. PlayMetrics uses notifications, which are very similar to text messaging, so if somebody’s in our recreational program, I have the ability to send them a text in addition to an email. I can also alert an entire team, an entire coaching staff, or break it down by program.”

How has PlayMetrics simplified or benefited your day-to-day activity?

WAYNE: “When I first saw PlayMetrics, I was like: ‘That looks pretty cool.’ You can access the roster and place players on a formation. You can take registrations, do college profiles, and upload session plans. It’s everything we previously used, but all in one. We can get rid of other subscriptions and put it all together instead.”

MIKE: “For us, it really boils down to field management. We are able to delay or shut down a facility and there is an immediacy of getting that information out - even for people who are standing next to me. We can send a message saying there’s lightning on the field so we’re going to go ahead and cancel this game, and there’s a parent standing next to me that says: ‘I was just about to ask you that question but I already got the information from PlayMetrics.’ That has been so wildly and comfortingly better.”

BARRY: “Even though I’ve used you guys for several seasons now, things keep getting added that are helpful, but more importantly I keep learning: “Oh, this is the way I’d like to do something.” And there’s typically a way in PlayMetrics that allows us to do it in that capacity.”

CONOR: “To be completely honest, we moved to PlayMetrics, not for the rec program, but for our junior academy and competitive programs. This is just a really nice bonus for us, and it’s a BIG bonus for our parents to have the schedule in their hands. We never used to do that; we didn’t have the system for it.”

WAYNE: “We can also basically eliminate people going and taking too much of a coach’s personal time, which is really important to me. Back in the day, we had parents crossing boundaries, and texting coaches at 10 o’clock at night. We used to have one big group chat. On PlayMetrics, you can do individual chats or private messages.”

MIKE: “Another thing I wanted was mobile accessibility. As an administrator, being able to go on my phone instead of having to bring my laptop to every facility or field is important, but also I know from a parent’s perspective, having to register and find out game time from a desktop or laptop isn’t always convenient either.”

Are there any particular areas where you have seen a measurable difference since switching to PlayMetrics?

MIKE: “The amount of no-shows or people showing up at the wrong facility for the wrong game or wrong time… that’s almost dropped to zero. Obviously with a recreational program, you’re never going to have 100% attendance, but now nobody’s ever showing up for a facility in Smyrna when they’re supposed to be in Marietta. That problem has essentially eliminated itself.”

CONOR: “For me, I’m saving so much time communicating to parents and updating billing, scholarships, and discounts. I actually built discounts in advance so I know exactly what the percentages were that we wanted, and when I go in and add that discount, it’s immediate. That has been the biggest time saver.”

BARRY: “I can go in and assign all 3,600 kids in a season in a realistic work week, and I wouldn’t be able to do that with previous platforms; I would be tapped out at maybe 400 kids. Now, instead of going from registration data, pulling the report, looking at the report, and then going back to a different spreadsheet and clicking through six different tabs, it’s just: ‘Okay, I’m going to filter by these filters’ and can assign 10 kids at a time based on the request.”

Any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with other rec clubs who may not be using PlayMetrics?

BARRY: “If it fits into your business plan, you’ll be happy with the product. It’ll do the things you want it to do and then you’ll start to learn new ways to do things better. I’m sure most rec directors have creative solutions to things, but PlayMetrics provides a very nice template for best practices.”

WAYNE: “The question I’d ask is if you have five separate ways of doing communication, coaching sessions, evaluations, college profiling… and you’re using five different things to do them, why wouldn’t you condense all that down to one platform?”

MIKE: “I would start by asking yourself: ‘Why are you not providing your membership with the best possible support you can?’ One of the things I’ve been super impressed with is PlayMetrics’ ability to listen and take action. You may only have 150-200 kids, but why would you accept less than what you can provide to your membership? Do the work. Don’t be afraid of putting in a little elbow grease and provide kids with an experience they deserve.”

CONOR: “I can understand how it could feel overwhelming, but just having a team app for parents where they can access all the information they need and communicate with other families - that would be worth it in and of itself because you’re bringing simplicity to your customers that you maybe didn’t have before.”

WAYNE: “I always say youth soccer clubs are in a constant state of precariousness and evolution, because there’s something brand new coming around the corner all the time. You could be brilliant today and in big trouble tomorrow. So if you don’t keep moving forward, either of those things can cause you problems eventually.”

MIKE: “We’ve been in the Atlanta market with PlayMetrics for two or three years now, and the number of Atlanta clubs that are now switching over to PlayMetrics is a fairly telling sign of how successful that transition has gone, not just for us, but for our members.”

BARRY: “The system will work and it will work well. PlayMetrics is constantly updating and improving. It’s not a ‘set-it-and-forget-it’. The PlayMetrics system I use now in my fifth season is different from season one and even last season.”

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Five ways clubs are underwhelming parents [New Research]

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 19:59:12 GMT

In our first-of-its-kind research, The State of Youth Sports Clubs & Parent Expectations , we learned that 43% of parents are not fully satisfied with their current club experience. Their expectations are not being met, and that’s most clear when clubs aren’t using parent-facing technology effectively. In this post, we’ll shine the spotlight on five key areas parents say need the most improvement.

Player evaluations (61%)

This one took us by surprise. Parents are more dissatisfied with the player evaluation process than any other element of the club experience. Why could that be? The cynic might assume that parents simply dislike reading less-than-stellar comments about their children. Deep in the study results data we found a clue: one out of every two parents who uses an app to access forms is very satisfied with their club’s evaluations. And, today, only 20% of parents report using an app or software to access evaluations. Making the delivery and consumption of evaluations as easy as possible for parents might just be the game changer here.

We also found an important link between player evaluations and the experience a parent has with their club. When a club shares player evaluations through an app or third-party software (as opposed to manually on paper or through email), parents are more than twice as likely to be very satisfied with their overall club experience.

BONUS: We Analyzed 240 Soccer Player Evaluation Forms. Here’s What We Learned.

Technology/apps (56%)

We asked parents to identify the club activities for which they use a third-party application or software (mobile or desktop) as directed by their club:

64% Registering and/or paying for programs and club fees

56% Viewing team and/or club schedules, calendars, and events

54% Receiving and/or sending club-related messages

30% Updating player attendance for games/practice

20% Accessing club forms and player evaluations

Nearly all parents (91%) agree that the technology their child’s club uses impacts their overall feelings about the club. And 98% of parents surveyed who are with clubs that use an app to do all of the activities listed above agree that the opportunities, services, and benefits that they receive from their club programs are worth the money they pay. 82% report having high expectations for the technology their club chooses.

So, why aren’t we seeing more widespread adoption of club management technology that enhances the member experience? It’s clear that parents want to interact with clubs digitally, managing their schedules, payments, and communications from their phones and computers. Parents from higher income households are 2x more likely than all others to list technology and apps used by a club as a top reason to stay for additional seasons.

There’s another issue stewing beneath all this data: The way clubs currently employ technology often leads to more frustration for parents and players. This is most often due to the “too many apps” problem.

54% of parents are made to use two or more apps to manage their club experience and one out of four have used three or more. 32% of parents who use three or more club apps report forgetting their log-in info at least once over the last year. As the number of apps that parents are asked to use grows, so do the rates of dissatisfaction with most areas of their club experience. Parents made to use 3+ apps are equally willing to pay additional fees for updated technology as they are for player development programs and quality of coaches.

Payments (54%)

While making payments is the club activity most often done through club technology (64% of parents reported paying their fees through desktop or mobile devices), more than half of parents reported being dissatisfied by the payment process at their club. In 2023, parents expect to handle all their commerce the same way they do on Amazon: on their phones, in just a few clicks, all while in line at Starbucks. Quick and painless.

Issues parents face today with club payments include having to pay by paper check, lack of flexibility in payment plans, having to jump through hoops if a refund is needed, and figuring out how to navigate poorly designed payment apps.

Unsurprisingly, the more club-mandated apps a parent is made to use throughout a season, the more issues they face making payments successfully. Parents with three or more apps for their club are three times more likely to experience payment-related frustrations.

Communication (52%)

One in three parents lists the quality of communication they receive from their club as a top contributor to their overall opinion of that club. Out of all of the parents surveyed, over one-third (34%) have experienced last-minute event changes (such as field location or practice time) in the last year and over one-quarter (28%) have missed entire communications from their club. These experiences can cause frustration among parents and decrease overall satisfaction with a club. 32% of parents said they’d be most willing to pay additional member fees for improved communication from the club.

One common communication problem clubs face is a lack of centralization and quality control. Too often we see team managers having to build and maintain their own email lists, important club info being sent over random text chains, and different teams using different messaging apps based on a coach’s personal preference. Don’t even get us started on communication apps with advertisements…

When parents are made to use more than one app to manage their club membership, communication issues increase dramatically. Parents are more than twice as likely to experience unresponsive coaches, lack of communication, and missed communications from the club when using more than one app.

Registration (51%)

Would anyone argue that registration isn’t one of the most important - if not the most important - interactions a parents can have with your club? It’s often the kickoff moment for the relationship and sets the tone for what their membership experience will be like for years to come. An admin from a youth soccer club who recently switched to PlayMetrics told us that, using their former (and outdated) system, parents would receive an email promoting open registration for multiple programs, 99% of which were not relevant to them in the least bit. The parent would have to scroll through the email, reading each program until they find one that their child can apply to. Not the best first impression, is it?

While 64% of parents report using a third party app for club registration, 32% are so unhappy with the process that they would be most willing to pay additional member fees for improved registration technology over any other area. That number skyrockets to 50% for parents who are made to use more than two club apps.

Speaking of too many apps, 25% of those parents who use more than two apps for their clubs noted that they mistakenly signed up for the wrong program in the last year.

Need more convincing that seamless registration greatly benefits youth sports clubs? We found that nearly 75% of parents who reported being very satisfied with their overall club experience also use an app or third party software for registration.

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Are Parents Happy With Their Youth Sports Club Experience?

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 20:20:23 GMT

Parents are the foundation of youth sports. Full stop. They’re the ones who register, fill out paperwork, and drive players all over town for practices and games. They show up to cheer when it’s cold outside, volunteer their time as team managers, and help guide athletes to make the most of their time as club members. Striving to keep parents happy should be at the very top of any club leader’s priority list, right?

Why, then, are 43% of parents not fully satisfied with their youth sports club experience ?

We asked over 500 parents of youth sports club participants what matters most to them, what clubs can do to improve their membership experience, and how club management technology impacts their satisfaction. As far as we’ve seen, this is the first time a study like this has been conducted at such scale and so thoroughly. You can read the full report here .

It’s worth getting right

If you have 500 parents in your club, we learned that 215 of them are less than pumped about their club experience. Only 125 of those are confident they’ll return for another season. And only 47 are likely to recommend the club to their friends and neighbors.

That means less than 10% of youth sports parents tell other parents to give your club a try. Word-of-mouth is by far the most effective and cost-efficient way to grow your business. A remarkable club membership experience leads to happy parents , and happy parents will do more good for your business than all the marketing in the world.

There’s more than one club experience

We asked parents what factors most influence their overall opinion of a club. To nobody’s surprise, the top three results were all related to what happens on the field: Quality of Coaching (57%), Practice & Game Schedules (48%), and Playing Time (44%). If you’re not able to get the on-field experience right for players, the rest of this won’t matter. Assuming you’re in good shape between the lines, there’s another equally important part of being a club member you’ll want to recognize.

Our research indicates that the tools and technology that clubs require parents to use to manage their membership and stay updated on team events are also of great importance. One in three parents listed the quality of communication they receive from their club as a top contributor to their overall opinion of a club. Quality of customer service, as well as the technology and apps a club uses to manage the parent experience, also contributes greatly to their overall opinion of the club and whether or not to return for additional seasons.

Follow the money

What are parents willing to pay more club membership fees for? Half of all surveyed parents answered player development programs. This was followed by the quality of coaches (43%) and improved facilities (37%). About one-third of all parents surveyed report that they would be most willing to pay additional club fees for better technology or apps used by the club, both for performance analysis (34%) and registration/communication (32%).

Dig a little deeper and it gets even more interesting. These numbers jump drastically when parents are segmented by the number of apps they are asked to utilize by their club. Among parents who have to use three or more apps for their club, half of them are most willing to pay additional club fees for better technology used for registration and communication. This means that, for parents, modern and user-friendly technology is as high of a priority as player development and quality of coaching when there are three or more apps involved.

On that note, we learned that 54% of parents are made to use two or more apps to manage their club experience, and one out of four have used three or more. Parents associated with clubs that are utilizing three or more apps are significantly more likely to have experienced a lack of communication as well as entirely missed communications from the club.

Parents who reported to be part of households with an income of more than $100K per year are significantly more likely to value technology and apps both for registration and member communication, as well as for performance analysis, than parents with an annual household income of less than $100K per year. Parents from higher income households are also twice as likely to list technology and apps used by a club as a top reason to stay with a club for additional seasons.

Make it easy

We all understand that modern life is hectic and filled with stress. The last thing a busy parent wants to do after working a full day, fighting traffic, getting dinner ready, and organizing their kids’ activities is to have to wrestle with paper forms or archaic emails from your club. When you introduce friction into a parent’s routine, you get what you’re asking for. That’s exactly why a seamless digital experience with your club is crucial to a parent’s happiness.

We found that parents who are very satisfied with their club’s technology are significantly more likely to have used a club management app during key moments in their season, such as :

Registering and/or paying for programs and club fees
74% vs. 56%
Viewing team and/or club schedules, calendars, and events
62% vs. 52%
Updating player attendance for games/practice
35% vs. 25%
Accessing club forms and player evaluations
28% vs. 13%

The bottom line

Parents and players have more choices than ever in how to spend their recreational time and money. A subpar member experience will no longer be tolerated. The path to happy parents, increased word-of-mouth, and higher member retention starts with streamlining club operations.

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Customer Success Story: Triangle United Soccer Association & Rainbow Soccer

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:10:49 GMT

In a highly competitive youth soccer market, Triangle United and its partner recreation club, Rainbow Soccer , needed to transform business operations to deliver the highest quality programs and customer service for their members. But disconnected systems and “archaic” processes kept getting in the way. Watch the video and read on to learn how PlayMetrics streamlined operations and empowered a very dedicated staff to deliver on the mission.

“We added up all our different costs from all the other apps we were utilizing and we put it into what we were going to utilize here, it was actually going to save us money, but had everything in one place.”

JOHN CIRILLO

Director of Soccer

John Cirillo, Director of Soccer

Where did PlayMetrics make the biggest impact?
Here are some highlights:

Stress-Less Registration and Payment Processes

Then: Disconnected and hands-on registration and payment processes took a considerable amount of time and paperwork with form after form, and people coming into the office to pay by cash or check. “We had to take a check and fill out a deposit slip and take it to the bank, and if there was an issue, get back in touch with the parent, and that happened multiple times through the season,” said Dina Urquhart, Administrator.

Now: With automated alerts for parents when an account is overdue, and the ability for club staff to quickly audit programs to see what’s outstanding, it’s easier than ever to manage and make payments - all in one place.

“PlayMetrics has made it easier for us to audit, communicate and find out why a fee wasn't paid and do what we can do to either help the customer out or correct a banking error and get the fees paid,” said Mike Strand, Executive Director.

...since I started using PlayMetrics, the programs that I'm directly responsible for have both grown by 200 plus players. And I think that is a direct result of the customer service that PlayMetrics allows me to provide.

Drew Kepley

Youth Development Academy Director

Communication Made Modern

Then: The most immediate impact where PlayMetrics was felt was in communication with club families. Prior to PlayMetrics, the clubs would have to first get the information to a coach who would then have to share it with families. “We would get calls in the office asking the question that we sent to the coach,” said Drew Kepley, Youth Development Academy Director. "So, it was just a lot of repeating information, not being able to get that information instantaneously to the players and the families that took a lot of the time away from doing other things that we needed to do.”

Dina adds, “It just was archaic, and very time-consuming and frustrating from our perspective, as well as the parent's perspective.”

Now: Club directors and administrators have the ability to message an individual family, the entire club, a specific team, or a whole program at one time in one place with just the push of a button. “It's definitely made it much easier for us to just send one message to the entire club from the club, instead of having to go through 50 or 60 managers or coaches,” said John Cirillo, Director of Soccer.

Practice Schedules & Field Planning Made Simple. (Yes, simple.)

Then: Multiple steps and methods for organizing the where, when and who of practices and fields was a cumbersome endeavor to say the least. “We have more than three or four locations that we use, and we have them at different times on different days,” said Drew. “I would sit there with pencil and paper and round robin out a schedule, go back and assign team names for each one, put it all in an Excel sheet, and then upload to the website.” Parents would then have to go to the site, click the PDF, and find their child’s team to know where to be and when.

Now: “Everything is in the club member’s account for quick reference. Just being able to manage all that and see it all visually in one place was a huge game changer for me,” said Drew.

Notifications that are "Boom. Done."

Then: Changes—especially last-minute ones—are inevitable, but they shouldn’t have to be painful. “If there was a change to the schedule or a field location, I would have to change it on the original file, save as a new PDF, and upload again,” said Drew. “And then I would send an email to the coach and then hope it went to the parents.”

Now: “If I need to make a change to a game, I go into PlayMetrics, make the change, and hit Notify Team,” said Drew. “Everybody on the team gets an alert to their phone or email, whatever they set as their preference. I can even do it on the way to a game. ‘We're scheduled for field one. Now we're on field two.’ Boom, done.”

We take great pride in our brand as to who we are. And I think PlayMetrics has done nothing but make the brand stronger because the parents absolutely love the features, the communication, the upgrade of what we previously used.

Mike Strand

Executive Director

Mobile (Really) Matters

It’s easy to forget just how much we do the business of life on our mobile devices. It’s no different for those doing the business of youth soccer. PlayMetrics provides clubs with all the power of the full platform in a mobile app. “The mobile experience has been great, especially working with the younger kids,” said Drew. “A lot of kids will come up to a field, and have no idea what team they're on or even what their coach's name is. Being able to just open PlayMetrics on my phone and be able to get them all the information has really helped, especially the first week of training.”

The ability to update parents immediately through the app has also been critical to an excellent club experience. “Lightning comes in, lights don’t come on, or a field might be closed. Being able to just keep everybody in the loop has been great.”

Before things were streamlined with PlayMetrics, the majority of my day would be spent just with the processes. So, the ability to be proactive instead of always trying to catch up is something that obviously anyone wants in their position.

Dina Urquhart

Administrator

Want a behind-the-scenes look at how the PlayMetrics Club Operating System can transform your club's operations? Click here .

Also, check out our other case studies with HTX Soccer and Sporting Nebraska FC .

GOALS: Interview with Aaron Nagel

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 21:08:58 GMT

Aaron Nagel feels underprepared. As he waits in his car for what would become a career guiding moment, he turns up the volume on the radio.

I never really gave up on

Breakin' out of this two-star town

I got the green light, I got a little fight

I'm gonna turn this thing around

Can you read my mind?

Aaron didn’t take what many consider a typical path to becoming executive director of one of the top youth soccer clubs in the country. For starters, he grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, where soccer was hardly in the same conversations as football and hockey. As a young, “first-generation” player, he developed a deep connection with the game while dreaming of and working toward becoming a professional musician. With maybe a little snowboarding on the side.

But every move, every lesson, every decision along the way led him to this moment. In his car, blasting The Killers, and gathering his thoughts right before delivering his vision for the future of the “new” Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club (CRYSC) . A vision that has less to do with soccer than it does with prioritizing great service and focusing on the player and family experience.

In this interview, Aaron shares more about what matters most to him in youth soccer, how he balances being a soccer leader and being a soccer dad, the new ways he wants to help clubs measure success, and the keys to building a culture that wins from within.

I hear you’re a musician.

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.

Where did soccer fit into your budding music career?

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.

Taking it a step further, how did you get into the business of youth soccer?

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.

And then you got that opportunity.

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.

How did you end up with the Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club?

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.

Not long after joining, you merged with the Colorado Storm. What was that experience like?

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.

Why do you think they chose you to take it all on?

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.

Do you remember what music you were listening to?

AN: "Read My Mind" by The Killers.

Besides the major business decisions that come with a merger, how did you manage the reactions from membership when you combined two big competitors into one club?

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.

What did the first year post-merger look like?

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.

There are about 60 clubs and 60,000 soccer players in Colorado. Colorado Rapids has about 25% of those kids. Are these stats accurate?

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.

How many people are on staff at the Rapids?

AN: Over 70 full-time staff.

And volunteers?

AN: You're talking over 1,000.

Others in the Colorado youth soccer community have said that while there is serious competition, there is great respect for what you and the club are doing.

AN: That makes me feel warm that people think that, but we have the same problems that every other club has. I think there's a level of expectation that I set just from my upbringing and my personality that is probably a little different. I never played soccer at a high level. I played competitive soccer like most, and then I went the business route. A lot of club leaders that I work with played high-level soccer, and now they're running multi-million dollar nonprofits without the foundation of how. I will look at other small clubs sometimes that have four people running a 2,000-player club or less and I'm jealous of that some days.

What are you most jealous about?

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.

Do you think not identifying as a “high-level” player helps you lead the business?

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.

You rattled off a few things that are under the umbrella of club management: communications, registration, timelines. When you started, even back at Skyline, did you know how you wanted those things to run?

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.

How do you achieve—and maintain—a high-quality experience for members?

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.

What makes a good coach in your opinion?

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.

Most club leaders have three, five, and ten-year plans. How do you keep these plans from staying stuck in your head or on paper?

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.

Can you share more about the 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.

Do you think this practice is where the youth soccer industry is headed?

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.

What’s your perspective on the increasing expectations from parents?

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.

How do you make sense of all the new apps, software, and technology that are available in youth soccer today?

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.

Where do you think technology has impacted your operations the most?

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.

How do you weed out the noise to determine what technology matters to you?

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.

Your kids play in the club. How do you balance being the club leader with being a dad?

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.

What keeps Aaron Nagel up at night?

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.

You hire people who you trust to carry the ball and have things covered.

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.

What gets you out the door in the morning?

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.

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Inside the Mind of a Player Development Expert

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Thu, 26 May 2022 18:49:59 GMT

With direct influence over North Carolina FC’s professional team and youth programs, John Bradford finds himself in a unique position.

“I think that more clubs are starting to look internally to find who is going to support their perspective of player development, and more importantly, who can bring it to life. You need someone leading the charge who can manage both worlds – reinforcing the vision and doing the work. If you say you want to promote youth development, you need to find someone who is dialed in and connected to the youth program, or else you’ve shut down your entire player development movement before you begin."

As the head coach of NCFC and Academy Director for NCFC Youth , Bradford’s presence alone represents an opportunity to strengthen the bridge that connects the two. But not all player development pathways are created equally, and that’s where we begin.

Start with what you have

There are two key pieces of the player development puzzle that need to be considered before anything else: club environment and player ambitions, each characterized in their own way.

“Defining player development as one singular concept is impossible. There are so many distinct types of players and environments to consider. The first thing that you have to answer for yourself is: What is your point of view on the game and player development? And then look around and see how your club environment meshes with that view. If you say you want to develop pro players but your club caps at U10 soccer, that vision doesn’t make much sense. You need to be brutally realistic about where you are now as a club while working toward that outlook of where you want to grow. From there it becomes much more tailored to the individual, on and off the field. What is the player’s background? What is their outlook of what they want to accomplish?”

In other words, context matters. Resources matter. Expectations and mindsets matter. Having a realistic view of your club’s strengths and weaknesses is the foundation of a player development philosophy that can both promise and deliver. Success lies in your ability to leverage the tools and know-how at your disposal to create a clear structure in which players of varying backgrounds can excel. “Your club members have to understand what it is that you’re trying to accomplish. Different players can have different outcomes of what their development will look like. Ultimately the intention is to provide a home and a good environment for players at all levels and then manage their growth within that environment.”

Player development is never finished

Player development, by its very nature, is defined by movement. And, movement, by its very nature, creates change. Progress, setbacks, call-ups, modified playing time, new teams, unfamiliar formations. The ability to become comfortable with change, with accepting discomfort, even momentarily, is imperative to a valuable player development experience. That means everyone from directors to parents needs to get on board with change. “As leagues have changed, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy goes away, new types of events continue to pop up…Opportunities are evolving, and we try to match that in what we offer. We want to put players into unique situations, even globally, for development through matches and competition.”

Jerry Seinfeld once joked that “Marriage is like a game of chess, except the board is flowing water and the pieces are made of smoke.” Swap out “marriage” with “running a youth soccer club,” and the point remains just as clear. As John states, “Any time there is change, there will be some confusion. It takes steady, behind-the-scenes communication amongst coaches and directors to make sure that we’re managing all the various players within our programs as things constantly fluctuate. We put this in play during COVID through the constant stream of change we all wrestled with. Our leadership came together with new ways to manage, new ways to discuss curriculum and share individual player programs. Player development is never done. It’s a moving target.”

Serving both the club and the individual player

“I use the words ‘outcomes and pathways’ a lot because each individual is different and each development plan needs to reflect that. Some players may want to be part of the youth national team system, which might be realistic for one group, but not for another. Communicating that and educating them on the selection process is important. It’s the same with college recruiting. You sit down with the player and their family, they come up with a list of three schools, the top three schools in the country, and they say, ‘This is where we want to go.’ It might not be realistic.”

Player development means achieving whatever that player’s goals are relative to their ability level. For some players, it could be making the middle school team in addition to their club team. It could be making the high school team or moving up from Team C to Team B. It could be staying on Team C.”

It all comes down to defining an individual player’s ‘exit strategy,’ the goal he or she is hoping to attain. Are the parents bought into that? If there’s alignment within the family, then it’s on the club, the directors, and the coach to also be aligned. Is the player’s goal achievable within the framework of the overall development philosophy? Are there the right resources on the ground to support that goal? If so – and that’s always the aim – then it’s full steam ahead.”

Good communication increases clarity and buy-in

It all starts with sharing the club’s methods for player development internally so the entire staff is on the same page and everyone understands the role they play. We need to be upfront about what’s expected and allow staff to provide feedback on what’s working and not working. A formal and ongoing coach evaluation process has been really important for us at NCFC. Similar to the individual player development plan, a coach development plan pushes us to have an open dialogue and more accountability. We’ve got a great staff at all levels within NCFC, so bringing everybody together and taking the time to have real conversations about how we view the game, work through disagreements, and provide clarity is important. Our rule of thumb is: As long as a coach can tell us why they think something should be done a certain way, then it’s open for discussion.”

A good thing about having been in the same youth club for a while, for a lot of us, is that we’ve seen documents, books, and guides about player development get created and then thrown on a table never to be used. So we recognize how critical it is to connect with our staff to get a clear understanding and buy-in with consistent checkpoints throughout a season to really bring a player development philosophy to life.”

Once club staff is on board, the focus is on communicating the vision, tactical approach, and expectations to club members. “We all know that expectations from players or parents might not always mesh with the coaches’ visions and thoughts. Having constant dialogue throughout the season with players and parents might not save you from uncomfortable situations and conversations, but I think it does lead to making better, more informed decisions.”

Working with the Academy Program at NCFC, my main objective is to communicate to our families what opportunities players will have, give them the substance of seeing players training up for opportunities, and ultimately carve out what we can do and how that goes hand-in-hand with that individual player’s development. Being direct and honest with families is crucial in any player development system.”

Trust the [imperfect] process

Communicating the player development strategy to players and parents is one thing. Getting them to see, believe, and trust in it is often the hardest part.

“I think the first thing for players and parents to understand is to trust the process, which is much easier said than done. As clubs, we have to be approachable and specific in the information we share. Families understanding the amount of effort and detail that goes into managing their player in our environment is an important step for everyone. I can reference a technical framework to a player or a family and they have no idea what that is. They just want it to be something good.”

Trusting the process also means that it’s an imperfect process and that sometimes players are not going to get exactly what they want, or honestly, what they should. Staying true to the approach and communicating alongside the parents and players is what makes it work."

The Blueprint: “This is who we are and how we do it”

“This is my 15th year at NCFC, and within that time we’ve had seven different curriculums. I share an office with Sean Nahas, who’s our Girls Academy Director and Head Coach with NC Courage. He’s been here 16 years. Paul Forster, our Director of Soccer, has been here quite a while, and then Tom Harris joined us about four years ago with a great background in youth development. The four of us have taken our experiences and are working alongside our dedicated full-time NCFC Youth staff to establish a new technical framework, a blueprint, if you will, of how we want the club to go forward. A large part of it is coach accountability, making sure we’re on the same page in terms of curriculum and what we’re teaching our players at various ages.

We want a clear, distinct proposal that covers the bases of what we want to establish:

What is our club pathway?
What is our club style of play?
What is the expectation of each program?
What are the attributes of an NCFC player, and what does that mean physically? What does that mean mentally? What does that mean tactically, technically?
What environment should a coach provide for player development, from top to bottom?
How do coaches learn and what is our expectation of how they use technology?”

John graciously let us take a peek at NCFC’s technical framework, a sixty-seven page document that offers remarkably deep insights into the psychology behind running a successful player development program. It is a thorough and thoughtfully crafted manifesto titled Building Lighthouses .

Why a lighthouse? Lighthouses are a symbol of strength; they’re a guiding light in the darkness and always looking out for the people around them. They’re built to last; strong and resilient. They’re focused, reliable, and always ready to help. They do not complain, nor crumble under pressure. They instead stand tall and ready to act. When graduating from our club, players should be equipped with all the tools and education to make a positive contribution to society and future generations. They are the lighthouses of their environment, and we strive to build every day. To do this, we have four pillars of development that house what we believe are the required qualities and characteristics to build a lighthouse.

Building Lighthouses emphasizes developing both the person and player through four pillars: Social Behaviors, Mindset Behaviors, Soccer Actions, and Movement/Fitness/Health. It is structured into key sections that cover:

Our Identity
Our Development Approach
Our Way of Playing
Our Staff
Our Teaching Approach
Our Curriculum
Research & Resources

The purpose of this document is to outline the structure and details that guide all player and coach development at our club. The document aims to ensure an aligned, consistent, and collaborative approach to enhancing our players’ quality and experience. The intention is to provide concise details covering the most critical aspects of human growth and player development. The content within this document has been created with current research and expert advice into human and player development strategies. Our aim is to be objective and to refresh the content included as new research emerges. Staff are encouraged to know the contents of this document to ensure a clear understanding of the role we play in the community, the standards and expectations that are upon us, and the approach we have to developing exceptional people and players (Building Lighthouses). I’d again like to give praise and credit to the NCFC Youth full-time staff that are on weekly calls for quality discussions and debates on how we continue to tweak this working document and make it ‘ours.’

“Every club may not have or need something as exact as ours is, and I’m sure there are clubs out there that are more detailed to varying degrees. But I think most clubs that are looking at player development and club vision the right way are coming up with similar plans that they can point to and say, This is who we are and how we do it.’ “

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

We Analyzed 240 Soccer Player Evaluation Forms. Here’s What We Learned.

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Fri, 20 May 2022 14:23:38 GMT

Editor’s Note: In our recently published research report, The State of Youth Sports Clubs & Parent Expectations , we learned that 43% of parents are not fully satisfied with their current club experience. Of particular interest, we found that parents are more dissatisfied with the player evaluation process than any other element of the club experience. We learned that 1 out of every 2 parents who use an app to access player evaluation forms are very satisfied with their club’s evaluations. And, today, only 20% of parents report using an app or software to access evaluations. We also learned that when a club shares player evaluations through an app or third party software (as opposed to manually on paper or through email), parents are more than twice as likely to be very satisfied with their overall club experience.

If you always wanted to know how other youth soccer clubs use player evaluation forms, you’re in the right place. ( As a bonus, we’ve included three free soccer player evaluation form templates for download .)

Q: Who knew an evaluation form template could be such a precarious topic in youth sports?

A: Everyone in youth sports.

"There are so many different opinions out there around player evaluation forms and processes that I don't think any club believes they do it the best way," says Michael Bamber, seasoned soccer coach and PlayMetrics account manager.

"I've honestly never spoken to a club that believes they've got it just right."

On top of this uncertainty, coaches with already full plates are tasked with completing dozens of soccer player evaluation forms in a short turnaround time.

"Most coaches have full-time jobs and coach on the side because they love to do it," said Adam Hayes, who served as executive director at FC Boulder, now Boulder County United , and is now with PlayMetrics. "They're already stretched thin, so when evaluations come around, clubs need to provide an evaluation form template that's easy to use, or they're going to start the evaluations process already behind."

Thanks to PlayMetrics form builder features , our team was able to explore over 240 player evaluation forms designed by 66 different youth soccer clubs of all shapes and sizes. Now you can get a rare look into key learnings and growing trends in youth soccer player evaluations.

In PlayMetrics, a “template” is a pre-formatted file that serves as a starting point for clubs to create and distribute player evaluation forms.

Spoiler alert: There is no "right" way to construct a soccer player evaluation form. But there certainly are best practices that every club leader should keep top of mind in an evaluation form template.

Laying a Form Foundation

Some of the most important decisions you'll make that will impact the effectiveness of your evaluation form template happen before it gets into the hands of a coach or player. There should be an intentional strategy behind the way you structure each part of a player evaluation form to ensure your players and coaches are aligned, and able to use the results to chart a clear path to success.

Before writing your soccer player evaluation form, it's necessary to organize and address these key fundamental questions:

What types of soccer player evaluations do you need?

One evaluation form template does not fit all. Our research found that nearly half of all clubs use more than one generic template for player evaluations. Examples of common player evaluation forms include:

Grassroots or Basic Soccer Player Evaluation Form - Best suited for volunteer coaches and recreation leagues where the focus is on learning primary technical skills and basic game tactics.

Competitive or Intermediate Soccer Player Evaluation Form - Best suited for mid-level players where the focus is on more strategic player development and mastery of skills to transition to the next stage of play.

Elite or Advanced Level Soccer Player Evaluation Form - Best suited for higher-level players - Academy, ECNL, etc., where the focus is on elevating skills for travel, regional, etc.

And that’s just the beginning. Seventy-one percent of clubs with more than one form template customize their player evaluations even further. Creating forms specific to different age groups and playing levels (such as Recreational vs. Academy) are most common:

When will you do player evaluations?

The timeline for when evaluations happen impacts what you include on your forms and the communication plan between directors, coaches, players, and families. For example, if you’re evaluating monthly, will you require the same level of detail as you would on a quarterly basis? And, if you evaluate pre-season and again mid-season, your forms will likely be standardized to ensure comparisons and measurements of progress are clear.

While the majority of clubs we analyzed mainly offer post-season player evaluations, we noticed a few alternative strategies:

Who is evaluating?

Will your evaluation process be done by coaches exclusively, or will your template need to account for a player’s self-evaluation as well? More than a quarter of the clubs in our sample set had distinct forms integrating both coach and player feedback.

Building Your Player Evaluation Forms

Based on our research, there are clear similarities and distinctions among soccer player evaluation forms—from the number of questions to the scale of measurement—that can help drive the best approach for your club. These patterns are particularly apparent when comparing basic evaluations with more advanced forms.

The majority of player evaluations consist of 10–30 questions with the average number right around 21. Those rare 50- and 60-question forms tend to belong to very large clubs and are primarily used for advanced teams and players.

Form Template Categories

Most player evaluation form templates we reviewed are organized into sections and by the following categories:

Technical - Evaluates the player's technique and skill mastery.

Tactical - Evaluates the player's understanding of the principles of the game both individually and as part of a team.

Physical - Evaluates the player's physical abilities that impact his or her soccer performance.

Psychological (Social/Emotional) - This category name varied the most on the forms we studied. It could also be found labeled as "Mental," but often included the "Social/Emotional" subtag. This important section evaluates a player's mental and emotional capacities as it pertains to successful growth and performance.

Evaluation Criteria

Across our sample set, the majority of soccer player evaluation form templates relied on the numbered scale (1 to 5...more on that below), with an open-ended comment box at the very end. A few outliers, mostly in the more advanced levels, included the scale with dedicated space or text boxes for coaches to enter more detailed feedback within each category. These open-ended fields provide a variety of prompts, including:

Areas for improvement
Growth Opportunity #1 / #2
Areas of Strength
Action Plan
Player's best [category] ability is...
[Category] the requires the most improvement is...
Is supplemental training recommended to improve [category] skills?

The Rating Scale

The 1 to 5 scale takes the top spot for most commonly used, which is on par with evaluation scale data in other industries . Where things really start to vary is in the definitions behind the numbers. For example, "opportunity for improvement," and "does not meet expectations" at the lower end of the scale, all the way to "above team standard," and "exceptional" at the higher end.

A surprising number of forms did not include an explanation of the rating scale which could lead to discrepancies as coaches can interpret the questions and criteria in different ways.

A Parting Thought on All Things Being Equal

Many youth sports clubs struggle when standardizing player evaluation forms. This is especially challenging when there are families with children on different teams.

"Clubs want everyone to receive the same player evaluation," says Bamber. "If you have two daughters and one gets a thoughtful, professional evaluation, it is good for the player, but also reflects well on the coach and club overall. However, when the other daughter in the same club, at the same level but on a different team, gets a sloppy evaluation from a coach written on a napkin, that's going to cause an unnecessary problem."

Get Your Free Soccer Player Evaluation Form Templates

Looking for soccer player evaluation form templates that get the job done and look professional? Download the free forms below for player evaluations specifically designed for youth soccer clubs. The pack contains an evaluation form template for three different levels of players that you can use as is or as inspiration to think through and customize your own player evaluation forms.

Learn more about designing, distributing, and tracking all of your club's forms (and other important documents) within PlayMetrics.

Get the Form Templates

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Customer Success Story: HTX Soccer

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Tue, 17 May 2022 20:52:19 GMT

Managing a youth soccer club with nearly 8,000 members and 120 staff is no easy feat. Anxiety-inducing financial tracking, disjointed communications, and impossible-to-locate documents are just the beginning. Read on to learn how HTX Soccer (formerly Houston Dynamo | Dash Youth) leveraged the power of PlayMetrics to address its largest, most complex challenges and transform its approach to operating a business.

Better with PlayMetrics

How our Club Operating System helped HTX Soccer solve real business problems and foster a better club experience across the board.

Less Stress with Accounts Receivable

Collecting fees is a time-consuming effort that often leads to uncomfortable conversations and wasted time. With PlayMetrics, administrators, directors, and coaches were able to have clearer visibility into the status of all accounts, resulting in a remarkably streamlined accounting process.

Learn more about PlayMetrics Registration and Finance features→

Less Stress with Accounts Receivable

Learn more about PlayMetrics Registration and Finance features→

We're about a quarter of a million dollars ahead of where we were this time last year. All of our 2020–2021 fees will be collected within the financial year. That's the first time that's ever happened in our 17-year existence.

STUART FITZSIMONS

Director of Coaching

Clear & Consistent Communications

The club had been using a “hodgepodge” of communication and information-sharing tools. It was cumbersome to manage and messages were getting changed and misunderstood too often. In PlayMetrics, HTX found a solution that brought everyone together with centralized messaging, file sharing, and built-in automations.

Learn more about PlayMetrics communication features →

The club communication features in PlayMetrics have elevated us to a level that really benefits our membership.

JAMIE BELL

East Director & Director of Camps

Season Management in Sync

From session planning to curriculum enforcement to player evaluations, HTX Soccer was dealing with the chaos of spreadsheets and siloed work, the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. PlayMetrics allowed directors and coaches to stay connected throughout the entire season, eliminating the guesswork that came from disconnected tools and processes.

Season Management in Sync

From session planning to curriculum enforcement to player evaluations, Houston was dealing with the chaos of spreadsheets and siloed work, the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. PlayMetrics allowed directors and coaches to stay connected throughout the entire season, eliminating the guesswork that came from disconnected tools and processes.

The ability to standardize your curriculum, standardize your expectations and levels of information, and the specific activities, curriculum goals and game models, all of that, we’re now able to get out and hold people accountable to those things.

STUART FITZSIMONS

Director of Coaching

Best of GOALS: Interviews with Youth Sports Club Leaders

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Tue, 17 May 2022 19:10:34 GMT

A Collection of Hot Takes from Forward-Thinking Youth Soccer Leaders

Gary Buete. Renee Wanderscheid. Stuart Fitzsimons. (To name only a few.)

You may know the names. You may not (yet). But one thing is for sure - if you’re in the business of youth soccer club management, you will relate to their stories.

When running a youth soccer club, it’s good sometimes (ok, oftentimes) to know you’re not alone. To connect with others who have walked in your shoes, experienced the same highs and, especially, lows, and continued on as part of a successful youth soccer organization. The GOALS interview series continues to do just that by providing readers with unique access inside the minds of some of the best and brightest in youth soccer club management. So we took the greatest hits from these interviews and put them into one rock solid collection - Best of GOALS.

This compilation is a powerhouse of insights and sound advice taken directly from some of the most forward-thinkers in youth soccer:

Gary Buete, CEO, NCFC Youth
Renee Wanderscheid, Club Administrator, Sporting Nebraska FC
Aidan Bryne, MLS Next Coach & Director of Performance, Boston Bolts
Ryan Kruse, Director of Coaching, Sporting Nebraska FC
Mayowa Owolabi, Executive Director, Miami United FC Academy
Steve Danbusky, Executive Director, Beach FC
Stuart Fitzsimons, Director of Coaching, HTX Soccer

Best of GOALS offers brief commentary on topics that are front of mind for many youth soccer clubs. Featured topics include:

Creating and maintaining a club management philosophy
Living in an emerging world of new technology and tools
Getting the best out of your coaches and club staff
Managing and adapting to change in today’s youth soccer landscape
Keeping parents engaged and happy.
Formalizing your player development strategy

Get Your Copy Now

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

GOALS: Interview with Renee Meier

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Tue, 17 May 2022 15:13:20 GMT

Meeting Renee Meier for the first time is like picking up with a longtime friend.

Even through the not-so-steady connection of a Google Meet, it’s effortless to fall into a conversation about family, careers, Buffalo Bills football (she would have made that call every time), and, well, life. But as the talk gets deeper into the matter at hand, it’s clear she is exceptionally fierce and fervent about running a youth soccer club.

As the club administrator for the Western New York Flash , a rapidly expanding club headquartered in brisk Buffalo, she describes herself as once a mother to three, but now a mother to 1,000. She keeps a watchful eye and hands-on approach to make sure no detail is missed, no message is muddled, and no stone is left unturned in delivering the best possible youth soccer experience for families. Her #FlashFamily.

In this interview, Renee gets real about her journey from banking to food safety to youth soccer, a relentless obsession over building a brand (which is also her biggest worry), why she is known as “the work-maker,” and, in typical mom fashion, why we all need to get more sleep.

What were you doing right before you joined this call?

RM: We have two businesses here, the Sahlen Sports Park , which is a 200,000-square-foot indoor facility, and The Flash. We have a new employee who is working the social media, marketing, and advertising for both businesses, and we were just talking about the fact that as we’re growing as a club into other regions, how are we going to brand it? How are we going to market it? It was suggested that she set up a separate Facebook and Twitter for a location that is about 100 miles away from us. And she goes, “You know, that creates its own set of obstacles.”

And it does, because now you’re trying to consistently brand, and it doesn’t make sense to separate your brands. If you want to be club-centric, you should have everything branded under just The Flash. It shouldn’t matter if you’re at the central location or the east location or the north, you should be branding under just The Flash. I think that there’s power in numbers. Followers should be as many as they can have, and I think if we put everybody under just The Flash, we will look bigger than we really are.

You do it all as a club administrator, including thinking about marketing and building your brand.

RM: I probably think about it too much. How do we continue to have consistency with our brand, but grow as much as we are? It’s top of mind for me every single day, and I think it probably sidetracks me from a lot of other things that I need to do. But right now, I’m going to try and transition to my new assistant that we’ve hired, to be that person and make sure that that messaging and branding don’t get lost.

Why do you think it weighs so much on you?

RM: I‘m looking to retire at the end of next year. My biggest fear is that here we are in the middle of all this extensive growth, 33% last year, and 33% again this year. I fear that our brand will get watered down, meaning we will not be able to monitor and maintain the consistency necessary to sustain this recent growth and anticipated future growth.

You weren’t looking to become administrator of a youth soccer club.

RM: I was not looking for this. I was working in food safety at the Sahlen Meat Packing Company, helping to write processes and procedures so that we could get certified because only certain businesses would buy your product if you were certified. It took following a humongous manifest of information to realize that I’m a process-driven person. To a fault, maybe. But you have to take the bad with the good, right?

The owner had seen me in action in the office for the first six months, and he goes, “You know what? I think you’d be a good marketer for our women’s professional team. Think about it.” And I said, “Put me in, Coach.” Those were my exact words. And so I kind of did both jobs at the same time. You know how that goes, right? He came back and said, “I have the soccer job that’s full-time, and the food safety job that’s full-time, which one do you want?” I told him to put an ad out for both of them and whichever one is filled first, I’ll take the other one. That’s how I ended up here on the soccer side. I think it was fate, though. I think I was meant to be here.

Before working in food safety, you were in banking for more than 30 years. How has that background influenced your work now?

RM: I learned the finance side of a business from working at a very small financial institution that turned into a pretty big financial institution. I don’t think people see soccer clubs as being professional businesses. I think they look at them as nonprofits or think everybody’s volunteering. They don’t look at the fact that it does cost money to be in the business of soccer. A good example is COVID. A lot of money was spent on infrastructure, coaches, fields. We had to find a way to manage our customers and our customer service. It had to be a win-win. We don’t have all that money to give away. We wanted to keep our coaches, we wanted to continue to keep our infrastructure in place because we thought it was a temporary thing. Being a business person at that time helped me immensely because not only was I on the financial side of it, but I was also in customer service, so I had experience with both sides and I had to bring them together.

FLASH FORWARD

Can you give us a little more background on how The Flash came to be?

RM: Joe Sahlen owned the professional women’s team, the Western New York Flash in the WPS, which went defunct in 2012 . We had a good following so we then decided to start a youth club. We started with five teams in the 2012–2013 season—three boys, two girls. We grew from five to nine to 11 teams. We hired a director of coaching, we went through our first director, got a second one who came to us from Texas. He was tremendous in bringing together the boys’ and the girls’ sides. Our girls were accepted into the ECNL, which was great, but this made The Flash known as a “girls club.” We didn’t offer teams for boys past U12 so we could focus our efforts on the girls’ side. It was difficult to bring the boys back, but we did when the ECNL expanded with the Boys ECNL.

Then we realized we had something special growing here. We added the boys and the ECNL to the boys’ side as well. We hired Eric Dade , who came to us out of the South and just so happened, his mother lives in Buffalo, and he grew up here. Welcome back to the snow.

What was the youth soccer environment like in your region at the time?

RM: I think one of the biggest struggles we had in the Buffalo area, was that if your soccer club did not seem to fit my kid’s or my team’s needs, we’ll just start another club, or we’ll take our team and we’ll be a one-up. That’s what happened in Western New York. But when The Flash came into the picture and started getting stronger and focusing on the consistency of a club-centric platform, more and more families wanted to be part of it. I was once told WNY isn’t even on the map for soccer, something that needed to change. We sold the professional women’s team to North Carolina after winning the Championship in 2016 and our head coach decided to coach three of our girls’ youth teams and we have not looked back.

And then there are the clubs that have the status of being affiliated with New York City FC, the Red Bulls, or a club in Europe. Those clubs have more status to say if a kid plays there then he or she must be really good. That might not be the case, it’s just how they sell themselves.

When somebody asks you what you do for a living, how do you answer?

RM: I’m the administrator for a youth soccer club, and I have 1,000 kids. I went from being a soccer mom to three to being a soccer mom to 1,000.

And what are some rules you live by in “your house?”

RM: Sometimes a coach will send me a question that can’t be found in our policies, player and parent handbook, or Team Management Guide. I make sure the answer is standardized for all to see. My goal is to avoid answering the question twice. I’m a believer in teaching people to fish, not throwing them a fish!

Other than nurturing a #FlashFamily brand, what are some other challenges you’re facing today?

RM: Unfortunately, the primary youth league in Buffalo only allows non-profit clubs to participate. Because of this our kids and our club are not allowed to play in this league. They don’t want us and it’s sad as all kids should be playing. If you want to tell us that we’re at this premier level or we’re at this higher than premier level, have us play a year up or something. Find a way to have our kids play. That’s what’s important. We have 12 teams in Rochester now. Rochester has a Youth League also, and we are hopeful our teams will be allowed to play as we expand into the area. If our youngest players are not going to be allowed in League play, where do we go? Do we create our own leagues? What do we have to do to get our kids playing?

What do you think should be done?

RM: Some years back, I attended a few meetings to understand why they felt the way that they did. And what I got out of it is that if a player was on our team and a town team, they would prioritize our team because it was at a higher level, which meant town teams wouldn’t have enough players to play games.

So, the League now limits town teams to two or three players from a premier club such as ours. I personally think it’s time to open the conversation once again. Although they think they’re doing it for the right reasons, the league should bring premier clubs to the table so we can work together. I know there are answers out there. I find that in our area, change is difficult, and everyone holds onto their own. Maybe not too different from other areas.

THE WORK-MAKER

How have you seen the greater youth soccer landscape change from where you sit?

RM: The change that I have seen is just really our foothold in our local market and now it’s transcending out into the Rochester area, where they’re saying, “Please, please take us in. Please come here.” And then the Development Academy folded, another local franchise-type club folded, and people were scrambling for a club. Now we’ve got them, that growth I talked about. What do we do? How do we sustain the delivery of our services to meet customer and Flash expectations? Because as fast as families come here can be as fast as they leave. And if we say we’re one thing, we better deliver what we say.

What makes families leave? What delivery concerns do you have?

RM: Sometimes it’s because of the coaching. One year they get a coach they like, but the next year, coaching may change and they follow a coach. I hear all the time that families should be coming here because of the club, not just the coach. That would be great, but I’m not so sure that’s reality, at this point. These families have been programmed that everybody wants the best coach. Do you think that everybody in our club wants to be coached by Aaran Lines , head coach of a professional women’s team that won the championship twice? Yeah, I think they probably do. I’m not saying there aren’t other good coaches, but people are programmed that way. People have to be a little bit more resilient. Everybody has something to offer. But shame on us if we’re not making sure people know that our coaches are competent, that they represent our club’s methodology . I think clubs have to do a better job of that.

In your eyes, what is a “better job” of doing that?

RM: I believe Directors “manage” their coaches just like coaches “manage their players. You must spend time with those you manage to make sure they understand what needs to be accomplished, helping them grow through mentoring. I don’t think soccer clubs have this type of management like other businesses do. A business must invest in the development of its workers, in our case, it’s our coaches. A new coach costs more than investing in one who has been with you.

Do you have a formal, written program or guide?

RM: Yes. We have quite a large methodology book. Our second DOC put it in place, and as a matter of fact, it just got updated again. We try to update this stuff regularly. We not only have a methodology, but I have a team management document, and that goes to coaches and team managers on how to manage their club and the expectations that are out there, and how to keep things consistent. I have a signature page where they can copy and paste and just add their name and team name so that all the signatures on our emails are the same. I think that’s important. We’re a small club, but I think big.

Is that why you’re called the “work-maker” in the club?

RM : I can go back and talk about the coaches. We need to make sure our directors have the time and the tools to mentor their coaches. Directors wonder when they’re going to have enough time. They’re so invested in the operations of what they do and making sure that their players, teams, and coaches are doing what needs to get done.

EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY AND NEW WAYS TO DO THINGS

How has new software and technology helped – or held you back – in your work?

RM: I want to be self-sufficient as a software user. I want our families to be self-sufficient too. Online software help must be up to date and give answers. We don’t need to answer the same question more than once. When I get a question a second time, my PlayMetrics software allows me to put answers on the “Club Resources” page which is easily accessible to all families through their online account.

How difficult—or easy—has it been to roll out new software to coaches and staff?

RM: The past couple of years it’s been difficult to get coaches to do the background checks and other mandatory training needed to complete their risk management pass because software products have been extremely difficult and inconsistent. The easier we can make it for our staff to learn new software as well as giving them a single source well-maintained software product when possible, the process improves for everyone.

Since most coaches think primarily about the field, they’re not accustomed to having a software product where their lesson plans can exist. Now with PlayMetrics, directors can have all session plans saved online and know training can be consistent at all training locations.

Once again, what does it come down to? Consistency. Once learned, it’s also going to take more time to get up to speed so that it becomes second nature. Some will just push that aside and stick with their old ways of doing things, so we must sell them on the fact that it will be beneficial over time to them personally and for the club.

Have you had cases where you’ve sold someone on the benefit and they’ve come around?

RM: We hired a new youth director and the first thing he said was, I see this session planning out there and I like it. So we hooked him up so he could learn all about it and get started in it. If you can get one person on the project to maybe help the others, that’s a way to go. We now have an online player evaluation option. When utilized, this will help to make sure all our players are being evaluated in writing. Keep it simple, but get started! Change is hard! I want to believe there’s a club out there using all this great stuff but are probably struggling the same way I’m envisioning it. I don’t have rec teams. I don’t have 13,000 kids. I can’t even imagine what it would be like and the feeling of being out of control that you would have.

Do you consider yourself a “control freak?”

RM: Yeah, but you have to trust people. You put the processes in place, put them in writing, and hope that they all follow it.

Who decides to bring in new software or technology to the club?

RM: If it happens to do with the registration side or the financial side, it’s me. If it happens to do with programs that are going to benefit the players directly, the executive director would make those decisions, and then I see how it affects the budget. I’ll look at it and evaluate the risk and rewards. And we know how all that goes. It’s only as good as how they use it because if it’s a program and they’re not using it, get rid of it.

Have you shed some things over the years that just weren’t being used?

RM: I hated the software I had for two years. It was a lot of work to figure out where I was going to go. And I just happened to see an article from someone also named Renee, who is an administrator at another club. She has my name and she does what I do and she’s really happy. I got to check this out. I took that on and I knew it was going to cause me a lot of work. But I also looked at it and said, okay, if I’m going to eventually retire, I don’t want to leave this place in a bad place. You go to work for somebody and you want to leave it better than when you found it.

FROM PARENT TO PARENT

We should get into the fact that beyond your business experience, you also have experience as a soccer parent.

RM: Back in the day we didn’t know anything. We only knew what we were told because there wasn’t a lot of internet. I really knew very little about soccer and its structure. But what I did know is people and coaches who cared, and tried to bring people together, and I liked that part of it. My kids went to school in the small town of Holland, New York. They had rec soccer in the summer. There weren’t clubs like ours out there at the time. There was very little travel soccer. I had to go across town to find travel soccer for my daughter.

Do you think parents know a lot more about the game today?

RM: I graduated from high school in 1973. It was the year of Title 9. We were a pretty active family, but when my kids asked me what sports I played I told them I was a cheerleader and in the marching band because we didn’t have sports for people like me. Even though I was into sports. My dad took me to football games since I was 7 years old. I realized I loved football when it didn’t matter who was playing on the field. I like a good competition. Like the Bills game the other night, which unfortunately came down to a slip with their quarterback. I would have made that call all day. You’ve done it nine times out of 10. You’re my guy.

We can reference a Buffalo Bills game, but we can’t reference professional soccer matches as easily because not as many people are watching.

RM: Yeah. Nobody knows. Try to find where you can view the NWSL game. If you like women’s soccer, try to find out where that is. It’s awful, right?

Do you think you have more positive experiences with parents than challenging ones?

RM: They’re not going to be perfect. And if there’s one thing I learned in banking, there’s a bank on every corner. You’re not going to make everybody happy. And there’s some point where we’ve got to march to the marching orders that we have. We’re here for the club, and we can’t fulfill everyone’s expectations and needs, but we have a good product and we’ll do everything we can to make sure that we’re delivering it to every kid that comes to us.

ONE TITLE. MANY ROLES.

If you had to break up how you spend your time in a day or a week, what would it look like?

RM: I’m also the HR person for the club so it depends on what’s going on. This year was different because I took on all of these coaches in the central region. They have volunteer assistant coaches, and we never had assistant coaches. So I had to go and take a look at everything that we do and change all of our HR stuff for volunteers. Fortunately, I’m trying to move over more of the operational day-to-day stuff to my assistant. So she’s the registrar. I did not register one person this year, so far. It’s a beautiful feeling. I’m trying to spend that time preparing this club for growth.

With your HR hat on, how do you identify the right fit to join your staff?

RM: Attitude is first. I don’t ask a lot of questions about the business of what we do, because the actual nuts and bolts of what we do are not what we’re hiring. I can teach you to register people. I care about paying attention to the details. I’ll ask when you were thinking of coming here, did you research any other soccer clubs? What kind of coworkers do you like to work with? Tell me the number one thing that you were criticized for and what did you learn from it? Tell me the last rule you broke and why. You can listen to what they talk about and if they care about their self-improvement and they’re not blaming others. I don’t want to talk to somebody who complains about their employer and blames everything on somebody else. If you’re not happy, you should have left a long time ago. You’re off the pile.

What do you wish you had more time to do?

RM: I think surveys are a really good thing, and I’m not afraid of the truth. I don’t think we do enough of that. I don’t think I’ve spent enough of my initiative convincing people of that. If there’s something I wish I would have done more along the way and on a regular basis, it would be that. Unhappy people just leave you and they don’t tell you why. I want to know why. I want to know if it’s something within our control or if it’s something that just happens to be the way we do business. And if so, I’m okay with that.

If you were to pick one thing that your club does especially well, what would it be?

RM: The relationship our coaches have with our kids, the care that they have for them. I believe that word of mouth is what keeps people coming. Are they all the best that they can be? They may not all know the best they can be because they haven’t been challenged to be the best they can be. Now how do we continue to raise the bar there and how do we continue to make sure that they’re all marching to that same club concept? I think we do it better than anybody in the area, for sure. I’ve been told that, and I believe it. I do believe it because they work hard.

What keeps you up at night?

RM: This entire business. I dream about it all the time. I worry about the service. I eat it, I sleep it, I everything it. Sleep is the most important thing for your mental health and making sure that you’re going to bed at the same time or around the same time. I take the melatonin, and I’m trying to get my Fitbit on, and I’m seeing my sleep patterns, and they are getting better. I’ve made a concerted effort to do that. I feel better about it, but it doesn’t mean I won’t stop thinking about it. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night.

Are you looking forward to retirement?

RM: You know what? It doesn’t really excite me. At some point, you’re supposed to stop getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning. My best friend plans to retire around the same time and she says, “What the hell are we gonna do?” She’s the deputy supervisor of a town and she’s really busy, too. We’re a couple of people who have a lot of responsibility, but we also bring that on ourselves. She comes from a family-owned business. I had a business with my late husband. And when you come from that background, you tend to work like it’s your business.

Thanks for your time and perspective, Renee. Let’s close with one-word reactions. I’ll throw a few things at you and I want you to respond in only one word.

ECNL

RM: Opportunity.

Coaches

RM: Hard-working.

TikTok

RM: Uninterested.

Parent emails at 11 p.m.

RM: Wait.

Buffalo

RM: Home.

Retirement

RM: Scary.

#FlashFamily

RM: Love.

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We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

GOALS: Interview with Ryan Kruse

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Tue, 17 May 2022 14:08:30 GMT

To improve is to change, as they say, a concept Ryan Kruse understands better than most.

A native of Omaha, he’s watched soccer grow throughout the region from lurking in the shadow of that other kind of football to the prominence it enjoys today. He’s witnessed the rise of player and parent expectations, the advancement of coach development practices, and the emergence of disruptive technology.

But perhaps the greatest growth was his own .

Once an avid subscriber to the “winning is everything” mentality both as a scoreboard-focused player and young coach, his years of experience on the field and in the office gradually shifted his views a full 180 degrees. Coaches who love the game. Players who grow to be good people. Winning games is just a bonus.

He became a teacher, a mentor, and a strict proponent of formal coaching education and development. He walks the walk – literally – with his “manage by wandering around” philosophy passed down from his uncle. And he talks the talk through his ongoing participation in U.S. Soccer’s coaching education

In this interview, Ryan shares more of his experience and his approach to developing great leaders into good coaches (yes, you read that right), as well as his no-nonsense insight on where he spends most of his time (spoiler: it’s not on the actual game), his belief in setting expectations early, why he considers himself inefficient (and why that’s a good thing), and the best piece of advice he ever received.

How did you come to be a Director of Coaching at Sporting Nebraska FC (formerly Sporting Omaha FC)?

RK: I used to have a full-time day job and just did some coaching on the side. I think, like a lot of people, I ended up doing more soccer, more coaching, and getting more involved than I probably had the time for. Long story short, the opportunity came up in 2010, and I’ve been in this role ever since. Sporting Nebraska FC has been a club by that name for four years. We evolved from what was the Omaha Football Club, which has been around since 2009, which evolved from a merger with the Gladiator and Arsenal soccer clubs which go back to the mid ’80s.

How many coaches do you have in the program?

RK: We are a full-service club, so everything from the micro under four, to purely recreational and youth development, to our Academy program, which is a transitional phase for those players that are ready for more advanced programming, to our Select program. If you lump all that in together, we have about 3,000 kids, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 plus coaches. I’m directly responsible for our Academy and Select programs where we have about 33 coaches. Our youth development and recreational program coaches are purely volunteers. The 33 in Academy and Select are paid.

You’re a native of Omaha, and you once said that when you started playing, soccer was “primitive” in the region. What did you mean by that?

RK: I think there are a couple of parts to it. One, where we are, and I suppose where most of the country is at, American football is king. Now, there has been tremendous growth in soccer. There’s no doubt in my mind that even though our player pool may not necessarily match some of the larger metropolitan areas that have larger numbers and probably higher-level programming and sophistication, we still produce some pretty darn good players.

What I meant by primitive was more about the perspective. We spend a lot of time trying to educate coaches, families, and parents in particular about what a pathway looks like. It’s very difficult especially since we don’t have a professional outfit. Just this year we got a USL-1 franchise in Omaha, but the whole pathway from youth programming to what the professional or college player looks like is difficult to educate families on because the full pathway is not always visible.

We do have two Division I programs in town, but too many times, the perspective that we’re battling centers around “we have to win the tournament on Saturday, we have to win the game on Sunday,” which is all good to an extent. But we try to focus on the bigger picture of what it means to develop a player, and why you have to go through some lumps to prepare players for the next level, and the next level, and the next level. Not everybody is patient in the youth soccer world. So when I say primitive, it’s just a lack of exposure in our area.

You have excellent certifications including your USSF A License. What does it mean to have many levels of certifications in coaching?

RK: Coaching education in the United States has gone through four or five pretty significant transformations in the last 20 to 25 years. For a long time, it started at letter F and worked up to E, D, all the way up to A. The way it used to work was, once you got to the C-level, you were spending a week and a half traveling somewhere for a very concentrated course. There was a good deal of playing and a high level of fitness involved. There were a lot of demands in a relatively short amount of time. After several changes in the process, within the last decade, U.S. Soccer has now moved to a model more like the European and South American coaching pathways. So instead of doing everything in 10 days and what essentially becomes survival of the fittest, now it’s much more coach-friendly, where you spend about three or four days on location somewhere.

A lot is done in Kansas City now, with the National Development Center being there. You have a developmental period, where you go back to your soccer world, complete certain assignments, homework, and reflections. Then you come back for another three or four days on-site, work closely with your instructor, come back for another developmental period, and then final testing. The whole process could last as long as three to five months, depending on the work schedule.

Another thing that has happened is U.S. Soccer has gone a different route with what they call their Coaching License Pathway . That’s where I have focused most of my attention in terms of my personal development in the last few years; on becoming more of an instructor on the coaching education side and running the new curriculum and programming for U.S. Soccer at the Grassroots and D-level licensing levels. I may take that further at some point.

There’s a great deal involved in getting these certifications.

RK: It does get pretty involved. Originally it was more the technical and tactical sides. Now there is more focus on the leadership qualities needed, how to develop your personal development plan, how to become a better leader for players on an individual level, teams on a team level, and then even a club level. It’s dealing with people and making connections.

What does a day in the life of the director of coaching at a youth soccer club look like?

RK: I say this a little tongue-in-cheek but there’s certainly some seriousness to it. Probably a good eight or nine months out of the year, the Monday through Thursday into Friday, at least half of the day, every day, is putting out fires. What happened over the weekend? Was there a conflict with a coach and a referee? Were there injuries that we need to follow-up on? And with COVID that has escalated to occupy a ton of time, everything from trying to guide coaches through the process to is a team quarantined? If so, for how long?

It’s a lot of management. It’s keeping up with coaches and maintaining those contacts. To be quite honest, the portion of soccer that we spend time on, and I’m sure a lot of people in my position would agree, is relatively low. Probably 20 to 30% of the time is spent on the actual game. We affectionately joke that if we had time to spend on soccer, we’d be pretty good. And it’s not that we’re doing anything wrong. It ebbs and flows. There are certain downtimes during the year between seasons that I try to focus a larger portion of time on coaching development and building curriculum. I would say a good 60 to 70% of the time is some damage control, it’s managing, it’s trying to keep the train on the tracks.

So, 60 to 70% is all work done off the field?

RK: Yes, easily that much. And then you still go out on the field for five hours every night.

Did you expect that?

RK: I didn’t know what to expect. I wanted to coach, and I thought I just had to show up to the field, have some fun, teach kids some stuff, and try to win a game. By the time I got into this position, I was well aware of what those expectations were. It wasn’t really a shock, as much as I might complain about it some days. It hasn’t been a surprise for a long time.

Do you think the 60-70% of “putting out fires” is because of COVID, or do you think it’s been thrown into the mix but the balance of on-field versus off-field time is still the same as before the pandemic?

RK: I think like a lot of clubs would say, we’re probably a little understaffed, so there was already going to be distractions and things to take care of. But when you add on a good hour or two every day now with COVID matters to discern, it certainly adds onto it.

What is your approach to dealing with conflicts, or as you say, putting out fires?

RK: As a club, we certainly try to approach things preemptively. Which is to manage the expectations, lay the groundwork, get out in front of coaches and families and players what to expect, and what pitfalls they might run into at a given game, event, or for a certain program. A lot can be gained or lost with our U8s, U9s, and U10s as they separate themselves into some advanced programming.

You have to get to the parents and the players, and try to set the tone for, “this is how we want to do it, this is why we want to do it, this is why you need to look farther than the next day or month or year.” And most importantly, try to put the kids in a position where they love the game because if they do, a lot of those adversities and challenges become not so terrible. Hopefully, because we enjoy playing and competing, we don’t get worked up about the other stuff. It doesn’t always work that way, but you got to try to get out in front of it.

In a recent interview , Gary Buete of NCFC Youth said you can’t “just” be a coach anymore. It’s more professional, there are more full-time opportunities, and requirements asked of you. How have you seen the role of a youth soccer coach change over the years?

RK: He’s absolutely right. Where the coaching profession is now versus a decade or two ago is so much different. A lot of that has to do with expectations. There’s a lot of pressure put on kids’ program coaches for things such as trials at MLS Academy opportunities, or college recruiting. And that’s all well and good. But I think it goes back to that word “expectations.” Not everybody is going to be a Division I player or go pro. A very small percentage of players are. How that has changed the coaching or director roles I’ve been in, is one, you have to over-communicate. We live in a world where people expect results, but you have to stay on top of it. When you lose that rapport or those connections with your players or families, it doesn’t matter how good a coach might be with Xs and Os. If you lose ’em, you lose ’em.

And then there is also the role of building camaraderie within your staff. Coaches are by nature very competitive, so I have to spend a lot of time getting coaches to work together in productive ways. Many times they do, I don’t want to make it sound like coaches don’t work together, but if you ask most coaches, we tend to think that we each have the right answers regarding development, and so you have to try to find some common thread there. Those are the biggest ways I think things have changed in terms of coaching and directing clubs in the last several years.

How much time can a youth soccer coach expect to put in every week?

RK: A few years ago as we were working on the structural design of the club and laying out expectations for coaches, we figured that a coach can very easily put 700-800 hours a year into it. Not everybody is cut out for that. Not everybody has time for that. Something that I’ve noticed is the coaching pool of not just willing candidates, but also able candidates with the increased amount of duties that a coach has, is getting smaller. Maybe I’m too picky but when you want to find someone who has the qualities you want in your club, and also the willingness and the ability, it can be a bit of a challenge.

Can you share more about qualities you look for in a good coach, in terms of one’s skills and experience, but to your point, the other traits that you want to bring to your club?

RK: It seems like there have been two categories of coaches that I’ve seen over time. One is the group of coaches who may be very good with the Xs and Os, the ability to train, and knowing what next-level soccer looks like. But sometimes those coaches might be poor communicators and/or maybe average to not so average managers. And then on the other side, some coaches are incredible managers, communicate well, layout expectations, resolve conflicts, but have a little less prowess when it comes to preparing higher level players. Ideally, you find someone who is both. But those people don’t grow on trees. I am much more willing now to take the coach who’s the good communicator, the good example, the good leader, and just try to maximize their ability to coach on the field the best I can.

You said, “I’m more willing to now.” What got you there?

RK: When I first started coaching, I thought that we had to win games. If we’re going to justify what we’re doing, justify the process, it was largely, or exclusively, dictated by how many games we won. I’ve come 180 degrees in the last 20 years. Same with the coaches. I think after a lot of experiments early on of trying to get the best coaches who I thought could win games, or train high-level athletes on the field, I was willing, initially, to take whatever baggage they might have had in terms of lack of personal skills or the ability to manage. Over time, I saw a little bit more damage along the way. I saw a lot of players that would quit the game, maybe because of a coach’s conduct, or when winning became too important. And then, as I started shifting to getting more coaches in that were just good examples, good managers, our player retention went through the roof. And to me, it’s about keeping kids in the game. If you can win a few games along the way, that’s a great bonus.

Sporting Nebraska has a very clear coaching philosophy. Tell us more about that.

RK: We want, above all, to train our players to be good people. We put a lot of emphasis on accountability, not getting worked up in all the external factors, not making excuses, those types of things. I firmly believe that over time, if you can condition players to conduct themselves and think properly, maturely resolve conflicts on the field, overcome adversity, those are typically going to be your best players in the long run anyway once all the physical differences sort themselves out.

We also believe in teaching kids to play the right way. And that means playing with purpose, understanding that every player has attacking and defending roles. Nothing against American football, but this is not, “I’m an attacker, and that’s all I do,” or, “I play offense, end of story.” Conditioning players to play productively, understand the importance of movement and shape, learn how to take risks or where to take risks, those things are much more important than getting the biggest, strongest, fastest kid out there and trying to make it a track meet. We try to use those building blocks.

Great coaches develop great players. How are you actively developing great coaches? Are there any things you do, formally or informally, through training or mentorship?

RK: I tend to be a little inefficient in my approach, meaning that I try to spend as much time with the individual coaches as I possibly can. We do have staff-wide initiatives and principles that we want to get across on a broad scale. But even though I can’t make all the rounds to all the coaches as often as I’d like, I think there’s nothing more valuable than spending some time with a coach to get to know them as a person, but also going out to a field and evaluating a coach during training sessions and games, and giving them feedback. It’s one piece at a time, and it can be a little painstaking. In a given season, you may have a couple of meaningful contacts with a coach, but that’s how I try to do it.

How do you attract good coaches to your program?

RK: You have to maintain a good culture. And by that, I mean, how are our coaches generally perceived? For example, do we have more issues with referees? In regards to player retention, that used to be a bit of an issue. We have certainly fixed that in recent years by getting good people that gain respect. In terms of attracting good coaches, you just try to be the best club you can. I try to make as many personal contacts as I can.

Is there a piece of advice you’ve been given that has stuck with you and you share with new coaches?

RK: Probably the best piece of advice came from a boss that I used to have. He said that if you’re in a position where you have a coach that is a little more willing but a little less able, take it. If you’ve got a coach that’s a little more able but a little less willing, that’s probably not your first candidate.

That advice lines up with your approach shifting from only wanting to win games to bringing in coaches with stronger leadership and communication skills.

RK: Well, I fought it early on. I would say, “That doesn’t win games. Come on. Are you crazy?” But I guess you learn a few lessons the hard way over time, right?

You’re focused on teaching and developing coaches, but how are you learning these days? How do you stay sharp on what’s new in coaching?

RK: If I have an opportunity to hire a coach or bring somebody in that is as good or better than me, I don’t shy away from that at all. I want the best people around me as possible, with the understanding that they don’t even have to be the most experienced coach in the world. If they care about the game and they’re doing it right, everybody’s going to have something you can pull from or something that you can learn from.

But yes, I’ve been very active in the instructor’s pathway for coaching education. U.S. Soccer has put a ton of time and energy into that developmental piece. Being an instructor, there are monthly or quarterly webinars that I can jump on. The U.S. Soccer coaching education staff is very accommodating. There’s a number of them that I could pick up the phone and bounce some ideas off of. I’m also lucky to have coaches on our staff that I would have no problem going to. They’ve been there, done that, and they share ideas. You have to be open to that.

How do you define your management style?

RK: My uncle was an athletic director for a very large school district in Kansas City, and part of his philosophy was “management by wandering around.” I don’t know if that’s going to be taught in any MBA course, but as I’ve thought about it, it really is what it takes. You make your rounds, you touch base, and you connect. You don’t just walk on by and get home early. You spend an extra few minutes, watch a coach run an activity, give him or her feedback later or a phone call the next day. I don’t see how you can do this job without a similar approach. I also learned much during the time that I worked for my dad. He taught me that treating people right – employees and customers – is the absolute top priority.

How have parent expectations changed over your career?

RK: I would say that in the last 15 to 20 years expectations have changed tremendously. I have more conversations with parents of young players because of the pressure that I see them putting on their kids. Whether that’s, “My kid’s 11 and we got to groom him to go to a Division 1 school,” or maybe he or she has to perform at a high level when they’re 10 years old. The players don’t know what that means, and most of the time, the parents don’t know what that means either. They just want their kids to be successful. There’s a lot of, “Well, we have to keep up.” From the parental perspective, they need to keep up because they think that another player is doing well, so what is his or her family doing? Or we need more training opportunities or we’re only playing in two tournaments and they think we need to play in five because that’s going to make their player better. Again it goes back to expectations and setting them early so that when you say you have two tournaments on the calendar this season, you don’t get buried with all the questions of, “Why aren’t we doing six? Why aren’t we traveling more?” We hit on that very early in the season and say we’re going for quality, not quantity, and why we do it that way. You have to work through a lot more of that.

What about the players? How has their mindset changed? Do you see them trying to be or do more at an earlier age?

RK: Probably the biggest changes I have seen is the level of play, the technical proficiency of players, and the tactical understanding is better than it was. I think a lot of that is because more coaches are educated and around the game. We certainly try from a club perspective to raise that level, and in most clubs, the competition will always raise the game as well. So the overall level is better, but I notice in recent years, fewer players are what I would call impact players relative to the size of the pool. They’re also less willing to take risks. It used to be, or at least it seemed to me, that 15 to 20 years ago you had a lot of kids that wanted the ball, wanted to take players on, didn’t really worry about consequences, and just went for it. Now kids tend to play a little bit more conservatively. We try to address that as a staff, but we want kids to take some risks at a young age so that they understand the value. And then as they get older you can discuss things like where to do it on the field and in what situations.

How are you and your coaches using technology – tools, gadgets, and software – in ways you weren’t before?

RK: I admittedly am not going to be the best “year of 2020” example in this regard. We use PlayMetrics, which has been a great tool in terms of not only getting session plans and stuff together, but creating seasonal plans, and delivering them in a way that’s easy for coaches to access and follow. Off the field, we’ve expanded our social media presence, both in terms of promoting the club, but also individual players and team accomplishments. I am starting to discipline myself to use more video opportunities, like with Hudl and others where we can use video for player analysis but also for coaching education. Even for people like me, it’s pretty dummy-proof. It’s a little bit of a set it and forget it type of thing, whereas before when some of the new equipment and technological features have come out, you spent more time with the equipment trying to set it up than you did in the seven games that you played. So making those things easier to use, and making the ability to get it from the field to the screen to the players in a more efficient fashion has been huge. At the end of the day, it’s all about time.

How significant are the advancements in technology to your ability to be a youth coach today, especially now that everyone is using more tools?

RK: It’s a big factor in two major areas. One, you can explain all you want, but you have to show players where the successes and failures occur. Especially with boys. Being on the boys’ side of things, you got to love them, but they tend to not understand or accept that there might be some weaknesses in their game. You have to show them. And number two, and this can be related to the busy lives we lead and things like COVID, but you have to be able to send your message remotely. Now, you have to use Zoom and other sources of technology to bring your team or whatever group it is you’re addressing together to give them information in remote ways.

With COVID, have you been doing more remote training? How have your coaches managed through this?

RK: We have focused on two main areas with respect to remote training. The first was delivering short clips of proper and productive videos to our players during the shutdown. I know a lot of clubs did that, but we put it on our coaches in terms of not just delivering it, but finding ways to hold the players accountable. How many players are going to be out there and driven especially for the extended period that we faced? It was kind of fun, kind of cool for players in the first few weeks, and then frankly, it became a little bit of a burden. We had to try to find ways, and many coaches were very creative in keeping players engaged. I can tell you where we had some video face-to-face contact, even though it’s over a computer, was the difference in the coaches that were successful, and the ones that maybe struggled a little bit. And then the other area that we are continuing to use is video conferencing for coaching education. We had a good response to an eight-week series, where it was me or Alex Mason, our girls’ director of coaching, or any of the program directors, guest coaches, or clinicians would address certain topics to our entire staff.

Were you intimidated by the new ways of doing things using technology?

RK: Sure, but I will tell you this – I very quickly disciplined myself to get the hang of it.

Did you feel some resistance from coaches to doing things a new way?

RK: Whenever you have a group of individuals, there’s always going to be those that take it and run, and then those that are a little indifferent or not excited about it. I would say overall, we were very pleased with the staff’s response in terms of the frequency and quality of their engagement, not just between the coaches and the players on their teams, but between the boys and girls coaching staff. We had 40 plus coaches every week on our video conferencing for education.

What is something you have to be good at as a youth soccer coach that most people don’t realize?

RK: When it comes to the game itself it’s spending more time watching what happens away from the ball than what’s happening at the ball. That’s one thing we ask all of our players and coaches to do when they’re watching professional games. It’s the same thing when it comes to the coach’s interactions during games. Let’s not focus on giving coaching instruction to the player with the ball. He or she has enough to deal with at that particular moment in time. If you’re going to give information or impact your players during the game, address the players off the ball, talk about things like shape, and staying dialed in mentally when the ball goes out of bounds.

As a former player and now a coach, what is one thing you wish you could get the kids to understand better because you’ve been there?

RK: I was fortunate enough to have some good coaches relative to the times when I was growing up. As for coaching expertise, things were certainly not as sophisticated back then. Some messages that I would have wanted to see or hear more when I was younger is one, just forget about all the peripheral stuff. Love the game and love what you do because you’re always going to get more out of players if that’s the focus point. Don’t be so caught up in the winning and the losing. Now, you don’t play a game to lose. But when I was growing up, the sun rose and set in my mind to how successful the team was. If the team was successful on Saturday, well, that must have meant that I was too. And just understanding that if you’re loving the game and you’re doing the little things to make yourself better, everything else will take care of itself.

What gets you out of bed in the morning and excited about going to work?

RK: The relationships with the coaches. I’m really happy with where our staff is. There have been years, just like with any club, where it kind of ebbs and flows, but some of these personal relationships are going back 10 to 15 years. You develop a lot of trust. You don’t mind going through the trenches when you have people that you trust. That as much as anything is a reason to keep doing it.

Looking for more club management insights?
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We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

High-Performance Club Management: Defined & Demystified

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Mon, 16 May 2022 16:51:13 GMT

The digital transformation of youth soccer club management isn't coming. It's here .

And it's taking aim at how you run all of your club management operations. This white paper discusses fundamental principles you need to adopt to meet the new digital demands and grow your club in all the right ways.

Are you as innovative in the office as you are on the field?

Anyone in youth sports club management knows that "business as usual" has significantly changed over the years. It's not just winning on the field that attracts and retains families, it's the overall brand experience clubs provide to their members. Clubs need to operate and execute at a high level to grow, compete, even survive, in today's ultra-competitive youth sports landscape. Having a fine-tuned, forward-thinking framework for club management is more important than ever. And technology is helping clubs achieve High-Performance Club Management.

What is High-Performance Club Management?

High-Performance Club Management can be defined as a framework for modernizing youth sports club operations using cutting-edge technology and progressive workflow optimization techniques. And while that might be a mouthful, it comes down to the role technology and sports club management software systems play combined with the people in your club who run these processes and get work done. HPCM is powered by technology, but it's driven by people.

Four Guiding Principles of the High-Performance Club Management Framework

This white paper introduces you to the High-Performance Club Management Framework and four guiding principles to help your youth soccer club (or any youth sports club), operate better, faster, and more agile than you thought possible. These concepts can be adopted by clubs of all types, and include:

Reassessing your club's operational strategy by using the best technology . (Not sure what's best? This Buying Guide will help walk you through the process.)
Shifting from "what needs done today" thinking to include what your club will need tomorrow, next month or even next year.
Nurturing a mentality of constant workflow optimization.
Developing a healthy obsession with the customer experience.

Download the white paper and learn more about the changing connections between technology and your people, and how to use technology to do more than just function, but to also transform your club's operational strategy to lead you into the future.

Get the White Paper Now

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Customer Success Story: Sporting Nebraska FC

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Mon, 16 May 2022 15:19:54 GMT

Printed spreadsheets and paperwork, manual tasks and processes (field scheduling, anyone?), and disconnected tools and systems to manage it all had Nebraska’s largest youth soccer organization drowning in a sea of operational inefficiencies. Read on to learn how Sporting Nebraska FC found the change they needed to become an operational powerhouse and provide a next-level experience for club families and staff.

Two large and looming issues stood in the way of the club's path to continued success.

The Pitch is No Place for Paper

Field planning, team assignments, and other club tasks were mostly done manually in spreadsheets and on paper.

Too Many Tools

Registration, communication, documentation, scheduling, file sharing, and more were all managed using different software and tools that didn't work together creating even more inefficiencies.

With the PlayMetrics Club Operating System, the club was able to get everything in one place and available anywhere, anytime. And cut down the manual work to almost nothing.

Scheduling Nirvana

The club now has all of its scheduling needs within PlayMetrics. The stress of dealing with field closures and scrambling to alert those who are impacted is gone. Managing team assignments and handling roster changes became much simpler with everybody from program admins to directors and coaches using the same tools and accessing the same data in real time.

Documentation Delivered

All of the club's files - once all over the place and impossible to track down - are stored in PlayMetrics for easy access. All club members now know exactly where to find forms, waivers, and other files whenever they need them.

Two large and looming issues stood in the way of the club's path to continued success.

Field planning, team assignments, and other club tasks were mostly done manually in spreadsheets and on paper.

Registration, communication, documentation, scheduling, file sharing, and more were all managed using different software and tools that didn't work together creating even more inefficiencies.

With the PlayMetrics Club Operating System, the club was able to get everything in one place and available anywhere, anytime. And cut down the manual work to almost nothing.

Scheduling Nirvana

Learn more about PlayMetrics scheduling features →

Documentation Delivered

The time that we save by using one platform versus three other programs in conjunction with each other – the efficiency gains are invaluable.

RENEE WANDERSCHEID

Club Administrator

Communication for Champions

Running the state’s largest youth soccer organization requires clear, connected communication. The club can send targeted messages to specific groups (e.g., team managers) all organized in PlayMetrics, without having to copy and paste email addresses or leave the app.

Obsessed with the Mobile App

The PlayMetrics mobile app captures player details and allows coaches to make notes directly in the app all while adhering to privacy and security measures.

Partners in Success

In the past, the club often struggled to get the support they needed from software vendors, describing it as “trying to pull teeth.” Now, they have found in PlayMetrics a partner who listens and demonstrates dedication to the club’s success beyond the day-to-day operations, but also committed to seeing them realize their full potential as a forward-thinking youth soccer club.

Communication for Champions

Learn more about PlayMetrics communication features →

Obsessed with the Mobile App

The PlayMetrics mobile app captures player details and allows coaches to make notes directly in the app all while adhering to privacy and security measures.

Partners in Success

How to Audit Your Tech Stack

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Sun, 15 May 2022 16:08:44 GMT

Do you know what cracks are lurking in your youth soccer club's technology stack? Are you aware of the “rogue” tools your club staff and coaches might be using? Is the technology you're using today hurting your ability to run a highly efficient and cost-effective business?

In the growing and increasingly competitive industry that is youth sports, technology plays a critical role in positioning clubs to attract and retain members, while building a fine-tuned operational machine. But is this technology - your "tech stack" - doing more harm than good? By doing a structured tech stack audit, clubs can get started on the path to a healthy technology state.

But, first, what exactly is a "tech stack?"

A "tech stack" is the combination of all the online tools, software, and other technology organizations use to run their business. Think of what tools you use to communicate with players and families. How about the platform you use for registration and payment processing? What does your youth soccer club use to manage documents - Google Drive, Dropbox?Every type of organization in every type of industry has one - including youth soccer (and all youth sports) clubs.

Why should youth soccer clubs perform a tech stack audit?

When it comes to youth soccer club management software and tools, what you don't know can and will hurt you. Reasons for doing a deep dive on the current state of your tech stack include:

You're spending more money than necessary on the technology your club uses now.
Your club is losing time and efficiency in ways you might not even realize.
Your players and families deserve the best brand experience possible.
You simply can't afford not to.

This tech stack audit guide, designed specifically for youth soccer clubs, is an excellent first step in building a sustainable-high performing business by shining a big, bright light on the things you need to see. It prompts your club to get a better understanding of the manual processes that can be dramatically transformed through technology, as well as where and how much time and money is going out the window. You can also get more visibility into specific areas where you can improve the overall club experience for your members through more streamlined technology.

Get Started with Your Tech Stack Audit

This powerful guide can help you declutter and demystify the technology your club uses with a ready-to-use audit worksheet. The step-by-step process helps youth soccer club leaders list all of the club management software and tools currently used for key areas of club operations, as well as identify who has access to the tools, and associated yearly costs. It’s time to get started identifying the areas where your club is not getting This guide will bring the benefits you need—and deserve—from software and other technology.

Get the Tech Stack Audit Now

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

GOALS: Interview with Gary Buete

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Fri, 13 May 2022 19:10:47 GMT

Sit with Gary Buete for just a few minutes and you’ll quickly realize that his demeanor betrays his official resume.

CEO of the largest youth soccer club in the country. A master’s degree. Hundreds of employees to oversee. Scores of volunteers to manage. Thousands of customers to serve. Countless victories on the field and accolades off it. Over two decades in soccer (“plus or minus a year”). But here’s the thing with Gary: you’re always going to get the truth from him. No sugarcoating, no company lines, no PR-esque dancing around topics. We even caught him referencing Instagram as “The ‘Gram.”

Gary feels like a coach in executive’s clothing. That’s not to say he doesn’t fit as a CEO. It’s quite the opposite; his paint-the-fields-myself approach to club management underscores the importance of the player experience that is directly impacted by the character and effort of coaches, team managers, trainers, and everyone else who contributes to a successful club like NCFC Youth .

Grounded and insightful, he offered his thoughts and experiences in a variety of areas throughout our interview. Read on to find out what career path he thought he was going to follow (hint: it involves Madison Square Garden), what keeps him up at night (risk management, anyone?), what advice he’d give club leaders looking to NCFC Youth as a model of excellence, and his predictions for the future of club management.

Gary, tell us about your journey and how you arrived at NCFC Youth.

GB: Born in Maryland, grew up in Arizona. I was a college All-American, and got my master’s degree in sports management from East Tennessee State. I coached teams all through my undergrad and master’s degree. After grad school in ‘97-98, I thought I wanted to do large event management working at Madison Square Garden or the (now formerly) Washington Redskins. The first job I was offered, I went to work for the YMCA. After six months I wanted to get back into soccer. I took over my first club gig in Montgomery, Alabama. It was a great place to cut my teeth. From there I went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ran a club for 15 years which grew to about 4,000 to 5,000 kids, and 2,000 to 3,000 adults. Six years ago I ended up at CASL* and now NCFC Youth, which is the largest youth soccer club and “youth-to-pro” club in the country, and certainly one of the top three or four professional club environments out there. This is my 23rd year of running youth soccer clubs, plus or minus a year.

*Editor’s Note: In 2017, Capital Area Soccer League (CASL) merged with Triangle Futbol Club Alliance and rebranded as NCFC.

How many people are on staff at NCFC Youth, and what types of roles do you have?

GB: We have about 65 full-time employees and then roughly 200 seasonal, non-full-time employees. We also have about 1700 volunteers. We are unique in the soccer world in that there are very few clubs that have as massive an operation like we do. It’s a business that runs soccer, and as you would imagine we’re not dissimilar to how most businesses run with all the different departments. We have a Director of Soccer, Paul Forster, who’s one of the best in the business. With 14,000 kids and a couple hundred facilities to run, we have a director of operations. We have a business development and a marketing department. We have a CFO and four full-time people in that department. Plus, we have a vast amount of different program directors and age group directors. Other clubs where I’ve been and most clubs in this country don’t have this manpower behind them. We’re very fortunate.

NCFC Youth has an outstanding reputation on and off the field. What do you think makes your organization a leader in youth soccer?

GB: The people. A lot of really good people before me at CASL built it to prominence, and I tried to build on what they did. We’re in a diverse area, and soccer just thrives in this community so it was the vision of many people early on. And then maybe where I’ve been able to help is to find the right people and get them on the bus. We’ve got some incredibly bright and talented folks that work with us, and it’s easy for me to say we have the best staff in the country. The diverse backgrounds and experiences that we have from national team players to national team coaches, just really, really smart folks. That I think is what transforms us. Without the people that we have here, I think we’re just another soccer club.

What new roles and titles exist today in the club that maybe you didn’t have 20 years ago? What skill sets are you looking for when hiring that you didn’t consider even five or 10 years ago?

GB: At my last role, not only was I the CEO, but I was the field painter, goal mover, tournament scheduler, and the rec guy. That is the world most clubs live in. Going back to 2000, when I took over a pretty big sized club in today’s standards, about 5,000 total members, there was me, one part-time administrative person, and all volunteers. That doesn’t happen anymore. It has become professionalized.

Business development is becoming more prevalent. Many people are seeing [youth soccer] as a business, and as an opportunity to get into the community. Community leaders are investing in youth soccer programs to help drive traffic to their business and then also to support the community. We have three full-time people here doing business development and almost nobody has that. We also have a full-time marketing person, and a full-time social media person. The financial side of things is massive. At my last club, I was also the CFO and I had a part-time bookkeeper. Now we have a team with a human resources director, a CFO, a comptroller, an accounts payable and accounts receivable person. Keeping track of the books, making sure everything is going as planned is becoming more prevalent in the society that we live in. The amount of control that we have here at NCFC Youth rivals any business that’s out there with regards to protection of money.

On the soccer side, you almost can’t just be a coach anymore. In the old days you could play golf all day, coach two or three sessions, then go home. Now you’re going to be a full-time coach. You need to be organized, technically savvy, a great communicator and a great leader. You have to provide more value than just coaching teams. I bring back the technical piece because so much of what we’re doing now is more technical in nature. Videotaping, session planning, periodization, everything through computers and software, the information we’re able to give back to players, families, and support coaches, and education, all of that is now done through technology. In the old days, you came out to the field, I ran some sessions for you, I may have drawn some lines on a paper and gave it as a hand out; that’s not the case anymore, so you’re definitely a different type of soccer person getting hired now.

You recognize not all clubs are built to the size and scale of NCFC Youth, but that other club leaders may aspire to achieve that, and to borrow best practices.

GB: I spend a couple hours every week with clubs from all across the country that are looking for best practices and other ways to do things. And we love to help. We have people who come here, spend a couple of days with us, watch everything that we do. Certainly, we have a lot of resources that other clubs don’t have, but I’ve been part of these clubs as well, and have an idea of how you can maneuver and try to put yourself on a pathway to get into some similar positions

Do you believe that clubs who do not actively get on the “professionalization of youth soccer” train are going to limit their growth as a business?

GB: Without question. There is so much more than just coaching soccer now, with a lot of the new rules that are in place in regards to SafeSport, protection of players, insurance, risk management. And there still exists, to some degree, your volunteer-run organizations. I remember 23 years ago, there wasn’t very many of my role in the country. Everything was volunteer-run. And you had Board members who ordered uniforms, did the books, put the nets out, and lined the fields. That doesn’t exist for the most part anymore either.

The trend over the last three or four years is what we did. Where CASL and Triangle Futbol Club Alliance merged together, combining resources and talent, and creating best practices. That’s happening all over the country where smaller clubs are joining forces. With that, you get more bandwidth, and more opportunities to raise money and do tournaments. Everything’s more at scale, so you can offer things for less cost.

Once you have new staff members hired, how much time and energy do you spend on developing them?

GB: We spend a ton of time with them on our mission and core values. We get to choose, for the most part, the best of the best, so that’s important to us. There’s an old saying that goes, “I’ll take as much talent as character will provide.” I believe that immensely. We get them in and we show ’em the NCFC Youth way. We have a lot of good mentors and leaders here, and there’s a culture that is contagious. You’re either on board and a part of it, or you’re going to get left out pretty quickly. We put a lot of resources in education and leadership, and not just coaching. We’re involved in the community. We have leadership speakers that come in, different topics that we bring in almost monthly. We have training sessions for everyone, from our volunteers to our full-time staff, every month. We have constant reminders of why we’re here and our core values.

It’s important for us that we spend that time because if we’re at a point where we’re hiring you, we want to keep you. We want our staff to know that we’re invested in them, we’re helping them develop more skills. It’s a massive undertaking we take great pride in.

Tell us about some behind-the-scenes, not-so-glamorous truths of running a youth soccer club.

GB: Risk management’s a big thing although I think most people in our world would say dealing with parents is the most difficult thing.

When it comes to parents, we try to give too much information. But it’s 14,000 kids so 14,000 parents who all want the best for their kids. We get it, and we do our best to try to make the best environment. Sometimes we fall short, but for the most part, I think we do the right things. Kids love to play the game, so that’s probably the most difficult.

It’s long hours. It’s nights and weekends. For coaches that are coaching two or three teams, they’re on the fields from 4 to 9 o’clock every night, Monday through Friday. They’re on the fields for four, five, six hours Saturday and Sunday. Then they’re required to work in the office three or four days a week, where they’re just trying to get things organized running programs. So a lot of time away from families, a lot of holiday weekends, a lot of stuff that is not as sexy as most people think when you just want to go coach soccer.

How have you seen the expectations of parents and players change in your 23 years, and how has your club reacted to the shift?

GB: I would say specific to where we are now, and the evolution of the game in our country is that more and more people have played the game. When I first started out, nobody knew what soccer was. I can’t tell you how many times people said, “Well I played football and baseball or I played basketball and baseball. I don’t know anything about the game [soccer].” Now, you have a much more educated clientele, customers who are more on top of what’s going on, they can tell a coach who knows what they’re doing in a training session that’s meaningful, and it just provides a different perspective now than you had before.

And then additionally, as soccer has grown in our country, there’s more money in it. People make their living and feed their families with it, so there’s a different expectation level of players. Five years ago, we never had a player say, “Listen, I want to be a pro, I don’t want to go to college.” On our highest local teams, most of the kids are saying, “If I have the opportunity to go pro, that’s what I want to do. I want to forgo going to college. I want to turn down that ride to Duke, UNC, or NC State.” That creates more expectations, more competition, and it really puts more onus on us to try to do the right things to get these kids where they want to go.

You said you you aim to over-communicate with parents and player families. How do you get that across to your staff in how they manage their day-to-day process, especially at a club your size?

GB: It’s funny. The more we feel like we are communicating, there’s always instances where we come back and we say, “How did that not get across?” How did a message we sent out not be taken the way that we wanted it to? Listen, we’re at a point now where sometimes because we send so much communication, parents will opt out of our email and we’re having to find new and creative ways to get to them. When we blast email, we expect about 20% of the people to read it and actually get what we’re trying to say.

Now you have the different meetings, now you need to have it on Twitter, you got to have it on the ‘Gram, you got to have it on Facebook, and even TikTok. It used to be we just had a website. Do people even go to a website anymore? It’s a constant battle for us trying to get the right communication to the right folks, and then get them to actually understand that what we’re saying is something they need to know. During the COVID pandemic, I’ll send out a mass email that goes to all the different platforms, and it’ll say, “You will get a more specific email from your program director, be on the lookout for that.” That comes through a different channel now, and then it also goes to a team manager, so not only do we send it out, the team manager and coach sends it out. And then we get about 60% of the people who read it.

One of the, I would say, good things about going through this mess we’ve all gone through for the last several months, is it has given us new platforms on how to reach families in a large quantity that’s easy to access. The Zoom calls, Teams calls, or different ways to get to folks where we used to say, “We’re going to have a meeting for everybody in this program, at this location.” And you’re then going, “How many people are going to drive to that location, battle traffic, and get there?” So it’s certainly another way for us to reach people now, but it’s an ever-evolving process, probably one that we will never become perfect in.

COVID. Of course, we need to talk about that. How has NCFC Youth managed during the pandemic?

GB: Well, it’s been challenging to say the least. We’re no different. I’ve been fortunate as a leader of the organization to have so many really bright people who are helping us through this process. This wasn’t a one-person show, it took a lot of people to do a lot of work. The tough part for all of us has been how do we continue to come up with plans based on what we’re hearing. You think about the size and the scale of what we’re trying to put out there that’s going to affect each individual program, and then, get an announcement that completely does away with the plan that you just came up with. So now every plan we come up with has to have about three or four different layers to it. If this, then that, if that, then this, and then we’re still not close.

Where do you think you’ve excelled through COVID and what could you have done better?

GB: I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job of communicating. I was very happy that we were able to give refunds back, where a lot of clubs were not able to. I was very happy that we were able to keep and continue to pay our staff during this time. I felt like we were one of the first soccer clubs who canceled our season. We wanted to be out in front. I think we’ve done a really good job of keeping player safety in mind, coming up with the protocols and the processes of how we come back. We did a run in June for three weeks. We had over 5,000 players come out to be a part of it. It was a good learning lesson. We felt really good about how we brought it back and in a very safe manner.

We were about a 90% retention rate in all of our competitive programs. Recreational soccer is going to be down much more than that, for the obvious reasons that they’re not as invested, they’ll play spring instead of fall or those kinds of things. But on our competitive side, it’s about a 90% return rate for our club. In talking to my colleagues across the country, I think it’s closer to anywhere from 15% to 25% down in most places depending on where you are.

Most of us have said, “We’ve worked harder over the last couple of months than we have in a long time.” It’s a new way of doing business. It’s sitting in front of this computer all day. And then the internal communication between staff, keeping people on the same page and making sure things are getting done correctly. It’s a whole new world. I think there will be some good that comes out of it, on how we operate and how we get information out to folks, but it’s been a crazy time.

Were you doing any sort of virtual training at all?

GB: We did a lot of that, and like everything it was the new toy. We put a lot of time into it. I think we got a really good plan and had lots of kids involved the first three or four weeks, and then weeks five and six we saw it go down a little bit. So we had to challenge our staff to come up with something new and better and innovative that challenges them more. And then we were able to get back on the field right about that time.

If you knew before COVID ever happened what you know now what would you have done differently?

GB: I would have started some seasons earlier, obviously, to get more games in. But as far as how we would have changed anything, I don’t know what else we could have done. I think we set ourselves up well financially to be able to do right by our members and our staff. I think the at-home training program is a good opportunity. We probably could have had something like that prior to COVID. I think it’s going to be really good for players across the country. I think it’s a new business model for someone to provide that type of online platform for kids. For as long as I’ve been doing this, we’ve always said, “You need to do more stuff at home with the ball.” We’ve become such a structured environment across the board in our country where kids don’t know how to train unless there are 15 kids and a coach and cones and somebody telling them where to go. An unintended consequence of COVID is that kids have had to go out and learn how to actually train by themselves. My hope is as we move forward we can incorporate that into our weekly training, daily training, and better development model for all of our players.

What are some of the biggest innovations you’ve seen in club management over the years and what do you see coming in the future?

GB: Some things will never change. That comes down to a coach who cares and is willing to provide a good environment, fields that are safe, and people who want to provide a pathway for kids to develop not only in soccer but as human beings. That is always going to be at the forefront of what we do. How we do that and how we deliver it is obviously going to change.

The manner in which we train our coaches is going to continue to evolve. The way that we are able to create periodizations, formats, and plans. Not only for the top-end coaches but for volunteer coaches in our challenge program and our rec program. They have access to the same things that our top-level coaches do knowledge-wise. It’s great to be able to feed that back into our grassroots programs.

And obviously technology has really come a long way. My first couple of clubs, when it was registration time everybody had to come to the office and fill out a card with cash or check payment paper clipped to it. Even at CASL, a storied program, six years ago we still had probably 30-40% of the people coming to the office to register. Nobody comes to the office now. We have systems like PlayMetrics where we can have all of that done in one spot.

We now have cameras set up on fields to record training sessions that we can break down for players and coaches. Our top-level players right now get all their game videos broken down. We know how far they ran, their heart rate, every touch of the ball, and a thousand different things about a player and how they play within 30 minutes after a game. That’s going to be across the board for all of our programs at some point. Even programs out there now that are just individual player based, a player can still get a device and either wrap it around their shoe or arm to get feedback. I can’t even imagine where that technology is going to be ten years from now.

More and more people willing to invest; who understand there’s an opportunity to make money off of youth soccer and with that will come greater innovation. I feel like I’m the old guy now…well I am the old guy, and they’re doing stuff that I never dreamed about 27 years ago. It’s going to be interesting.

Do you proactively shop for technology or do you let technology come to you? How do you think about what new technology or vendors you should engage with?

GB: One of our core values is to encourage innovation. We are constantly looking to be on the bleeding edge of things and I feel like we always have been, in many different ways, as one of the leaders in youth soccer or even youth sports across the board. We have smart people who are engaged and actively seeking out new and better ways to do things. You know the old saying, “Necessity drives innovation.” When you’re as large as we are, and you have to deal with as many things we have to deal with at this scale, sometimes we’re forced to go out and try to find things that help our process. I’m at the United Soccer Coaches Convention every year and I go around and check out the new stuff. And 15 years ago, the big thing was a little rubber thing you wrapped around your cleat to keep your shoelaces on. And now everything’s technology-based and player tracking, GPS and video and all the different things that go on there. A byproduct of our size and notoriety is we have folks who come to us so we’re able to sift through a lot of the new stuff that’s out in the market.

Do you have a go-to technology person on staff?

GB: We don’t have that specific title in the org chart, but we have a lot of very savvy people from the tech world. Steve Curfman, Bob Harris, Sean Nahas, Paul Forster, John Bradford and several others. Tom Harris, one of our newer hires from Houston Dynamo is very up-to-date with a lot of the video systems and GPS stuff. It’s good to have those minds around you.

Do you foresee formalizing a top technology role?

GB: My experience has been that so many of these young coaches coming in have a good depth of knowledge to how technology works, that I don’t see it as one position. Of course I would have told you ten years ago that I never saw myself hiring a risk management person. It was probably 15 years ago, I said to my Board I wanted to hire a sponsorship person and they thought I was crazy. I looked around at other soccer clubs in the country and nobody had a dedicated sponsorship role. I finally just said, “I’m just gonna do it. ‘Cause I think it’s nuts, I think we’re leaving money on the table.” And now most people have a sponsorship person or agency or someone who’s out there trying to raise money for them. So I don’t want to say never.

New technology can be intimidating depending on who you are. Bringing on tools like PlayMetrics or a new video platform, for example, propels change in an organization. How you deal with change management?

GB: One, it’s a management issue. How dynamic is your leader and can they continue to sell the product internally and what you’re trying to do. Vision is also important. What is the vision for the product or project, and how will it help us move forward? That’s always the toughest thing. Because everyone is used to doing things this way or that way. It’s constantly hammering home, “This is how we’re moving forward.” As we’ve continued to add on to the program, more and more people see the value of what we’re doing. It’s like every time you get a new phone you hate it because you got to figure out how to get to the home screen again. It’s continuing to push the value of it, push the vision of why we’re doing it, and then following up with managing it. And not just with technology. In the coaching world, you have your old school guys who aren’t used to creating all their stuff in the systems, the periodization and so on. And then you got the younger guys who embrace the change and are all about it and move forward with it. There is certainly a massaging that takes place and sometimes it’s a nice conversation with your arm around somebody and other times it’s, “Hey, let’s go.”

Pre-COVID, what were the top things on your mind that would keep you up at night, so to speak?

GB: Risk management. Without question.

For the six-year-old rec family, they don’t know Gary Buete. They know their volunteer soccer coach. The environment that coach provides the family and those players affects our brand and how people look at our program, and in many cases if those kids continue to play. Then there’s the SafeSport aspect of things. Protection of players from pedophiles, from undue injury of pushing too hard, training when it’s a thousand degrees outside, not getting the kids off the field in a lightning storm, goals blowing over. We spend a lot of time, effort and energy on these things.

We have rec coaches now who are saying, “There’s just too much for me to be a volunteer coach anymore.” You’re doing two hours of training for risk management, you’re doing another hour and a half training for this. We’re forcing that because, for me, I’m going to err on the side of losing some coaches because of them not wanting to put in the work to provide the environment we want to create for our kids. This is how I’m going to do business. What we do is provide environments for kids to grow, to love the game, to become good teammates, to learn how to be great people, build life-long friendships and all the stuff that comes with youth sport. That’s what’s important. That’s the environment we continue to try and create.

What advice would you give small clubs that are aiming to be your size or even half the size of NCFC Youth in five, eight or 10 years? What can they do now to get ready for growth?

GB: I learn as much from other clubs as they learn from me. We don’t have all the answers. It’s a never ending learning process for all of us across the board. What I would say is, you’ve got to stay true to what you believe your core values are, and how you want to run. So very first thing is you need the right people. People who are in it for the kids, and in it for developing and creating an environment where kids want to be a part of it. That is number one. If you have good people, they’re going to come. The best coach in the world could be across town and not with us but kids are going to play for him or her because they want that experience.

There are many clubs out there that will do anything they can just to add numbers to their group. Stay true to your beliefs and not just try to gain players quick by saying, “Okay, well you don’t really have to try out, you just bring your team in.” Or the quick fix because that never really sticks. I’ve seen a lot of that happen over the years.

Keep a player-first mentality. Obviously, soccer development is important but everything we do is about player protection. It’s an opportunity to grow within a structure that’s comfortable, safe and kids feel good about being a part of. If you do all of that, a club will go a long way in the soccer world.

Finally, Gary, what do you want the NCFC Youth brand to mean to people?

GB: Excellence. I want them to think of excellence in all phases. I want them to think that that is a program for all levels of play, all walks of life, and anybody who wants to play from three years old to 19 and into the pro ranks. I want them to think of us as a valuable community partner. That we are a group that’s not just here to get kids and promise scholarships but that we’re actually providing a service for kids and the community that people can feel proud of. One of the biggest things when I first started working at CASL is the pride of people who played for their program. I see a lot of people in the community whose kids play in our program and when I meet them they say “You know what, man, it’s a great program. I love what you’ve done for my kids. I love what you stand for.” Or, “Hey, I coach for you guys. I love the extra attention that you’re giving to X, Y, and Z.” It feels good to be a community partner for kids to grow and develop, not just as soccer players but in other areas of life. That’s what really drives me the most.

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We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Conquering Resistance to Change in Youth Soccer

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Fri, 13 May 2022 16:04:55 GMT

How mastering the basics of change management today can make your youth soccer club more effective tomorrow.

Change is inevitable. And youth soccer clubs have experienced their fair share of it. New leagues popping up, others clubs shutting down, local clubs joining national affiliates, and lest we forget, a global pandemic that upended everything we knew about running a youth soccer program.

The concept of "change management" is nothing new. Defined as a structured approach to leading organizational change, change management as a formal discipline has been used in all types of industries for decades. As the youth sports market continues to evolve, grow, and, well, change, the ability to employ tried and true change management practices is more important than ever. While it can't be stopped, club leadership must learn how to manage change at every level of the organization to keep staff happy, streamline daily operations, and provide the best possible experience for players and families.

Four Principles of Change Management Every Youth Soccer Club Should Know

This eBook introduces youth soccer club leaders to these four proven change management principles that youth soccer organizations should master:

1. Expectation

Today's club leaders are feeling the heat of higher expectations from players, parents, and even coaches and club staff. Club leaders must be ready to embrace the changes required to meet these demands, but should also expect some resistance when attempting to introduce new processes and technology.

2. Preparation

Initially, change often leads to negative, emotional, even irrational, responses. This is normal, but forward-thinking youth soccer club leaders know that it's important to not let these reactions contribute to poor decisions. Calm, proactive leadership in conjunction with proper planning and tools will better equip club leaders to stay on course.

3. Communication

Communication can serve as your club’s lifeline during times of change. Cut it off and you’re lost. But if you hold tight to the connections and rapport you’ve built with coaches, players, and their families, you can move forward together with confidence.

4. Collaboration

Effective change management requires coming together on all fronts. One way to achieve In order collaboration when managing change across your club includes enlisting key people - coaches, staff, even members - in the club who embrace change easily and can help support and encourage others to do the same.

Be Ready for Anything

The biggest challenge you’ll likely face when managing change, isn’t the change itself but the fear of the unknown and the discomfort it may cause. The only way forward is to grab the reins, be proactive with your planning, and take note of the best practices and lessons learned from so many others before you who have been successful with change management.

Get the eBook Now

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

GOALS: Interview with Stuart Fitzsimons

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Mon, 09 May 2022 13:55:02 GMT

It’s the question at the heart of every athlete’s journey: How far am I actually willing to go to pursue my passion? For some, the answer isn’t quite as far-reaching as they once hoped. For Stuart Fitzsimons, it’s much, much clearer: 4,601 miles.

That’s the distance – roughly – between Perth, Scotland, where Stuart began his love of soccer as a “coach’s brat,” and Houston, Texas, where he takes up residence as Director of Coaching for HTX Soccer (formerly Houston Dynamo | Dash Youth Soccer Club) . Add to that a life-defining stop in Mobile, Alabama, and you’ve got yourself the story of a man determined to find his way in the soccer world.

It’s no surprise that a person who grew up serving as the waterboy and boot-cleaner for the local teams his father coached now spends his days training youth players and coaches in the art of showing up, taking responsibility, and doing one’s part to lift an entire team. He sees the sport through a wide-angle lens. He draws from his own experiences to teach, with passion, the joy in competition. He cares about the game, but more importantly, he cares about those around him – on the field and off.

In this interview, Stuart shares more on his journey, his transition from player to coach, and his grounded ideology on teamwork, competition, mental health, and more.

Interesting accent. Were you born in Scotland?

SF: I was actually born in England but lived there only a few days. My parents were both in the British Royal Navy and my father got stationed in Scotland so I grew up there. My mother was English and Protestant, my father was Scottish and Catholic which made for an interesting dynamic when growing up there in the 70s and 80s. The two biggest soccer clubs in Scotland being Celtic F.C. on the Catholic side, and Rangers F.C. on the Protestant side. We had a lot of issues with what was going on in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Troubles, thankfully, no longer exist and it’s a much better situation now. Supporting Celtic F.C., Kenny Dalglish was my boyhood hero. And then it morphed into being Alan Hansen , the Scottish central defender who played for Liverpool. That was my position, central defender.

When did you start playing?

SF: My Uncle Brian started taking me to the local park to kick a ball around when I was three years old. I was very young, but I do have a vision in my head of being at the park and wearing a Hibernian FC shirt with green and white sleeves.

Good memory.

SF: My dad was a semi-professional player and then became a coach. I was the coach’s brat that followed him around everywhere. I was the waterboy, the ball boy, I cleaned the boots. I started kicking around in preseason with the players when I was 12 or 13. That’s all I wanted to do. I was an average student at best, and soccer was 10 months out of the year. And then I played a little bit of golf in the summers.

You’ve had quite the journey, literally, to get to Houston. How did that young boy from Scotland end up at the University of South Alabama?

SF: I wanted to study physical education, but there was only one college in Scotland, Jordan Hill College in Glasgow, that offered it. Every year they would have 20 to 25 spots and thousands of kids like me trying to get in. So if you weren’t a straight-A student or if you had not represented Scotland at a national youth level in whatever sport you were in, it was going to be very difficult. I tried for two years to get in.

By the time I was rejected the second time, my father met a gentleman through work whose son had come over to the US and attended the University of South Alabama (USA). We got hooked up with the coach at USA at the time, Roy Patton, and a month later I was on an airplane with my golf clubs and two bags headed to Mobile. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

That’s a big change beyond just geography. How did you adjust to playing at USA?

SF: It was a bit nerve-racking traveling to the other side of the world when you don’t know a soul. But it brings many great life experiences. I came over not knowing much about the process of becoming eligible to play and meeting the academic requirements. I had not taken an SAT or ACT exam before I started school so I was ineligible for the first year under Prop 48 in those days. A redshirt. It actually worked out in my favor because when I first came over at 6 foot 3, 155 pounds, I was a stick. I had plenty of talent but was struggling physically especially in the 100-degree summer heat in Mobile. So I basically spent a year in the weight room. I hammered away at it, six days a week, and by the next pre-season, I was 6’5 and 205 pounds, and a completely different physical athlete.

Did you still find a way to get in playing time during that year?

SF: I got involved with some men’s leagues and played on weekends. Being a port city, Mobile has a pretty diverse community. There were plenty of South and Central Americans who loved the game, and even a few of us expats from back home. By that spring, I was able to get into school, get with the team, and blossom from there.

We had a really good team over the years. In my first year, which was ‘89, it was arguably our best team going 19-1. The only game we lost was to Howard who had Shaka Hislop playing in goal.

And then a few years later, you’re back in Scotland.

SF: I played three years, hadn’t finished my undergrad, but I decided at 22-years-old if I was going to try and make it in the pros, I needed to go do it. I knew I would always go back and finish school but I decided to go home. Roy hooked me up with a club in Northern Ireland. I started there, did very well, got noticed by some scouts, and ended up going to Partick Thistle on trial. Played against some fantastic players at the time, and did well, but unfortunately, they decided to sign a player who had more experience at that level, a central defender from another club in the Premier League in Scotland.

I then went down to Stockport County F.C. in England, which is just outside of Manchester, and at the time they were banging on the door trying to get out of the English Second Division. They signed me but just after, I broke my left big toe and was out for three and half months. And then after the toe injury, I had more knee problems. It was the end of the 92-93 season and the writing was on the wall. I was 24 competing against 18, 19, and 20-year-olds. It was time to come back to America where I finished my bachelor’s degree, started my master’s, rehabbed my knee, and started playing again in the USL .

I played with a local team in Mobile, and also in New Orleans while I was finishing my master’s. I then went to Richmond with The Kickers and met Dennis Viollet . A “ Busby Babe ,” Dennis was a famous player at Manchester United in the 50s and 60s and a survivor of the Munich Air Disaster. A fantastic gentleman. I played for him in Richmond and then the following year with the Jacksonville Cyclones. From there, I became the head coach at USA after Roy left.

What was it like being back in Alabama as head coach?

SF: It was tough to begin with. There was a big senior class in Roy’s last year, and while there was some recruiting done, there were only four or five players left from the previous team. So the first year we had kind of a pseudo club team where we did tryouts to make up the roster. We brought in 19 kids the following year, made it to the conference championship, and then in my second year, we won the Big South Conference Championship. This is with two seasons of kids, mostly sophomores and freshmen we developed through that time.

How did you continue to progress your coaching career?

SF: I became director of a club in Birmingham, Alabama called Vestavia Hills Soccer Club, which was one of the more recognized and developed clubs in the area. We had a lot of success getting kids to play in college, and also had a couple of kids make the pro level. One of those kids, Floyd Franks , went on to play in the MLS with Chicago Fire.

From a small state like Alabama to get anybody to that level was very good. It was a great three years, but I felt that I needed new opportunities to learn, not just about the soccer side but about the business side of it. It was obvious that the development of youth soccer was going in a positive direction from the standpoint it was becoming more professional. But a professional business is different than becoming a professional, technical-driven soccer pursuit, if you will. There are a lot of things that go into running a youth soccer club that I think the average person doesn’t understand.

What’s the soccer vibe in Houston, Texas?

SF: Houston, historically, is an American football and baseball town. But I think the growth of soccer, particularly the female side of the game started to grow 15-20 years ago, and that propelled the game quite a bit. Houston is a hugely diverse city now, so as a soccer community, I think Houston is very much a sleeping giant. Based on our population size, we need to find more success in players from the youth level making the National team or going into the pros. We haven’t had as much of that as Dallas or parts of California or parts of the northeast. You can look at it in a negative way and say we’re behind, and there’s a fair argument to that point, but I think from the standpoint of where it was 20 years ago. I’ve been in this city for 18 years now, and from where it was then to where it is now, there are far more kids playing, both genders. There’s a far more diverse community involved with the game, and I think the talent is there and it’s just a matter of getting the talent with good coaching.

Tell us about HTX Soccer.

SF: We were Texas Rush Soccer Club, and about five years ago started a license agreement with Houston Dynamo to run youth soccer programming within a 100-mile radius of the Greater Houston area. We provide programming from little tots of three or four, rec level, all the way to 18/19 elite, competitive, recreational level. We have hundreds of volunteer coaches, about 40 full-time employees, and when you take it all in and add part-time coaching staff we’re probably at about 120.

When we were Texas Rush we had just over 3,000 kids. We now have nine locations and are up to about 7,500–8,000 kids. We had a couple of clubs join in with us. One on the south side of town, Space City, jumped on board. And then we have another partner that came in from the Beaumont area. They have been doing a great job and it’s been an interesting dynamic of trying to put all these personalities and entities together. Every day you’re learning something from someone new.

Do you still get to coach in your role as a director?

SF: For the first six years, I did a mix of coaching and administrative work. My world is a lot more admin now though I still coach. If I only focused on the admin side and didn’t do any coaching, it would drive me insane.

As you mentioned, that’s part of learning the business side of running youth soccer. Did you have any idea what you were getting into with administrative work?

SF: Not at all. Like I said earlier, the way youth clubs have gone now, if you don’t become a professional business with a professional organization and structure, it’s going to be very difficult for you to survive and be successful. You still see it out there in smaller clubs with a handful of guys running them. They seem to be enjoying it. They spend a lot of time on the field but are they doing all the off the field stuff? Admin, marketing, communications with your membership, and all that stuff. You can see the difference between clubs who are and clubs who are not.

What is something those clubs should start doing?

SF: Originally when we started Texas Rush, email was the big thing. That was your major communication vehicle. Now, it’s Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. It’s all of those things, and if you can’t communicate in those forms on a daily, or to some extent, hourly basis, you’re behind the eight-ball.

What’s your approach to developing coaches?

SF: To a certain extent, it’s throwing people in the deep end and seeing how they do. Us old guys, that’s what we had to do.

We have five core values, the first one is trust. We have a bunch of DOCs in different functions and doing different things. It’s not that easy when you’re further up the totem pole to be able to keep checking on people on a day-to-day basis, so you need to feel that a person is taking care of their responsibilities. Now and again, certainly, things come up where it shows they don’t, and you try to educate and work with them. But it’s when one doesn’t have the ultimate wherewithal that they want to take care of the finer details, they typically get found out eventually and you have to go a different direction.

Care is another big word in our organization, both from the standpoint of on-field and off-field. So when you’re looking at coaches from an on-field perspective, do they care about the kids, do they develop a relationship with the kids where it shows that they care? Now, care can be defined in a lot of different ways. As a coach, there are times where you’ve got to put an arm around a kid and care that way, sometimes you have to be fairly tough with them and get after them a little bit because ultimately, this is a competitive environment and you are expecting them to compete. There’s that knowledge, experience, of knowing which player needs the arm and which player needs the toughness and being able to balance that.

Identifying people who know the difference, and especially with younger coaches, can be difficult. And then you educate them to understand when you need to be a little bit tougher versus being nice if you will. To be nice all the time will eventually mean that the kid pushes the boundary, which then could affect your team dynamics.

What’s one of the biggest challenges you face managing coaches?

SF: The one thing we have had trouble with at times is an established coach coming in, who was historically involved in just on-field stuff and are then asked to do administrative work. All of our full-time staff is involved administratively in the club. Our board makes sure financially we don’t disappear, but for day-to-day operations, our technical staff is making the decisions. With that responsibility comes autonomy, right? How and when you do it, we’re not necessarily going to be checking on you, but is it getting done? And that’s where we had some trouble with some good coaches who are well-established but weren’t willing to get after doing the admin work to support that or were expecting other people to do it for them. Those are the kind of characters that we’ve had to weed out, for lack of a better word, to be able to make our organization progress forward.

How have those experiences with coaches shaped how you go about hiring new ones?

SF: Obviously, you want them to have some kind of background in the game whether they played in high school or at a college level. That’s ideal. Showing the interest and the wherewithal to go and get licenses and get that experience is a big positive. Are they self-motivated? Do they want to improve themselves? That’s number one, I think.

Second, going back to the care issue, when you talk to people and get references, have they shown a real desire to make a difference? Do they really care about the kids and want to make an impact in their lives? On the business side, do they have the skillset and comfort level to do the computer work and use the software you need to pull stuff together. Are they willing to learn and make the most of the platforms?

Give us some of the less than glamorous responsibilities you have as a director of coaching?

SF: It’s mind-boggling the details that need to be taken care of behind the scenes so that members can register, show up, and enjoy the experience that you’re trying to provide. We have this thing here, “Soccer Never Sleeps.” It’s a 24/7/365 occupation. I deal with a lot of putting out of fires, whether it be working with the local parks to get fields booked, and then being in some kind of mix-up between communications, or dealing with parents that might have an issue with a coach. There are so many little details that take up your time. Because of that, you want your group, your staff, to be educated and informed. You want to be there for them. The reality is like anything else, there’s only so much time and time is our most precious commodity. Trying to navigate that at times can be very frustrating.

What positive trends in parent engagement have you noticed?

SF: There’s a greater understanding of the game, so you have a bigger percentage of parents understanding that this is a process of learning, versus “I’m only going to be happy if we win.”

Mental health has become a bigger issue. You’re starting to realize from a mental health standpoint that kids are human beings, not robots. Coaches are human beings, we’re not robots. There’s a greater understanding that this is a long-term process. I don’t have a lot of experience with American football, baseball, or basketball, so I don’t know how they are learned. But my general perception is soccer’s a little bit harder to learn because it’s a game that flows. A basketball coach can call a timeout. A coach in American football is calling a play every 10, 15 seconds. Baseball is the same kind of thing.

Soccer takes longer to learn because there’s never one situation that’s the same, whether it’s in training or a game situation. And yes, there are general principles, but there are always different solutions that can arise during the game and the player has to figure that out very quickly. There’s a lot more responsibility on the player’s shoulders. And that’s why I think it’s the best game in the world to play because ultimately it is the players that have the biggest impact on the outcome of the game. It’s not necessarily play-calling, and you don’t get to take time to strategize what you’re going to do next.

What do you think young players need to learn beyond the technical, physical side of soccer?

SF: As a coach, we’re sharing information during the game, but to some extent, you don’t want to be doing too much of that because it’s like you’re giving them the answer. You want the kid to be able to learn the answers themselves. Sometimes they’re going to fail, but the reality is you learn a lot more from failing. It’s not the end of the world to fail.

First is let’s compete, and competing is different from winning and losing. Competing is learning skills. Competing is learning how to pass the ball. Competing is learning how to mentally be ready to play. Competing is learning different skills and how to use them in different tactical situations. Competing is in the decision-making of the game.

You’ll get some families that are what we call “club hoppers.” They will be at one club and, “It’s not right for my kid ’cause the team’s not winning” or, “He’s not going to be pushed,” and they go to another club. Over a space of four or five years, they may have been at four or five different clubs. Realistically the kid’s ability to learn is being diminished, because they’re changing things all the time, and there’s no consistency to what they’re learning.

What is your take on how youth soccer is addressing more advanced ways of learning the game?

SF: It’s a pity what happened just before COVID with US Soccer pulling the plug on the Academy Program. I think one of the biggest pluses that came out of that was the whole development of the curriculum. If you look across the country, the bigger established clubs have a formalized curriculum. Again, soccer takes time to learn. So there are things you need to learn when you’re nine, 10, 11, 12 that don’t really make a big impact on whether your team wins or loses. I think at times that is lost on the average parent, who comes on the weekend and gets all fired up and feels good about winning versus were they paying attention, did their son pass the ball properly, did their daughter make the right decision in a situation? That’s where I think it will be interesting to see in the next five or six years now that there’s no more Academy Program. How that affects curriculum development, which then affects coaching education, which then affects the product of coaching to the players.

What new technology has fundamentally changed coaching for you?

SF: The ability to create a curriculum, create sessions, and then pass it to your staff to use in training, ultimately improving the product for the player. I think there are many different platforms and vehicles to do that. PlayMetrics has been fantastic from the standpoint that you can do all of the business and admin with it, but you also have this curriculum component to it as well, which helps in every facet of a DOC’s job, and full or part-time coach’s job. We’re all on the same page from a curriculum basis, and we can now really mandate that as a club and push forward our philosophies, our style of play, the formations, and our core values. All of that can now be put forth to every staff member.

Do you ever meet resistance getting coaches into a new way of doing things?

SF: Not with the new guard. They’ve grown up in an environment where there’s been a lot of technical stuff around them, and they realize that it’s part of what they have to do. They’re all pretty savvy with things. You have some guys that now are so savvy with the Zoom calls. They’re not just doing general dialogue, they’re providing PowerPoints and doing video analysis on Zoom. While we were locked down, we created a new YouTube page with a lot of video content. We were doing fitness or skills sessions on Facebook. And that’s all our younger guard leading the journey. It’s been very interesting to see how it’s put together. And because I had a bit of time sitting at home, I could learn more of that kind of stuff. That’s been a positive out of all of this for me.

There are a lot of smaller clubs out there looking to grow. Any advice for them?

SF: You have to understand that youth soccer is a service industry, and you are there to serve people. You have to get your background organization running efficiently. And if you can get the business side, the organizational side, the logistical side, organized and structured, you have more time to go enjoy the stuff that you really want to do. Create the things that are going to help make your service on the field better. Whether it be curriculum development, educating coaches, the final product with the players, or the ability to teach the game better.

What is most rewarding for you in working with young athletes?

SF: Ultimately seeing players enjoy competing. When they really get the aspect of putting it all together and going out and being successful on the field. Playing and seeing that, “Oh, that’s how you do it, that’s what he meant, that’s how the game needs to be played, or that’s how I need to do my job and take care of my responsibilities.” That kind of light bulb coming on. Awakening is maybe too strong a word, but that general thought process of matching a group together where they realize that the ‘All’ is more important than the individual. That ultimately is, I think, the biggest impact and why soccer is the greatest game ever.

I look at my own experience. Going to college I played with players from Europe, South America, Central America, North America, a whole hodgepodge of people, and we all had one common goal which was passion. The love of competing together and by doing it together you get far more out of it than you do if you just want to do your own thing. I think when kids really get it, and understand that if they give and everybody else gives, the actual individual gets more out of it. Because you’ve got 15, 16 people giving to you so there’s no way you’re not going to get more out of it than if you were doing it yourself.

The beauty of team sports.

SF: That to me is the essence of team sports. And then taking that experience as a kid, and using it in the bigger picture. Understanding that you can’t get through life without working in a group environment in any profession whether it’s as the garbage man or the best heart surgeon in the world. Everyone has got to come to the game, so to speak, and take care of their responsibilities. If everybody does that then everybody can be successful. It’s when that light bulb comes on and they understand the bigger picture is ultimately what this is about.

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GOALS: Interview with Steve Danbusky

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Mon, 09 May 2022 13:44:35 GMT

If experience is the best teacher, then Steve Danbusky has earned his doctorate in the game – and the business – of soccer.

Just days before this interview, Steve was on a Zoom call with his former Williams College teammates, coaches and managers to celebrate the 25th anniversary (to the day) of their National Championship. Since those glory days, he’s played in the A-League, got called up to the MLS, coached youth players, directed youth coaches, and is now a bonafide club leader at Beach FC .

Nobody can ever accuse Steve of not walking the walk. Experience like his breeds something special in a person; perspective. So when he uses terms like “big picture” and “empathy” and “self-awareness” more than a few times in our conversation, it’s worth paying attention to.

In this interview, Steve makes a case for collaboration being the key to solving any puzzle, gives a retrospective on staying with the same club for almost twenty years, and defines the true big picture behind all the effort that goes into providing the best experience possible for youth soccer players and their families.

The first result when you Google “Steve Danbusky” is your Wikipedia page .

SD: I don’t even know how that happened. It definitely shows my lack of technical know-how.

It’s clear that you know a thing or two about this game of soccer. You played on the 1995 NCAA Division III National Championship team in college and were named a first-team All-American.

SD: It’s funny because a big part of what we do now is preparing our higher level players for those opportunities, and I remember being in that stage as a player. Wrestling with the tournaments was a little bit different back then. Recruiting was a lot different. There were fewer showcases. Getting the letters in the mail, the weekly phone calls from coaches, and trying to figure out a Division I school. I was a pretty good student and I knew that I was going to find a good school. And I wanted soccer to be a big part of that without knowing that it was going to be my future. I wanted to keep all my options open so I was leaning towards a few Ivy League and Division I schools. In my senior year of high school, my team played in the Capital Cup in Washington, D.C. The coach from Williams College, a small Division III school, called me right after the event. I applied immediately after my first visit.

What appealed to you about a smaller school like Williams College?

SD: I had already done recruiting visits to five Division I schools and thought I’d just go check it out. As you know, in Division III, they can’t pay for your travel or anything. It was about a three-hour drive into the country and I thought, “I’m going to hate this. Why am I even coming here?” My mom came with me, and we drove through the campus thinking we passed it. It’s a really small school, about two thousand people in total. I was meeting with the coach while my mom checked into a bed and breakfast thinking she’ll pick me up in the morning and we’ll go home to keep the search going.

I ended up meeting with the coach for hours. I met the players, toured the facilities, went to a class. I got in the car and told my mom, “This is where I’m going.” It was such a positive experience, and all of a sudden Division I and all the other stuff kind of melted away. I found a really good fit.

What made the choice so obvious?

SD: Williams College is an outstanding school academically so I knew it checked that box. But compared to some Division I schools that I had opportunities at, it just felt like there my coach was really invested. And then when I spent time with the players, it was a different feeling. It felt more like a family.

We run college admissions and guidance programs at Beach FC. And to this day, as an executive director and as a previous coach and director of coaching, I tell that story as much as I can. If I didn’t take that visit, I never would have considered going to Williams College and I may have found myself in an environment that wasn’t as good of a fit for me. You have to visit schools and talk to the coaches. Don’t just look at the sticker price, the tuition, what division or conference they’re in, or where they’re located. If you think you’re interested and you have the opportunity to research it, go ahead and do it, because otherwise, I would have taken a completely different path and who knows where I’d be.

Academics were really important to you. Not knowing where soccer would take you, did you have a major declared or a career plan?

SD: Not really. Professional soccer was never on my radar, and it wasn’t for a lot of people because the MLS had just started in 1995. There was the USL, the A-League, with some really good players which helped propel what MLS is today. But it was still very much in its infancy. I figured that I was going to have four more years of playing at a decent level. And because I didn’t know what I wanted, liberal arts appealed to me. It wasn’t like I wanted to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. I wanted to be exposed to as many things as possible and navigate that minefield as it comes.

Speaking of four more years at “a decent level,” you started those four years winning a national championship.

SD: The timing of this interview is pretty interesting because we just had our 25th anniversary of winning the national championship game. We were supposed to have a reunion on campus during the season, but obviously, it was canceled due to COVID. Instead, we had a Zoom reunion. I think everybody on the roster was on it including the head coach, the equipment manager, the trainer, and the director of sports information at the time. It was surreal.

Take us back to that game. What do you remember?

SD: I broke my wrist in the fifth game of the season so I was out for a big chunk to rehab. I finally got approved to play, but they were winning so I was not getting back in the starting lineup immediately. I think the National Semifinal was the first time we were trailing in a game all season. I got subbed in. We go into double overtime, a shootout, we win. The next day was the National Championship. I was prepared for whatever role I needed to play on the team, not thinking that I’d play the whole game. I ended up starting and playing 90 minutes. Williams College doesn’t have a big stadium or floodlights, but everybody in town and the entire student body was there. It was an unbelievable atmosphere.

How did you go from college to playing in the A-League?

SD: I got an invitation to what used to be called the Umbro Senior Select All-Star game. It was basically the MLS combine where they brought the college senior all-stars and A-League professionals together and put them on four teams to play a round-robin. I got drafted in the A-League by Connecticut and ended up signing in Long Island, which was my hometown team.

It’s minor league professional soccer, so it didn’t pay a lot, but the travel, the camaraderie, the teammates, made it an amazing experience. It’s funny because I got into coaching as a result of living in the most expensive place on the planet in New York and getting paid peanuts to play. I started coaching to make a few extra bucks but realized that I liked it, was fulfilled by it, and was pretty good at it so I wanted to progress in that field.

What was the biggest shift you experienced moving into a professional environment in Long Island?

SD: It’s a massive jump, right? At that point, the MLS was still pretty small. There were only a fraction of the teams that exist now. The A-League was full of really good players. When you’re coming from a Division III program, which is a high level don’t get me wrong, the speed of play, the physicality, the expectations, and also the length of the season is so different. College is such a truncated season. But in A-League you’re in the preseason for a few weeks starting in March and then you’re playing until September or October. It’s a grind. You’re doing bus trips through the night, and find out quickly whether you’re cut out for it or not. Some good players decided they didn’t need to be sleeping on a bus for 10 hours and playing two games in two different cities in 24 hours and get paid what we got paid. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

From Long Island, you then went to play at Connecticut. How did you end up at Beach FC in Virginia?

SD: Long Island was dropping down a division. So I ended up going to the Connecticut Wolves for a year and similar things started happening there. They were city-owned, budget cuts were coming and I think they were getting rid of the team. That’s what eventually brought me down to Virginia Beach after four years of playing in the Northeast and New England.

You were also once called up on loan by the New England Revolution, an MLS team. What’s that experience like?

SF: Back then the MLS and A-League had an affiliation and my team was affiliated with the Revolution. They had some injuries so I was called up on loan and hopped a flight up to Providence, spent a week training with those guys, and traveled to a game. It was a huge deal for me but it was what those guys dealt with daily. Guys coming in and out of the locker room. It was terrifying to walk into a locker room with guys who played in World Cups. They don’t care who you are. They’re just like, “don’t give the ball away, don’t make mistakes and I won’t get mad at you.” That prepares you. You don’t realize it at that moment, but when you go through future job interviews and things like that, you can draw on those experiences that put you so out of your comfort zone that things become easier to deal with. Being in the position that I’m in now and as a coach and a director, we want to get kids out of their comfort zone.

How do you teach that to young athletes?

SD: That’s the million-dollar question. I’m fortunate to have some decent experience in the game as a player, as a coach and now as a club leader, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. People point to José Mourinho who never played the game at the highest level, but became the hottest coach for a short amount of time in the world. In the youth game, we focus a lot on trying to develop and provide opportunities for kids within the sport. But the big picture is trying to grow the game that has given so much to us. You want to be a steward of the game to make sure that the next generation is coming through, and that includes recreation programming all the way up to your elite players. And so I think going through those experiences that we just talked about, gives you a little bit of empathy. When you’re a coach or a director and you see a kid who is working hard, but maybe on the verge of being cut, how can you take an extra second and think about them not just being a number in your head? How can you help that player to progress? Because the game still has a lot to give to that boy or girl.

We’ve had some players who have gone on, played in college, and signed professional contracts. And that’s all wonderful stuff. But it’s just as exciting as when somebody moves back into town after college, starts working, has kids, and then becomes a coach because they had a positive enough soccer experience that they want their kids to experience the same thing. They become coaches, volunteers, and referees. I think that is the big picture. When you lump all of your own experiences in as a player, yea, getting cut is getting cut and not being good enough for a level is not being good enough for a level. But you have that moment of is it still important? Do I love the game? Do I want to progress in the game? And that’s the same if you’re 11, 12, 13 years old as it is if you’re a minor league professional.

What are some other traits required in a youth soccer coach to develop athletes but also support that empathy and inspire in those moments?

SD: You could be a really good player and be a horrible coach, and you could be a below-average player and be an excellent coach. As much as the playing background helps with coaching, it’s not necessarily a prerequisite. I think a little bit of self-awareness is a huge quality to be a coach. We have some coaches who have just OK playing backgrounds, maybe not a high-level license, but they connect well with kids of a certain age. And that might be worth way more than an A-License, ten years of professional playing experience, or tactical acumen. It’s putting it in that mixing bowl and looking at the age, skill level, and trying to find the right fit.

Most soccer coaches I know, both within our club and outside, say it’s a love of the game. It’s more of a calling. They’ve been impacted in such a positive way by the game that they want to give back. It takes empathy, work ethic, and self-awareness, but also the drive and determination to improve. That’s what our role has to be as club leaders. You could probably stay where you are and be comfortable and players kind of churn through and you give them a good program. But are you keeping up with the trends of the game? The way the game was played when I was playing is 180 degrees different from how it’s played now. Coaching education has changed, speed of play, sports science, and technology have all changed. So for me, how do I make sure to stay connected with that next generation? I have to grow and evolve and challenge our club to stay current.

How do you stay current?

SD: Surround yourself with good people who will continue to challenge you on a daily basis. That’s where the coaching education, getting out of your comfort zone, doing some strategic planning, and other things that force you to grow in self-awareness comes in. And that’s from the board of directors to the volunteers, making sure that your vision is aligned with what your membership’s expectations are.

How many people do you have on staff at Beach FC?

SD: We have eight full-time folks whose main focus is Beach FC, a couple of those are administrators, and then we have six other directors who are more than just part-time coaches for us. They’re like a hybrid. And then we have between 50 and 60 paid part-time coaches, and hundreds of volunteers.

And how many kids across all programs?

SD: There are around 3,500 kids across five main programs. We have Travel, which is our version of Select, and Recreation, which is in-house. We have Advanced Recreation, that plays other clubs, but it’s still a recreational program. Junior Academy is a 6-to 8-year old developmental program. And then we have our newest program, Travel Lite. Travel Lite is a hybrid of our Advanced Recreation and our Travel. We created it because there was an avenue that was missing where kids who might be outgrowing the recreation leagues and want to play travel soccer, might not be able to make a full commitment to going to all of the tournaments and everything that’s wrapped into travel fees. So we created this hybrid where they can stay with their Advanced Recreation team, but they can play in a lower division of a Travel league.

You also have a robust futsal program at Beach FC. How did that come about?

SD: We’re fortunate in Virginia Beach that we can do a lot of outdoor stuff year-round, but we do get the cold snap and snow now and again. Add in less daylight and you have to find more indoor options. Futsal is an indoor game so we started to implement futsal training and started a small league years ago. Futsal uses a heavier, smaller ball. It teaches technical development, decision making, etc. This was a very deliberate technical development tool to supplement our main focus of outdoor soccer. A couple of years later, US Soccer and other organizations came out and endorsed futsal as a way to develop the game of soccer. Suddenly everybody’s implementing futsal. Fortunately, we had a head start in our area. We recognized futsal could be a differentiator for us.

We quickly ran out of access to indoor facilities. School gyms were full of school programs, and so we would have to rent weird times on Sundays. We sat down as a leadership group, our board, our staff, and created a strategic plan of how we could construct our own futsal facility. After five years of planning, budgeting, and implementing, adjoining the office I’m sitting in right now is about a 20,000 square foot futsal center. It’s a clear span building with a pad and pour urethane, a hard surface that’s padded underneath, so it’s true futsal. No columns. Good length and width. We wanted to build something that would help us not only grow the sport of soccer but allow us to implement some futsal programming moving forward.

Talk about getting out of your comfort zone. I was going to city planning and zoning meetings. Anybody who has been involved in any type of construction or design with local politics and municipalities and the red tape and the minutia understands. I don’t think any of us really knew what we were getting ourselves into. It was an eye-opening, rewarding, challenging, sometimes frustrating experience, but one that I think defines who we are as an organization.

What other differentiators have you seen across the industry that have led to a more professional youth soccer experience?

SD: My father was my recreation coach and my first travel team coach. Back then, parents were not only the ones on the boards but also handling all operational aspects. They were the ones lining the fields. They were the ones putting up the nets, and putting schedules together. I am probably part of the first generation of that transition from the all volunteer-run organization to the professionalization of youth sports.

Last I checked, youth sports is a 17 billion dollar industry. And that’s not just soccer, obviously, but if you look at it through the lens of an executive director of an organization, you see the pros and cons with that statistic. Volunteerism is down. People are way busier in their lives with work and family. It’s hard to provide the same level of service that used to be provided by volunteers because there are just not as many of them and there are more requirements asked of them. When you look at concussion testing and SafeSport training, you have to go through a million touchpoints of technology. Some people just don’t have the time and or willingness to do that so you have to replace that service with paid professionals. Hiring positions like mine and full-time technical staff members and administrators, you’re providing some level of continuity for an organization. Whereas if I’m a volunteer and I’m doing it because my kids love it, when my kids exit out through age or other interests, my interest may wane and there might not be that person to hand the baton to. And then an organization that could have taken many steps forward overnight could take many steps back.

When you’re paying someone it’s easier to hold some accountability. The challenge with that is the more you add paid staff, the more you have to figure out ways to support them. Player fees could go up. You have to secure sponsorships. It costs money to renovate fields, grow grass, put down turf or lights, go to tournaments, and administer youth soccer.

You need to balance the right number of full-time employees and the roles you need. Again, you have to have good self-awareness. What can you absorb? What can you pass on? What donations can you solicit from the community at large? All of these things are wrapped into the daily world of club management.

When you’re balancing the need to hire staff, are you more critical of the skill sets you evaluate?

SD: 100 percent. I was just talking with one of our directors about coaching licenses before technology. They were always challenging, but all of a sudden technology comes in and you can have a coach who has unbelievable tactical acumen, X’s and O’s, but now the requirement is you have to be able to use session planning software. You have to be able to communicate via these new channels.

Did you ever think your role and the roles you hire would be about more than just developing soccer players?

SD: I never thought that I wanted to come off of the field as a player or coach, but then I got married, my first child was born, and life became more difficult. When I was a youth sports director, I was working every evening and weekend and it became difficult to balance everything with my wife’s work schedule and our new child. I was fortunate enough that there was an opportunity within Beach FC, and organization that I believed in, to matriculate out of the coaching world and into a leadership role. I was worried at first because I wasn’t sure it was going to fulfill me. I came through as a player, a coach, then as a director around a team, the players, and the camaraderie. How do I replace those things that engaged me now that I’m sitting in an office?

People would always ask me how different it was being off the field. I have different challenges here. I have to put a budget together. I run board meetings. I have to put out mass communications. It fulfills me because it’s a challenge.

I loved coaching. I loved being on the sideline. I loved working with coaches and players. And all of a sudden I’m away from that world or only mildly connected to it. That was an interesting transition. Your impact is at a different level and you have to remember that you’re still in it for the same reasons. Now you can use the tools at your disposal to hopefully make some positive impacts on the bigger picture.

As part of that transitional generation in the game, what do you tell people now who think they’re just going to coach and stay on the sidelines?

SD: First and foremost, don’t pigeonhole yourself into being one dimensional. Even if you’re a part-time volunteer coach, you still need to be agile in the use of technology and being able to communicate. Coaching in and of itself also provides a diverse skill set that needs to be worked on and mastered. The skillset translates into any number of personal and professional opportunities. So keep going down that road but don’t think that other opportunities may not open up as a result of it.

How do you make sure the Beach FC brand stands out when the market offers more choices for parents?

SD: Beach FC started in 1982 so I can’t be flippant with, hey, I think we’re going to change our brand. I want to make sure that if we move in a certain direction, that my predecessors who started this organization and lived in this community would be proud of how we evolve. And that might be something as simple as changing the BFC lettering or developing a new crest.

About a year ago we were able to do a staff retreat, and we brought in a consultant to help us navigate re-evaluating our mission, vision, and core values. A lot of the people who work on my team have been here for many years. We all had ownership in this strategic planning. We can’t get so comfortable that we don’t evolve. The game evolves. Technology evolves. We as a club have to evolve. It’s worth pulling yourself away from the daily grind to do that now and again to attain some good self-awareness as an organization.

What are some of those core tenets or values that you believe can make or break a club?

SD: I think it’s always going to boil down to some of the positive character traits that we all want out of our kids. Honesty and integrity are words that can be thrown around on people’s websites very easily, but practicing it is something different.

It’s an alphabet soup of all these leagues, pathways, and extra training. We need to be clear about our guiding principles. Do we want to win at all costs and win state cups and national events? Are we ok with not winning some of those but developing a broader range of student-athletes? How do we say that we’re the community-based club, but also have people believe that we’re ambitious and desire to be the best in the area at the highest possible level? The two seem like they’re mutually exclusive, but they’re not. This is that self-awareness that helps you add layers to your organization. We want to be 100 percent value-based for our Recreational league. We want to build the base of our pyramid. But we also want to be very competitive and push our top players to the next level. And that’s difficult for any club.

When you have so many kids of different age groups and skill levels, how do you approach developing players who are on a college pathway?

SD: Beach FC is a pretty well-established club, but we’re off the beaten path in the cul de sac of Virginia. In some ways that works very much in favor of stability, facilities, and player retention. We’re not in a major metropolitan market with dozens of clubs to compete with. The downside to where we’re at is we don’t typically have the same access points that others do. We work with a lot of our colleagues in Northern Virginia or if you look at Charlotte or Raleigh or any bigger city, there tends to be greater access to pathways. So whether it’s national leagues or showcases, we recognize that we have to travel a little bit more.

We need to look at it from the player perspective and the team perspective. Are we prepared to take our teams all over the country to satisfy the needs and wants of a handful of players? And as these leagues and pathways evolve, that’s a conversation we have constantly because we need to make sure that we’re providing the best opportunities, not just for the base of the pyramid, but also the tip of the pyramid and right in between. It’s not an easy balance to strike from a commitment, cost, or time standpoint. Because even if we decide not to change anything, everything around us will change as youth soccer continues to grow.

How do you manage the player and parent expectations that go along with that equal opportunity training?

SD: Expectations have changed, but not in a bad way, I think. As clubs have charged more to cover greater staffing, nicer facilities, expanded seasons, more tournaments, and new technology and software, expectations should elevate. It’s our job to make sure that we clearly communicate that, while we offer opportunity, it doesn’t guarantee that you are going to get a Division I scholarship. There are millions of variables and we are going to walk you through the process and help you control and navigate as many of those variables as possible.

The other thing that I would say is just as the youth soccer market is collaborative, it’s also very fractured. Almost disappointingly so. It’s very hard if you’re the consumer. Many parents are spending thousands of dollars a year on club fees, traveling, and personal expenses. It’s a very confusing marketplace and we want to be their first touchpoint. Every time they get an email from the next elite platform or college showcase or new equipment or whatever, we want them to come to us and let us help guide them on what they need to know. That means we have to become experts on all of these items and have trust and credibility with our members. So as far as all these leagues and national bodies are evolving and growing, it brings a lot of confusion to the marketplace. One of the necessary evils of the job is you’re trying to stay on top of understanding all the moving parts, but also be in positions wherever possible to impact the direction of some of those things whether that means state associations, national governing bodies, league boards and so on.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a big or small club, it’s a puzzle that fits together but the puzzle pieces are constantly morphing. You’re trying to figure out where you fit in and even if you fit right now, something else may change around you. A club drops out of your league or a new league forms. And then that potentially affects your operations, your league, your club, and so on. So collaboration is hugely important because that’s really what’s going to move the game forward. I think, unfortunately, it’s too fractured and too confusing now and it’s the responsibility of clubs, leagues, governing bodies to work hard to correct that.

What recommendations do you have to help put the pieces together?

SD: When Covid hit, I think everybody went into self-preservation mode. And through that, it was a lot of asking other clubs how they were handling it. So it brought more collaboration, but also in the process, it’s still very much people worried about where their club fits into everything. And some of them are trying to be opportunistic and make quick decisions to take advantage of things that Covid might present. When the Development Academy run by US Soccer pulled the plug in the middle of Covid, that added more chaos. We are not a Development Academy member club, but we work with members in our leagues who are, and that created a massive ripple effect of panic and opportunities for other leagues to snatch up clubs and provide outlets and platforms. And so not only are you dealing with Covid, you’re dealing with this revolving door of decisions outside of our sphere of influence that are going to ripple into our operations. The leadership of all of these governing bodies has to create some greater dialogue because I don’t believe that it’s completely productive for the growth of the game in our country.

Most of us are well-intentioned in trying to provide that. We don’t want to spend our time pushing good people away because they don’t see a pathway out of the minutia. That’s something that we have to also caution ourselves on. We want to be part of the solution but in a lot of ways, we become part of the problem because if we don’t have an access point, we might want to create one. And that just adds more confusion in the market. When I go back to my playing days, it was a simpler time. There was one pathway into a state championship, one pathway into a national championship, one pathway into a Select team. And now there are a million pathways. Again, there are pros and cons involved with that, and we are on the front lines of helping families navigate the challenges.

How has the technology now available changed the way youth soccer clubs are managed?

SD: Technology in a youth soccer club isn’t a luxury anymore, it’s a necessity. It’s a requirement for uploading rosters to state databases. It’s a requirement to have people log in and pay their fees with credit cards. It’s a requirement to communicate with your membership. It’s a requirement to market to the larger population. And every time you add new tech, you have to learn it to the point where you can teach it to the people who need to use it. You have to be able to troubleshoot and work within the confines of a tool that you may only be mildly involved in.

One of the leagues that I’m a board member of is made up of soccer leaders similar to myself. We did an exercise where we had a whiteboard and had everyone write all of the tech platforms they used. Every type of app or platform for registration, tournaments, communication, you name it. We filled up the whiteboard in about two minutes.

It’s a minefield. There’s not a day that goes by that my inbox doesn’t have a push to some new technology. And as much as I want to delete and move on, I have to be mindful of could this help? Will this be painful?

What makes you not delete that message from your inbox?

SD: Youth soccer is a relatively collaborative enterprise. My focus is Beach FC, but I’m on boards for other leagues and facilities as are some of our directors. We’re all working collectively with people who are after the same thing. The open communication there helps us determine what works well. We’re providing that to some and receiving it from others.

It goes back to the efficiency of running the organization. If I was a volunteer and I get home from a long day of work, and open up my volunteer role as soccer administrator and see I have two hundred emails, I’m not going to have time to explore things that could make my life easier. A benefit of being a professionally run organization is having that layer to go to work within the marketplace, research technology, ask difficult questions, and sit through demos. And the other way we do it is through our community. Our population will probably let us know either through direct communication that they’re not happy or through retention. If they decide that somewhere else is more efficient, they might just choose to leave. We have to be at the front end of understanding and filtering out our priorities and our needs. We might like something, but it may not be a priority or we may not have the bandwidth to execute at that moment.

In your opinion, what technology has been the most disruptive?

SD: Some of the video technology that’s out there now whether you want to use it for recruiting, player development, coaching, or education. It checks all the boxes. I remember when we first purchased a Hi-Pod camera system many years ago. It was state of the art. It was basically a normal camcorder that would attach to this tripod and telescope up with all these wires connecting down. You had the screen at eye level which allowed you to control the elevated advantage point. And then you needed to upload the video to YouTube. All of that has evolved quickly. Now you have this amazing technology with sensors that you can attach to your cleat. There’s artificial intelligence that follows the ball. And that’s just the hardware. On the software side, you can highlight yourself as a player. You can pan out, zoom in, track your heat map, the amount of time that you’ve spent on the ball, and your percentage of completed passes. The danger is to make sure you avoid analysis paralysis.

How do you get your team on board with new technology?

SD: It comes down to empowering the people around you. I’ve hopefully created an environment where my staff is not just task-oriented. I want them to have ownership. They can do the research and filter as well. They’ll bring me into a conversation because they think a tool can help us now. Sometimes I disagree and we don’t act on it, and sometimes we do a demo. It’s a two-way street.

I also make sure that when making a decision or exploring something a little further, I include my key people. If I’m on the balcony and they’re in the weeds, they’re going to provide valuable insight to me so I can make an informed decision on whether it’s something that could help us run more efficiently or move forward in our overall processes.

What excites you most about the future and where the game is headed?

SD: Obviously, I look forward to staying connected to the game and being in a position to make an impact. As my kids grow up, they’re all playing soccer for the club. I’m proud of that because hopefully, I’m able to pass that on without forcing it on them. As for the game in general, I’m no different than any other soccer fan in America. I want to see us have successful professional leagues, probably multiple tiers of professional leagues. I want to see us do well in world competitions for men and women. I want to see us progress the game.

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We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

GOALS: Interview with Renee Wanderscheid

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Mon, 09 May 2022 13:33:10 GMT

Many of us fantasize about quitting our desk jobs to pursue a career in something we have an undying passion for. Most never get the chance to even consider taking such a leap of faith. But Renee Wanderscheid isn’t your typical daydreamer.

“I just had a moment in life where I needed to do something meaningful. It took a little bit of time to discover what that was, but I believe I have found it.” That’s how she explained her decision to quit the corporate world after 20 years to become one of the most well-respected club administrators in youth soccer.

At Sporting Nebraska (formerly Sporting Omaha FC), you’ll find Renee in any number of places. In the office on a Wednesday working through documentation requirements for coaches and team managers. Plugging away through new player registrations on a Sunday morning. On Monday, she may be leading her staff in dodging spiderwebs to clean out boxes in the storage closet, and then out on the field coaching one of the club’s girls’ teams that same evening.

Renee has developed quite a reputation over the years.

A reputation for dropping everything to help her staff (bathroom scrubber and net mover, anyone?). A reputation for knowing how to “calm” that parent. A reputation for working through weekends and vacations. A reputation for being a model of what it looks like to genuinely love what you do for a living.

In this interview, Renee shares what most people really think she does (no, she isn’t sipping lemonade on the sidelines with a wad of player payments in hand), the not so glamorous and yet tremendously rewarding moments in her day-to-day, and what it means to her to represent the “unsung heroes” of youth sports.

It’s Wednesday. The last day of September 2020. What is on your to-do list today that we’re keeping you from with this interview?

RW: Actually, I’m preparing teams for State Cup. Preparing them, making sure that rosters are completed and players are transferred, moved, and everything’s set and correct because today is deadline day.

Say you’re at an event and someone asks “What do you do?” How do you explain it to them?

RW: It’s a common question, and it’s a very common response for the other people that are asking the question when I tell them I run a soccer club. People think that I’m just taking some money, registering a child, sitting out in a chair, having a lemonade.

Before this, I worked in the corporate world as a project manager for 10 years and when people asked what I did for a living then I’d say it was “glorified babysitting.” I can kind of apply that to what I do now in a lot of ways. It’s taking care of coaches, team managers, and staff, in making sure all their documentation is complete, and they pass risk management criteria.

Many people think that I just get kids registered, collect some money, and walk away. I remind them that we’re the largest soccer club in the state of Nebraska, and it’s similar to running a small business or a non-profit. There’s a lot of things that happen behind the scenes and to think of it as being an administrator for a small business. So, when I typically explain that to people in that manner, they seem to understand it.

How many people are in the club?

RW: For our Fall 2020 season, we have approximately 1,500 kids across multiple programs, about 150 coaches, and then probably around 80 team managers that manage every one of the Select level teams, as well as Recreational teams. We also have a group of staff which probably equates to about 10 people, not all full-time. There are five of us that are completely full-time as office staff.

How did you get started in youth soccer?

RW: My oldest child has played since she was three, starting in the YMCA. That’s when I started learning about organizations in the area. Being busy with work, you kind of forget everything else that is out and around you, so in finding other clubs, I got involved with a small club in the area and served as the secretary on their board.

Also, having played soccer myself through high school, sometimes we watch as a parent, and then that player inside pops out, and we just want to get out there and coach because we tend to think that no one can coach as good as ourselves, right? So I started coaching all three of my children and it led to where I am now. My exposure to soccer started as a child on the playground fields and in the street, playing street soccer with the neighborhood kids, and it continued to grow through my high school years. I began coaching with Bennington Soccer, then Gladiator Soccer, and finally Omaha Football Club (OFC), which was the result of a merger between Arsenal & Gladiator Soccer Clubs in 2009*. Within the OFC organization, I began working with our youth program, alongside our youth director, running training sessions for the players. I had a moment in life where I needed to do something meaningful. It took a little bit of time to discover what that was, but I believe I have found it.

*The name changed to Sporting Omaha FC in 2013 when the club became affiliated with Sporting Kansas City (SKC). In June 2021, Sporting Omaha FC merged with Capital Soccer Association (Lincoln) to form Sporting Nebraska .

So you went from coaching into your current role as club administrator?

RW: Yes, but I never left the coaching world. Along with already coaching a team in our soccer program, I also began coaching in our youth program, and then they needed some help in the office and asked if I wanted to come in and help out during the season. I started doing things around the office when I was at the “I’m only going to do what I want to do in life” point. The administrator who managed the club at the time retired, I was asked if I wanted to take over the role, and here I am today. I found my passion and what drives me every day to get up and get out of bed, come to work, and enjoy what I do. I’ve been in this role for just over three years now. And to complete the dream, I have the most talented, dedicated, and loyal staff you could ever hope to ask for.

If you had to display your responsibilities in any given week in a pie chart, how would it look?

RW: Well, when we hit April, and through the middle of November, I would probably tell you that 50% of my time is spent in the registration realm. Registration entails so much more than just completing a form online. From the point of the player registering with the club, completing all necessary documentation within the system, to then popping through the queue. You have to understand that with the team formation process, players are allowed to attend tryouts for a certain amount of time, and after that time, they now have a window to register on a certain day at a certain time. At that point, they can all go in and register and make their commitment to the club that they’ve chosen. So the club administrators, like myself, are now dealing with multiple kids, 50 to 100 or more, popping through the queue at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday. The registration process extends well into weekends and leads into long days that turn into late evenings. There are no holidays or vacations during this peak time. With all these players sitting in the queue, we are now tasked with assigning them to specific teams, and we have well over 40 teams. Keep in mind, I am only dealing with our competitive side of the program at this point.

Ensuring that proper documentation has been completed for all of those players accounts for 25% of my time. Have they met all the documentation requirements? Do they have their birth certificate? Do they have a photo loaded? Did they register for the correct program? That happens all the time where they register for the incorrect program, and now it’s a change in the background, and it affects payment plans and everything of that nature. So from that point on, once you get them assigned to the team, now you’re working with entire team rosters and there can be anywhere from 14-18 players per team. You’re cross-checking rosters to make sure everybody’s registered, and if they’re not, you’re sending multiple emails prodding people, “Hey, let’s get this done.” I’d say another 25% of my time is spent on the phone and responding to or sending emails. In June and July, that takes up a huge chunk of my time. Along with that, you’re assigning coaches and staff to team rosters, and reminding them to complete background checks, Safe Sport checks, and concussion certifications. These are pending requirements that must be completed and approved before they are allowed to interact with any of our players.

It’s the same process with team managers and every volunteer in our program that has anything to do with the kids. Even if you’re the team parent on the sideline, the team manager, the assistant coach, whoever you are that is part of a team, you have to meet the requirements of risk management. So, now we’re tracking another 80 people in addition to all of the coaching staff and my regular staff. And then once we get past that and we start getting those rosters ready, now we have player movements from one team to another or one program to another. Let me tell you, June and July are rough.

That’s generally known as the quiet time for other businesses.

RW: Not for us. The staff is up to its ears with work and just treading water to stay afloat. In addition to team formation and registration, I also have the league registrations for every one of our teams. All of these teams play in leagues, and some of them play in multiple leagues, so we have to get them registered for each. I have to know how many teams are going into the league because then, ultimately, I will have to submit them, and also enter blackout dates for the days in which they can’t play games. I have a bundle of teams that I handle all of this for, but a lot of it is, again, the glorified babysitting and following up with my team managers to ensure they are on track and guide them through the process. I will spend a good part of a day just going through each team to ensure all required items have been completed and that every one of our teams is registered on time.

There’s much more going on that people don’t see. Leading up to that point, in April and May, I have to manually build our registration every season for each program. However, It’s probably the worst for June and July and going into the fall of the new season, because I have to manually build the complete season for all of our programs, and that involves building the payment plans for our competitive programs. It’s very time-consuming.

Club administrators such as yourself are often referred to as the “unsung heroes” of youth soccer. What does that mean to you?

RW: We have an amazing staff. It’s like one big family, and we all just do what it takes and give 100% of ourselves anytime it is needed. So even when you ask me what I do, and I describe all these little things to you that are normal, functional job responsibilities, that doesn’t mean that we don’t step outside of the box. We may be in the office one day and start cleaning out the spiderweb infested nest of boxes in the back closet. Or we need to jump out on the field because maybe the fields crew didn’t get to do something that needed to be done because they can get overwhelmed at times, too. All of us just drop what we’re doing and go do it, no questions asked. I think of those kinds of things when I hear “unsung heroes.” We do what it takes to make our club operate. We do what it takes to make our program happen. And we would stop on a dime and change directions if someone needs help or something needs to be done. If I had to go scrub the floor or clean a bathroom, I’d go do that. Whatever it takes.

With that said, what do you think it takes to not only be good at the job but also enjoy it?

RW: “Enjoy it.” That’s going to be my first point. When I was a project manager, I loved my job, don’t get me wrong. The people were amazing, and I believe people are what keeps you in the game in a lot of places. If you have a great staff and you’re all working towards the same goal, it makes life and the job easy. I tell people today that if you don’t enjoy what you do, then you need to sit down and focus on what your passion in life is. What engages you? What is the thing that triggers you? What makes you happy? I’ve had the flexibility to be able to do that, and as I said, my passion is working with, and for, the youth players within our club. Everything I do is for the players to be able to pursue their dreams on the pitch. I still coach teams. I still work outside of the office and train in our youth club. I sit behind a desk for eight hours, and then I leave to head out to the fields and coach when we’re in season. My day never really ends until I’m off the field. If you have a passion for something, you can get up every day and you can enjoy it. Yes, you need to have a little bit more than just that. It’s a lot of time and dedication, it’s a commitment to your club and its core values, and being willing to do what it takes for your organization.

You have to be extremely flexible, you have to know when to be strong and determined, and when to put your foot down. But there are other times that you need to be understanding. You have to be creative. You may pick up the phone and be dealing with an irate parent for some unknown reason, and they let you have it even if it’s not even geared towards you. You need the skill set to be able to understand why this person is having the issue, get them in a calmer place, and then try to resolve the issue.

For me, it was also the support of my family. They understand the heaviness of the work and putting in extremely long hours, and that I don’t get to take the normal family vacations in summer, and that I’m not always going to be there for some holidays or events. Having their support as I pursue a passion of mine is a big piece of it.

You have a perspective as both a parent and a club administrator. How does that impact the work you do?

RW: The expectations of parents have grown from year to year, and I see two sides to it. There’s the Select Program side, which is our competitive program that goes year-round, and then our Recreational Program side, which is coming out, playing with friends, and having fun. I think the expectations have increased on both sides. Expectations on the competitive program, I think, grow from season to season along with the growth of soccer and the number of new clubs that pop up along the way. For example, years ago, you may have had a handful of options. Today there is a bucketful of options. So parents can now shop around and look for what they feel is the best fit for their children. Who are the staff coaches and what is their experience level? What are the club’s objectives and philosophies? Is there travel involved and how much? How much does it cost? Cost is a big factor. Every time there is an increase in a price, we have to look at it and ask if we are providing as much as we can and how do we justify that? Because we know parents have many choices and we ultimately want them to choose our club.

Even on the non-competitive, recreational side, I think it’s still an issue with expectations. Parents want to see experienced coaches out there with their kids but without the price tag of competitive soccer. And knowing that they’re volunteers and they’re not paid, that’s a process in itself. So, our youth director does a wonderful job in providing curriculum and equipment to those volunteer coaches to prepare them, and give them a knowledge base so that they feel as though they have some understanding of the game and can feel confident in their coaching abilities. They are always invited to our club training events so that they can visualize and learn on the field of play as our club trainers are demonstrating and coaching through sessions for the kids. If the coach is knowledgeable and comfortable coaching in the environment, then the parents feel more confident in knowing that their child is developing their skills along the way.

What would you say to other clubs looking for advice on responding to those expectations? How can clubs be proactive?

RW: You have to be willing to change and make adjustments to your program. As I said before, there’s now a bucket of programs to choose from. What’s going to make your program stick out from the others? What value are you providing to your parents and players? Depending on what you’re looking at, if you’re looking at the recreational side, parents are looking for the kids to have a place to have fun, grow, and still develop. They want their kids to learn and understand the sport. And at the same time, they almost expect to be taught as well. They might not understand it [the game], but they start to get a feel for it. You have to be proactive in changing your program. We’ve had to do it many times.

Do you have any examples of special programs or events you have done that have been successful?

RW: In our youth programming, we now have some clubs that are extending out into locations that are in close proximity to our club fields, so we now have to find new ways to compete with them to retain our players. Even if you provide a better program, if a specific field location is closer and they can just simply drive down the street in five minutes, that can be an issue, especially when parents have the time constraints they do now. That’s just the way it is, and you have to figure out how to continue to retain players in the program.

So then you have to change things up. We currently have a six or seven-week program where kids can come out and play games once a week, along with a practice. For three Saturdays within that program, we offer skills training, where we’ll have club staff train the children for an hour, work through small group skills, and then ultimately have a little scrimmage at the end. Change happens with each new season. The youth director may decide to run things a little bit differently. Maybe this time, we’re going to take a particular group of girls or boys and work on a different skillset each week, in addition to what we are already providing. We work to incorporate change in everything that we provide. It’s really important not to get stagnant and remain in the same place all the time.

What are some of the biggest innovations you’ve seen in club management over the years and what do you see coming in the future?

RW: For starters, Zoom. There is that word that everyone would like to forget, COVID. Everything hit in March for us here in Nebraska, and as a staff, we had to find a way to adjust rather quickly.

We sat down around the table and started finding answers to the questions we were left to deal with. How do we continue to train our players? How do we proceed forward? And looking at the big picture, how was this changing us? What do we have to do to continue to provide value to our members? We began using Zoom for meetings since the staff was required to work from home. We also introduced it to our coaching staff for virtual training sessions. This technology allowed us to be able to meet with our teams, just like we normally would, twice a week, and provide them with a curriculum that they could work on from home. We were able to demo skills moves virtually. For me personally, it allowed me to communicate with my staff, coaches, and team managers to cover important team management changes and training on new communications software that we implemented in late spring, due to not being able to meet with them in person as in previous years. Moving forward, this will be a valuable tool for the times when everyone is too busy to meet in person but can sign in on their mobile device and have that discussion while multi-tasking, or for the times when weather or illness makes it impossible to be training outdoors. You now have the ability to run a virtual session instead of simply canceling and losing out on valuable training time.

We adjusted to what COVID dealt us, and I think we did a pretty decent job at it. We worked to keep our member base happy and provide value since we couldn’t be out on the field and physically train the kids. Finding alternatives was what we had to do.

Knowing what you know now, if you could go back would you have done anything different at the get-go?

RW: I would have bought stock in toilet paper, sanitizer, and masks!

As I said before, you’re always trying to be proactive and think outside of the box. We’ve always been proactive in developing alternative plans. For example, if it’s too warm outside, what can we do? Well, we can move inside, or have what we call a “chalk talk session,” which is where we go through formations, line-ups, and different things like that in a classroom environment.

Before COVID, every once in a while you’d use a GoToMeeting or something of that nature for large groups, but we never really incorporated into the club. Knowing that and having it incorporated ahead of time, we would have had an easier rollout when something like a pandemic happens. But nobody plans for that. We do a really good job of planning for other things.

You talk about Zoom. How big a part does other technology play in the day-to-day operation of the club?

RW: Technology plays a huge role within our club and its value is priceless. An example of a night and day change would be Team Formation. When I started working in the office, a lot of things were on paper, and that required printing multiple copies of documents and manually writing in changes or additions. We would have to run reports and manually pull the data we needed and then plug that into spreadsheets so that we could sort it out to provide to our volunteers and coaches. The process would take hours upon hours to complete. Then we were introduced to a program that would allow us to do things through mobile devices, and avoid all the paperwork, spreadsheets, and manual key entry. We were able to throw our data into a software platform, and then access it from a mobile device so things like check-ins for team formation, when players walk through the door, for example, was just, “Oh, your name is Joe Smith, click, take a photo, click, assigned number 31, and you’re good to go.”

And from that point, coaches could be out on the field running sessions and just look at their mobile device and know who was wearing what number, what the player’s name and contact information were, and what club they played with. I can’t even explain to you how wonderful that process has been versus us handing out sheets of paper to the coaches with that same information. You have to keep looking at technology season after season and review how you can make your processes better. Or, maybe you’re at a point where the process is the best it can be.

As the club administrator, what part do you have in bringing new technology and tools to the table?

RW: We all have a role. It goes back to finding more effective and efficient ways to perform a task. There was a time that I used to sit down at the dining room table at my husband’s family farm, far away in Minnesota with little to no distractions. I used a huge oversized whiteboard, a box of dry erase markers, and a printed spreadsheet of every team that listed the days they wanted to practice, how many teams they coached, if they wanted to practice back to back, the field they wanted to practice at, and every other detail there was that they would provide. And for hours, I would sit and map out every field that we had and then plug in every team to an assigned spot until everybody had a place to practice. Once that was completed, I would then enter all of that data into a spreadsheet so that we could publish it out to our members. From the moment of creating the form and accepting the responses, to printing off the responses and going through this whole nightmare, we knew that we needed to find a way to improve this process, by reducing the amount of manual labor and ending the duplication of repetitive tasks. Today we house all of our scheduling within PlayMetrics, and all practice schedules are directly loaded to each team’s account. And if a field should be closed due to weather or other circumstances, it’s a few clicks of a button and everyone knows about it immediately. Before that, we had to notify the coach and the team with a phone call and/or email and text. We were reaching out in multiple ways to accomplish one simple task. Now it’s as easy as click, click and it’s done. We all look for improvements, it’s not just me. Everyone in the club is responsible for making their job more efficient. Anyone can bring something to the table and say, “Hey, I found this. What do you guys think?”

The field scheduling nightmare, as you put it, is common in a lot of clubs. Are there other administrative processes that you have seen change or transform through new technology?

RW: The new communication tool that we are now utilizing is a wonderful addition to the current programs we use within the club. When composing an email, if I want to reach out to one particular person or group, I can just click a button and select a specific individual, or I can create a group by clicking each member I want to add and save it for future use. I can select all of my team managers, or all of my coaches from all programs, or just certain ones. I can select every one of my girls’ teams or my boys’ teams. The choices are endless. I no longer have to cut, copy, and paste email addresses, as all the contact information for every member in our club is housed within the communication tool and it’s all just a few clicks of the mouse away. That alone has made my life easier, and I’m pretty sure it has made our members’ lives easier as well. There are many times during the workday when I am focusing on certain tasks, for example, scholarship applications, and it may be a few hours before I can check my incoming email messages. So say a new team manager has a simple question that a more experienced team manager may know the answer to, they now have better access to be able to communicate with each other rather than waiting for a delayed response or calling the office to ask how to get in touch with a specific team manager.

Team formation has also been positively impacted by this new communication tool. It used to involve printing off multiple copies of each age groups’ attendance lists by gender, time, and location, and then making copies and handing them out to multiple coaches on the field that were evaluating the players. That manual process has been cut down to almost nothing and what is left is a very small percentage.

How much resistance do you tend to get when introducing new technology to the club?

RW: The thought of introducing the new communication tool to the club and its members, after everyone had already had big changes thrown at them recently with the wearing of masks, frequent hand sanitizing, and social distancing, seemed to be a challenge at first glance. “Oh, by the way, we’re going to train you on something completely new, a new communication tool, that will be implemented in one month and you have a few weeks to learn everything.” So yes, little bits of resistance, but once I got everyone on board via Zoom meetings and showed them how things worked and explained what it was going to do for them and how it would make their job easier, it was enthusiastically accepted in the end. Anytime there is change involved, there will always be some resistance since we are creatures of habit. However, change is inevitable and we must accept it and move forward to be able to adapt to the never-ending new technologies that are yet to come.

You’ve talked about finding your passion and doing the thing that gets you up in the morning. But what, if anything, keeps Renee Wanderscheid up at night?

RW: You know, I’m a pretty good sleeper, so by the time my job is done for the day I’m usually out the moment my head hits the pillow. However, every once in a while, I’ll wake up because my brain can’t seem to stop thinking and it’s usually during those busy months of June, July, and August. I think to myself, I have tasks A, B, and C done, and now I need to get tasks D, E, and F done. And sometimes I will wake up and my first thought will be, did I miss something? What did I forget to do? It’s second-guessing myself. Or, did I put that player on a roster? What tasks do I have to have done tomorrow? It’s very overwhelming within those three months. And there are those moments where you don’t get to sleep right away because you’re already preparing mentally for what tomorrow is going to look like. Thankfully, we do have an amazing office assistant and we are able to delegate tasks to ease the weight of the workload. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to get through what we have to do. It takes multiple people to run the ship here.

Can you imagine doing anything other than being the club administrator/registrar for Sporting Nebraska?

RW: If I wasn’t doing this any longer, I do know that I would still be out there coaching. I don’t think that’s ever going to stop. I recently just told some of the girls on my older team that I’ll still be doing this when I’m 80. It was hilarious to see them laugh at me like, you can’t do that at that age, coach. I replied, “Watch me, I will just get an assistant to perform the demonstrations.” Outside of soccer, you’d find me out on the lake boating and fishing. If I could do that from sun up to sunset, I’ve had a good day.

Fishing?

RW: I grew up around a lake in South Dakota. We had a cabin there, and I spent a lot of summers in the water and fishing off the dock. My son shares the same interest in fishing as me and everyone calls him my double. So we spend as much time on the lake as we possibly can. I also have two daughters ages 24 and 16 that enjoy spending time on the water, but not so much for fishing. I try really hard to make sure that our time is quality time spent together because my family supports what I do. My husband understood from the get-go that when I said I was going to take over this job, what this job entailed. He knew it was my passion, and that it made me happy. It’s a sense of fulfillment. And without their support, it would be very hard to balance my family and work life.

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We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

GOALS: Interview with Mayowa Owolabi

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Sun, 08 May 2022 14:15:56 GMT

Like a shark needing to remain in a constant state of activity just to survive, Mayowa Owolabi can’t stop moving.

But his are not the movements of a man searching for something. They are calculated – though often serendipitous – actions of a soccerphile bent on leaving a lasting impression, fueled by a natural urge to give back to others. There’s a clear thread running through every one of Mayowa’s moves: We’ll find a way to make it work. Nothing illustrates this more than his story of starting a program in Nigeria from scratch, which involves him recruiting players on his morning runs through town and ends with shipping containers of donated goods under the Rush Soccer banner.

Where most of us would’ve second-guessed ourselves or considered sitting this one out, Mayowa never stopped pushing forward. He coached high school teams when he was the same age as most of his players. While attending college he coached two club teams. He moved to Miami for the warm weather and opportunity to play soccer 365 days a year and started a new league model in South Florida. He went home to Northern Virginia for holiday break to help his sister, and inevitably her club, grow in the game.

Mayowa is a glass-half-full kind of guy, but what he gives will make your cup spill over. In this interview, he shares his journey of finding the right climate, his optimism toward challenges, and how he uses soccer to influence healthy lifestyles and strong communities.

You come from a family of athletes.

MO: My mother was a volleyball player, but my dad was not an athlete in that sense. He’s a businessman. When he was 16, he already owned a bank in Nigeria. My parents, older brother, and sister moved from Nigeria to the United States before I was born. My sister ran track. My brother still plays soccer in adult league pick-up games. I was the baby of the family for about 14 years until my little sister was born. She is a soccer player through and through.

When did you start kicking a ball around?

MO: I grew up in Northern Virginia just south of Washington, D.C. I’ve had a soccer ball at my feet for as long as I can remember. I kicked the ball around with my brother and started playing organized recreational soccer in the first grade, back in the good days where you got put on a neighborhood team and trained at a school or a park field close to your house. We had our parents as coaches. I was on a team with my best friends from school. It was a great growing experience, and we had a really good club, Prince William Soccer . They had it all done and dusted. I was a forward growing up. As I got older and played collegiate soccer, I started as a center back.

When did you realize that you wanted soccer to be your career?

MO: I fully got into coaching during my freshman year of college. I was a high school varsity coach at 18, so I had players who were my age. I was also coaching two club teams in Norfolk so I had a good vision that this is what I wanted to do. I went to Old Dominion University and changed my degree and concentration from finance to sports management with a business management minor. Through the sports management department, we had to do multiple internships, and being a college community, I was plugged into the local soccer club where a lot of my professors were members. By my senior year, they saw me in a professional setting already.

Anyone stand out as a mentor to you?

MO: I have two people who were big influences on me. Ken Krieger was the director of Prince William Soccer. He was a guy I looked up to as the model coach and director. After college, he gave me my second full-time job. And then Dave Scruggs was a director at the local club that I worked at in Norfolk. He allowed me as a sophomore in college to take a leadership role in the club, and as a junior, I was a full-time employee with Norfolk United Soccer. I could say he propelled me into the coaching profession.

THE RUSH OF A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE

Tell us about visiting Nigeria for the first time.

MO: The first time I went was for three weeks when I was 19 or 20 years old. It was an experience I’ll never forget, seeing family I never met before, and the sense of community from the neighborhood where I was living. It was so inclusive and I gravitated to that. Soccer was everywhere. I would hop off the plane and there was soccer being played in the airport, outside the airport, and through my entire trip from the airport. I would just see fields and jersey vendors on the street. But as I had experience playing, and now coaching, I could see a lot was lacking. I wanted to help that situation, improve their conditions and experiences. That gave me the motivation to go back.

You knew you wanted to help improve the game, but where did you start?

MO: While I was planning my return to Nigeria, I was able to create a partnership through Rush Soccer . They donated tons of soccer equipment and products, and I managed to get a full shipping container to get it over there. I was able to kick off a full-blown soccer club, Nigeria Rush .

How did you get kids involved?

MO: On my daily run, I would just run through soccer fields, see kids and tell them to meet me at this field at five o’clock on Wednesday and Friday, and before I knew it, kids were taking taxis and finding ways to get to the field. I was running a true soccer practice with real soccer equipment. Kids would come the first day, and then bring three more the next day, and it continued to grow. At that point, I was able to work with an elementary school to use their facilities full-time and provide them with goal nets. The kids would help me organize the field, shovel, and move dirt to make flat surfaces. A lot of in-the-weeds work and it was always refreshing because I’m doing it myself but I’d always have kids there wanting to help.

When I was there the first time, we were at about 70 kids, U6 and older. We had a U8, U10, U13, and U16 team, and then we had other adults playing at a senior level.

Did you pick up any volunteer help?

MO: No, I did it all myself.

Were there any neighborhoods near you that had something similar that you could play against?

MO: I met a guy named Atari, who had a senior team and a youth team. He helped me organize games and get friendly matches. After a while, he started working with the Nigeria Rush group and became a monumental piece in maintaining it when I had to come back to the United States. Skip ahead probably two years. I was now living in Miami, had more equipment shipped, and went back to Nigeria. I got off the plane, drove straight into the city of Ibadan where I was introduced to Sunday Akinwumi, a younger coach who was ready to get after it. He currently runs the Academy, manages the programs, and keeps me up to speed daily. He’s been an integral piece of our development over the last three years.

How do you stay connected while living in Miami?

MO: I see everything. I know when every game happens. I know when the kids have to arrive at the bus for pick up and the schedule that they’re operating on. There was a point where I had to silence the group chat because the time difference had my phone going crazy at 3:00 in the morning, but I’m fully on top of it as I go through the day.

What is your official title now with Nigeria Rush?

MO: I’m the president and acting executive director. I still work to get donations and find sponsors. I am not boots on the ground, I am 3,000 miles above and if there are needs, I look at the best way to sort those things out. A funny piece is, I got an email yesterday from Matt Mittelstaedt , the regional manager from Rush National, and the technical director of Virginia Rush telling me that Nigeria Rush just became their sister club. So all of their donations and all of their assets as part of their R.E.A.C.H. program are now part of the Nigeria Rush program. That’s going to be beneficial to continue a good flow of equipment and gear to that community.

You said 3,000 miles above, but you’re also 3,000 miles away. What are some unique challenges that presents?

MO: I’m a glass-half-full guy. I don’t see many challenges. I see difficult situations and sometimes requests that I can’t always accommodate. The word I always use is patience. Let’s continue to work to the best of our abilities with the resources we have, be patient and things will work out. I put the right people into place, because I know I can’t be hands-on with everything, but I can supervise, mentor, and assist. I try to be available at all times, but time does stretch us and pull us in different ways. The benefit is having the right people in place who can manage, make decisions, know the environment, and can come to me for guidance.

Did you give yourself a timetable to make Nigeria Rush work?

MO: Yes, the largest timetable possible because the Nigeria project is a lifer. I’m in it for life. I want to be able to have a reason to go see my family, always have an impact in that community, and learn, adapt and gain from the experiences. I’ve been blessed to see so many different wakes of what soccer has done, and it’s different everywhere. It’s different in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. in comparison to Miami. It’s different in Southern California, it’s different in New England. I’ve been everywhere, and I can tell you some states are behind a couple of years, and now I can tell you some continents and countries are behind a couple of years.

But forward-thinking, if I continue to put these operations on, I think they’ll all close the gap and catch up to the kind of organization and level of competition I know it can be. I had expectations of being able to go back once a year. I’ve proven that can’t happen based on scheduling or COVID, but the idea is still, how can I have an impact on a community and create opportunities for players that they may not have otherwise? That is either giving them quality competition in Nigeria or getting them access to opportunities in the United States or Europe, Asia, and different continents.

Have you shepherded any kids in that direction?

MO: I have not moved any kids yet. I’ve had the conversation with the coach and director, but we have not gotten to that point. We are moving kids around Nigeria and getting them popped into different academies or semi-professional teams there. We’ve had one player progress to the U17 national team, and he was the Golden Boot winner of the Afghan U-17 championship, so that was a very high moment for our organization.

MAKING MORE MOVES

When did you make the move to Miami?

MO: I came back from Nigeria and recognized the weather conditions in Virginia no longer fit me. I have a buddy in Miami who, on a one-day layover there, told me I should make the move. All I needed was a walk from his apartment to the beach. I moved at the end of that summer and got a coaching job at Kendall Academy. A couple of sessions into Kendall, I got an offer to run a facility and a soccer program. Through that, I got involved with Miami Fusion , an NPSL club that competed against Miami United, also an NPSL club. Again, I wanted to see how I could help improve the youth game in that geography, and so went down the path of developing my own youth club.

And that became the International Elite Program (IEP) ?

MO: In 2016, my idea was, how can I pair what I’m doing in my head and on the ground together? I brought in the right people who I could put in a role and have them make decisions and run the club, while I oversee different aspects of it. I’m becoming a soccer business person, I am no longer just a soccer coach. And there was a real recognition of that because there is a split there.

I started IEP as a soccer club that turned into a program of a soccer league. This was a piece that I recognized the community also needed, a league where directors could all be in one location. A league that I’m familiar with in Virginia was the model. I’m bringing a model that I’ve experienced down to South Florida and hoping that once again, we can change and improve the culture. So that now becomes a league, the soccer club is playing within this league, and we have other really good clubs involved in the league as well. Now the league is operating, the club is operating, and Mayowa is looking for a new challenge. And this takes me to Los Angeles for five months.

Did you choose Los Angeles like you did Miami, or did Los Angeles choose you?

MO: I wanted to continue to get exposure in different environments, and I know I need warm climates, so Los Angeles seemed doable. I applied for a job and was hired as a girls’ academy coach. I get there and I realize Los Angeles is chilly in the evening. I recognize those coasts are different in more ways than the weather. I am a Miami guy, maybe not so much a Southern California guy. I take on a coaching job back in Miami at Johnson and Wales University. I was able to really pop into that world, get a good understanding and create a network there. At this point, my little sister is a sophomore in high school and I’m having daily conversations with her about her soccer experience.

Why do I feel like another Mayowa move is coming?

MO: I went home to Virginia for the holidays just as the college season ended, and I get a big request from my sister, “Can you stay home and help me with this process?” Nothing’s more important than family, and so I call my head coach at the academy, apologize and say I’m going to stay in Virginia and help my sister through a process at Fredericksburg FC. I show up to her practices and the executive director and the technical director start asking questions after they see me for two weeks in a row. At this time, the United States is going through a big hold on visas, and a lot of soccer clubs were using elite UK international coaches coming in on temporary visas. Fredericksburg FC had a technical director and three full-time staff members who were all on visas and none of them were renewed. The executive director calls me two days before Christmas, and says, “I’m in a very big pinch. I lost my full-time staff. I have one guy in England, I have a guy in Costa Rica, and another guy in Mexico who can’t get back. Are you willing to join the staff?”

Now, out of nowhere, I turn into the technical director of the club. It’s one of those times where you make a decision that you think your heart needs to and things pan out. But I always knew in the back of my head that it was short-term because she’s going to progress, and I was always coming back to my life in Miami.

Wherever you go, you seem to just figure things out.

MO: I’ve been fortunate to build good relationships with a lot of people in this industry, and it seems there’s always somebody who knows somebody who knows me. I was in Fredericksburg for two years, and was ready to get back to Miami when the next opportunity shows itself with the Club Champions League (CCL) as the communication and administration director.

Is that how you know fellow GOALS interviewee, Steve Danbusky ?

MO: Steve was the acting president of CCL, and I was a board member. When I joined to manage the day-to-day options with the executive director, we worked together daily. I first met Steve my freshman year of college, I think he was the technical director of Beach FC back then, and now he’s the executive director. I’ll always remember his trick shot from the goal box to the half-field trash can outside the boot. He drains that shot. I don’t know how he does it. Steve’s been a soccer professional his entire career, and I’m fortunate that people like him and people like Ken Krieger have been able to create these pathways. Those are the people that we need in the game.

IEP is still fully functional, and through the new job with the CCL, the league that we were able to create in Miami now becomes a Conference of Club Champions League, CCL Florida. I then go through a club merger with the NPSL organization, Miami United. That brings us to where Miami United is now with our youth club. I am the acting executive director for Miami United FC Youth Academy which doesn’t have any technical or coaching responsibilities. I handle the business operations and allow my coaches and technical staff to be 100% full professionals on the field.

BUILDING A PROFESSIONAL YOUTH PROGRAM

How do you feel about not coaching these days?

MO: It’s different. I don’t know if it was my first choice to focus on the business side of soccer but it allowed me to mentor younger coaches, and turn them into directors so now they see a different aspect of the game. They manage rosters, player pools, and organize training. Being able to grow directors in the game, and to make sure they are continuing to have an impact is a big part of what I wanted to do.

It’s clear you believe in hiring good people and getting out of their way. What do you look for when hiring a coach or other staff member?

MO: Someone who understands the industry we are in. Someone who is dedicated, hard-working, understands long hours, understands investing in other people, and understands working with a lot of different types of people. My current boss, Brian Cook, told me you hire people who have the drive and that entrepreneurial mindset. People who can put a lot on their shoulders because they want to accomplish a lot. Independent thinkers who can get the job done. I’ve played that fine line of hiring people that I have a really good relationship and experience with, and put them in roles where I can trust them, and then also bring in new people who we can educate, mentor, and bring out the best in. Young coaches who are hungry, motivated, and want to learn, but also someone that the other directors have a lot of comfort with mentoring as well. It now becomes a trickle-down mentoring program where I’m leading one young director and he’s leading the new young coach and everybody’s continually growing. You build that type of culture and then our philosophies will be long-lasting. That’s been the hiring process here for Miami United.

What are some of those club philosophies?

MO: We want to develop strong players and have no holdbacks, so we offer this to every single player who wants it. Whether you can afford it or not, we’ll find a way to make it work. We approach every demographic, every community. We are extremely inclusive in what we do and we are massively transparent in sharing our operational goals and our philosophy for each player. We use the game of soccer to influence healthy lifestyles, strong mental health, and while we hope that we can develop the best soccer player, our overall goal is to continue to create model citizens for our community.

How many people do you have on staff, and how many kids in the program?

MO: At Miami United, we have a staff of five. Three full-time directors and two part-time coaches. We currently do not have volunteers. That’s something we will get to, but as I’ve wanted to grow this house, we want it to be a 100% professional staff. We currently have 150 players in the program.

What are you mentoring young coaches on the most?

MO: Based on my experience, becoming a leader in this industry really has to do with being open-minded and able to take in and understand other perspectives. So, a big piece I tell anybody is to learn as much as you can from others, but at the same time, develop your own coaching philosophy, player models, ideas, and build upon what your true beliefs are. Because at the end of the day, as a coach and as a director, as a league or club owner, your club, your coaching sessions, your teams, are going to play the way you develop that model. Every club may have a different perspective based on demographics, number of players, or level of players, but you as a leader should have a true pathway of what you want to accomplish, but never be closed-minded that you can’t adjust or adapt when needed.

And create a network, a support system. Collaborating with other directors and professionals has propelled me to where I am today, just because a lot of experiences that I have not lived, I have experienced through others. Take that information fully in and understand this is a growth opportunity.

ULTIMATE TRANSPARENCY WITH PARENTS

What are your thoughts on player development?

MO: Player development starts from us as coaches and leaders, and staying true to what we want to develop. I’m a big believer in growing our player pool the way we want to. Creating a fun environment at the start of their youth career, which makes a player fall in love with the soccer ball. At the youngest ages, I’ve pushed that into our club philosophy. We want players dribbling the ball a lot. We want players to be comfortable taking on defenders one-v-one, being creative on the soccer ball. And as they grow, then we start to layer in those specific team or small group relations to the game.

We want excellent, proficient players and build them into a complete team. The first paramount aspect is creating the brilliant individual soccer player. As you get older there are different aspects of the game. You always hear clubs say they don’t want to emphasize winning at the younger age groups. I think that’s a big piece and being able to do that comes with a lot of education to parents.

How do you educate parents and players on your player development approach, and instill that patience is often required?

MO: It’s a lot of transparency. We use the PlayMetrics system , so we can put our training sessions up and allow parents to see them. They can see our coaching points and what our focus is going to be in the session. We’re able to give monthly reviews and assessments through the feedback and evaluation platform, and then we take in evals to make sure we are giving our members the programming and the product that they want. We want people to truly buy into our club and feel comfortable seeing what we’re doing. We put on open coaching education, and we invite parents to come and sit right on the sideline to understand how we’re educating our coaches to educate their children. Being that transparent and open gives members an understanding that this is school and players have to learn one thing before we can expect them to just know the top end.

After a recent coaching education, parents came to the staff and said, “We understand what you’re doing now, and we see it in the game. As teachers, you guys are finding success to encourage the youngest players to dribble and take players on to create that confidence and love in the game. And we now understand that is why you are telling them to do that in the game when maybe we’re on the sideline screaming something different.” That’s the buy-in that they had to understand. It’s truly having your player development model developed and accessible for people to see to have a better understanding of year one to year five.

Do you think you would have been so open with parents and education years ago?

MO: I would not have. I think at times there is a closed book mentality on the technical side from parents. So you have to go against the grain sometimes and say we will be as transparent as possible and hope they fully enjoy the process. And it is a process. If you understand that as a parent, as a member, you will find a lot of comfort in the soccer school, the soccer club you are joining. Just as the school you choose for your child to attend, we are building our curriculum and our player development model based on the appropriate psychology of what an athlete is in the system and their growth platforms.

How have parent expectations changed in your experience, and how different is it in the States compared to Nigeria?

MO: The expectations and demands have massively changed over the last 10 years. Sometimes you can say the expectations are not realistic, and I think a lot of people understand that it’s a difficult piece of what players want and expect, what parents want and expect, and then what the coach wants and expects. In Nigeria, we don’t see parents. Kids figure out their own way to get to the fields and go home. It’s a whole different experience where I’m watching that culture and parents are figuring out ways to work and manage their life, and kids are finding transportation to school, to activities, and some are working at very young ages. You get into different communities in Miami, for example, and there are a lot more pro-aspirations than collegiate aspirations. That’s even different from what I’ve seen in Virginia where the collegiate pathway is what more players aspire to.

REFLECTING ON THE PAST, FOCUSED ON THE FUTURE

There’s more technology in youth sports these days. What are some game changers?

MO: There is tracking and GPS that goes on players to show work rate, mileage covered, and a lot of unique things that I never envisioned. We are at a youth level and have access to different video recordings and live streaming, so that became a massive platform. Even applications that keep updates and real-time scores for games. There have been a lot more technological advancements in the game that keep people fully involved without being there. It’s more accessible to the busy person. You’re able to assess data, evaluate data, watch film and assess the players’ performance. You can use all of this technology to identify points of success and points to work on, but also being able to bring it back to the players in real-time is unique in itself.

Is there too much technology?

MO: I think there’s too much data for them [players] to always want data-driven results versus wanting hard work to be paramount. The data might tell them they performed well, but then I would ask, what about these other outside things that you have to do that this data is not showing you? I need you checking over your shoulders. I need you to be explosive here, maybe not there. So, yes, I see that aspect taken a bit away. I’d love to let players understand the raw competition and some of the environments we were put into, which challenged us but made us stronger at the end of it. I want to go back 20 years where you would show up, work your butt off, play, or understand why you’re not playing. I remember back in my day if coach didn’t play me, I knew exactly what happened, and I came to training the next day, worked harder, and I made sure he had a reason to play me. Maybe that was my upbringing. My mom or dad would never speak to a coach unless they were giving a reason why Mayowa can’t make it to a game or practice. We depended on ourselves as players at a young age.

What do you think Miami United FC Youth does really well?

MO: I think we are doing what’s good for the game and looking to change a regional culture. We are looking at professionalizing by making soccer all-inclusive. So when you sign up, you know exactly what you’re getting. It’s streamlined, families can plan, this isn’t off-the-cuff schedule changes, which we still see very often. We have been extremely transparent, so members buy into what we’re pushing, and we do have a full soccer motive. We are all professionals in this realm, and our biggest ideology is we are building soccer players. We are building a community. We are building the model citizen. My staff has only lived in the soccer world. So when we all get together we speak soccer, even when we should not be speaking soccer, because that is our life experiences. We want to be able to build that with our players, with our community. I think we are a group that has looked to collaborate with more clubs because we understand the power of numbers and the power of that impact. I think that sets us apart.

Do you see an uptick in mergers and partnerships with youth soccer clubs in the Miami area?

MO: We see a lot of mini clubs continuing to pop up. That is, in my eyes, going the opposite direction because now we’re thinning player pools, we’re not utilizing resources together, and we’re all fighting for a piece of the turf. I think that is what’s separating us, because we are willing and able to work with groups, to manage mergers. In the last six months, we’ve put together two mergers with youth clubs and we plan on announcing a few more. That benefits the players, pulls the resources of the coaching staff, and it enhances our approach.

Putting that model out there makes it known that we are in a very small mileage area and can all work together. For example, Kendall Soccer Park is a six-field turf facility, 15-20 different clubs train there, and every club is pushing and doing something different. And what each club is selling is, “We do this different or better than our neighbor. Why don’t you jump over here?” The only thing that’s getting affected is overall player development because a player went from learning something here to learning something new there, and now he or she hasn’t had any real consistency.

So you think more mergers make good business sense?

MO: I think that’s the reality. We should be utilizing the resources. We all have field fees so why don’t we share this one field and not spend as much and be able to reinvest some of that money into coaching education, or buying appropriate equipment? How do we use everything that we’re all fighting for to effectively put out a better program?

What excites you most about the future of Miami United FC Youth?

MO: The most exciting piece is the recognition we’ve gained from working together and offering coaching education opportunities to all of the clubs in the community. Clubs say they want more of it, and we’re looking to become pioneers in bringing the groups together. And then just the energy from our membership. We’ve grown a lot but we have not marketed ourselves. We’ve had a lot of word of mouth bring attraction to our group and it’s because families are truly supporting what we are pushing out. Once you have that type of support, you see the sky as the limit and you want to continue to do the right things and progress.

What, if anything, keeps you up at night?

MO: Managing the differences between Nigeria, Miami, Mid-Atlantic, New England, Georgia. Managing that is what keeps me up at night. I see challenges as opportunities, and I tell my staff that all the time. We have zero challenges. We have opportunities to fix the situation and to adjust our game plan. If it’s difficult, how do we get past that? Are we not promoting and marketing what everybody else is? Are we going to lose members because you’re getting told at the U9 age group, “We just won four tournaments and this is where you need to play to be at the best team.” Understanding why we don’t all want to work together under this US Soccer umbrella is what keeps me up.

What do you wish a younger Mayowa knew?

MO: Don’t be offended when others have different opinions or perspectives, and fully understand that is the world we live in. Stay on “our” path. What we’re doing is thought out, it’s planned. There’s some science behind it, there’s some data behind it and just do the job. I think we’re in a world that’s ever-changing, but there are a lot of industries that are number driven and straight to the point. There’s no change in what a mortgage process is, there’s no change in what a bank process is, they’re just streamlining daily. I think we are different. But if you still have the target at the end of the road, then you just stay true to what your philosophy is.

Thanks for a great conversation, Mayowa. To close, I’m going to throw out a list of things and I want you to give a one-word reaction. Ready?

US Soccer

MO: Hopeful.

Development Academy

MO: Appropriate.

Player Development

MO: Essential.

Esports

MO: Enjoyment.

TikTok

DR: Disaster.

Parent emails at 11:00 p.m.

DR: Expected.

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GOALS: Interview with Aidan Byrne

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Sat, 07 May 2022 14:23:25 GMT

When you start a conversation with Aidan Byrne, you might think you’re talking to just another trainer-slash-coach-slash-former-star-athlete. You’d be right. But you’d also be very wrong.

You see, Aidan checks all the boxes. But when you really get into it with him, you realize he thinks and operates outside of one. Aidan was never going to settle anywhere he didn’t feel challenged. His competitive nature, friends, and passion moved him multiple times, and he accumulated an impressive training and coaching portfolio. But no matter where he was, his heart was always in the right place.

As the MLS Next Coach and Director of Sports Performance with the Boston Bolts , he brings more than Xs and Os to training sessions. Sure, he easily digs into the science of how and when young soccer players should train. But he doesn’t stop at what’s best for the body. He trains the heart and mind with the same care and focus. Aidan’s work is measured in more than numbers today or stats this season. It’s about building healthy habits that will last young players a lifetime. To support his mission, he launched Total Athletic Development (TAD) as a way to reach more people with a fresh perspective on performance training in youth soccer.

In this interview, Aidan talks more in-depth about moving from Ireland, not getting a degree in physical education, connecting the dots between coaches and trainers, dropping Randy Moss for Tom Brady, and his deep belief that more isn’t always better.

When did you know soccer was the game for you?

AB: My clearest first memory of football, or soccer as it’s called here, is probably the ’83 FA Cup Final with Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion. I remember for Christmas, my parents bought me a Manchester United shirt, and neither of my parents were Manchester United fans. My dad played football and was pretty good at it. He played at a very high level but didn’t force it on me. When he watched it on a Saturday and Sunday, I watched it with him. And the more I watched, the more I fell in love with it. It also helped at the time that Manchester United had several Irish players on the team.

What brought you to the United States?

AB: I was in college studying to be an engineer when I got the opportunity to come over here and attend Mount Ida College, a junior college in Newton, Massachusetts. I really didn’t know anything about school here, I just came to play soccer. I wanted to be a physical education teacher so I thought I’d play football, get a degree in PE, and be back home in two years. But then, the University of Rhode Island (URI) asked me to stay. I met my wife at URI, and the rest is history. After graduation, we started back up to Massachusetts to find work. I knew I wanted to coach soccer, but I didn’t know if I wanted it to be my full-time job. I never became a PE teacher.

Why not?

AB: To be honest, at that point in my life, I knew I wanted a family one day and didn’t know if I could be corralling kids in a gymnasium all day and then have energy for my own kids when I got home. The more classes I took on the fitness side, the more I enjoyed it, so I just found my way into the fitness side of physical education and performance.

What was the first job you landed?

AB: I originally got a job in a large corporate fitness center, opening, closing, learning the trade, for want of a better phrase. I had a couple of really good mentors there. After about two and a half years, I went out on my own and set up a business in a physical therapist’s office for about 10 years doing personal and performance training for all different age groups. I was also coaching on the side and started at MIT as an assistant coach.

How long were you at MIT?

AB: I was an assistant coach at MIT for only one year because the assistant coach’s position opened up at my alma mater, Mount Ida, and I had the good fortune to go back and work with the gentleman who coached me, Steve Darcy. He was my mentor. He taught me so much about the game and coaching. I was there for about nine years. I moved on because Mount Ida became a Division III school, and being young and very competitive, I wanted to move to a higher level.

FRIENDS IN MANY PLACES

So where did young, competitive Aidan go next?

AB: A friend of mine from URI became the head coach at Siena College, so I followed him there as an assistant for a couple of years, driving back and forth from Massachusetts to Albany, NY. And then another friend of mine was the head coach at Northeastern University, much closer to home, so I took an assistant coaching job there in 2012. In 2014, I returned to MIT, but this time as head coach for one year. I wanted to be there longer, but through more networking and friends, I got an offer to be a performance coach for New York City Football Club in the MLS.

Your network of friends keeps moving you around.

AB: I was driving to New York regularly, but it was fun in the sense that I knew when I was leaving home at 5 o’clock in the morning, I was going to something that I had a passion for. And I was working with players like David Villa, Andrea Pirlo, and Frank Lampard. Eventually, I ended up working with Patrick Vieira, who was the coach my second year there. I loved the environment. It was so competitive. But it was a lot of travel, so when I got the offer to become Head of Performance with the New England Revolution under Jay Heaps , I came back to Massachusetts and spent a year with the Revolution. At the end of that year, unfortunately, Jay was let go, and then Brad Friedel came in. He brought his own staff so I was out. That’s when I got back into youth soccer with the Boston Bolts in 2018.

What are your official responsibilities at the Bolts?

AB: I’m the head USL League Two coach, head coach for the Under 19 MLS NEXT team, formerly known as the DA, as well as the Under 19 head coach for our ECNL group. And then I’m also the Director of Performance.

Tell us more about the club.

AB: The Bolts is a non-profit organization with about 1200 kids in the program. Our CEO is Brian Ainscough, who’s been around youth football for a long time. He grew up not too far from where I grew up, probably a 10-minute walk, and came over to the United States in a similar situation to me. The club was founded in 1986, and the CEO at the time was Johnny Kerr , who is now head coach at Duke. The club has really grown over the years. We’re the only other club in Massachusetts in the MLS NEXT besides the New England Revolution Academy.

How do you describe the differences between soccer in Europe and soccer in the United States?

AB: In Europe, it’s a way of life. It’s all people talk about. You pick a club, and you go along with it. It’s such a huge part of what goes on. Whereas over here, a lot of people love the game, but it’s not a way of life. I think it’s because there are so many other things. There’s football, baseball, basketball. I’m a fan of American football. I love it.

Patriots fan?

AB: Yes. I was originally a Minnesota fan when I first came here because I loved Randy Moss. I just thought he was an incredible athlete. Not the best role model in the world, but he just was this incredible athlete who could jump out of the air. But as time went on and I got to know more about the game and the Patriots games were on, I became a fan.

PERFORMANCE. SPECIALIZED.

What’s the difference between a trainer and a performance specialist?

AB: If you’re looking at a one-on-one soccer trainer, it’s probably somebody who is a coach, teaching kids how to trap the ball, kick the ball, play a pass 20, 30 yards. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but I just don’t see the point in it. Why can’t the kid just go out into their backyard and do that? Now, if you do that collectively in a group of five or six kids, now you’re talking about something that might be worth it. Because they have to communicate with each other to play a pass, decide when to play a pass, and then execute that pass.

When it comes to a performance coach, I think a big difference is, it’s somebody who has to know that it’s not just an aerobic sport, but an intensity sport. A lot of trainers don’t realize that. They’ll make the kid run 2 miles in 12 minutes. Absolutely pointless when it comes to playing soccer. It’s so important to find the right person who knows the game, will ask the right questions of the player and the parents. For example, you come to see me on a Friday, but Friday is game day minus one. We really can’t overload the kid because there’s a game tomorrow, so we know to do a short 30-minute pre-activation session.

How do the roles of Coach and Director of Performance blend?

AB: They work together. I have an advantage, understanding the training and the loads that kids require. It’s something that I’m always cognizant of when training the kids. How much are we doing, and how will it affect the kids? I think the most important thing during the week is preparing for the game, especially the older ages, where winning becomes just a little bit more important. You can go through all of the technical and tactical stuff, but the reality is you want to make sure that when they get to the pitch on a Saturday morning for an 11 o’clock kick-off that they are fresh. That you haven’t exhausted them throughout the week, and they’re coming to you with only 70% in the tank.

Do you see a lot of coaches and clubs not getting that concept?

AB: Experienced and well-educated coaches will understand that, but not everybody who coaches youth soccer is at that level. I think there’s a tendency to think more is better, and it’s not always the case. Better is better. It’s as simple as that.

And I do see a tendency for parents and kids to push, push, push, and when you push like that, there are no gains once you go past a certain point. I’ll give you an example. You have a game on Saturday morning, and you’re training with your club Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but you’re out training with a different trainer or a different group of kids on a Friday night between 9:00 and 10:30. How do you think you’re going to play on a Saturday morning when the college coach is coming to watch you? It just doesn’t work. I see this a lot where parents think if they pay for the trainer, it’ll help them, but it doesn’t always work. The reality is, you might be hurting their development.

“Better is better.” Was that always your philosophy?

AB: I took a course back in 2012 with a guy by the name of Raymond Verheijen , a Dutch football coach, but I want to say he is a football philosopher. Controversial in many respects. I listened to what he had to say and how he went about his mindset to the game, and his tagline was, “Players deserve better.” He had this methodology where everything was step by step, and that opened my eyes to the idea that we don’t need to work more, we just need to work smarter. I probably read the line, “Don’t work harder, more is not always better, better is better.” I probably read that, and it just stuck with me. Yes, we need to work hard with intensity, but it doesn’t need to be seven days a week. Recovery is essential.

What else is involved in performance training?

AB: I think the majority of clubs go out with the mindset to be very good at the technical, tactical part of it, the Xs and 0s. But they don’t understand what else it takes. What does recovery look like? Are we giving proper information about nutrition? Is it getting to the parents? What does our training periodization look like? Are we doing what’s appropriate for the kids? Do we talk to the kids about their high-performance mindset? Do we talk to them about what their body language looks like when they come to practice? Are they there for social reasons, or are they there to get better?

In my experience and from talking to others, I don’t think we do a good enough job touching on all the other parts of performance besides the Xs and 0s. It’s critical, and I spent a lot of time studying this. I’ve traveled around Europe, talked to different performance coaches, taken courses, and when I talk to coaches and directors of other clubs, there’s just not enough being done to educate. And it’s not just about educating the kids, it’s educating the parents. We all could do a better job. The ultimate part of it is creating better habits for kids so that eventually, once youth soccer is over, you hope that that will carry on those habits throughout life.

How do you set clear goals for young players to support that?

AB: I always ask, “Do you want to have a better athlete, or do you want to have a better soccer player?” We want better soccer players because, ultimately, that’s what the goal is. So I do think that there is a tendency for trainers and even coaches to think it’s a really good session if the kids are exhausted by the end of it. The goal is to improve, and when it comes to performance, you can do a lot in little spurts where you’re not fatigued, but there’s an accumulation of the work over a longer period. The goal during the week should be to have the highest intensity during your soccer training sessions because that’s what you want to get better at. You don’t want to get better at doing lunges, squats, or push-ups.

TOTAL ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT

In addition to your work with the Boston Bolts, you started Total Athletic Development (TAD) , where you share expertise on performance training with youth players and their families.

AB: I came up with this concept about a year and a half ago. As the Performance Director at the Bolts, I was only working with a handful of teams, and I thought, how do I get to everybody else without literally, physically, being there? I came up with putting the information together every week and sending it out in a newsletter. The more families we can help to make better decisions, the better-off the sport, and the kids, will be.

What are the benefits players and families might experience with TAD?

AB: Through TAD, we provide a comprehensive approach to educating kids and their parents not just on performance training, but overall health and well-being. The information we share is specifically curated with the kids’ best interests at heart. It’s not just about physically preparing for this week’s game. It’s about practical ways to address the nutritional needs of a young athlete. It’s about getting them into sensible sleep habits. It’s about developing a healthy, high-performance mindset. Our mission is to give players and families specifics they can choose to implement in their lives for the long-term, not just a few hours before or after practice.

And, what we share can help kids regardless of whether they play a sport or not. We all want our kids to eat healthier, get good sleep, create good habits, and fulfill their potential. All that comes down to the philosophy and practices we preach. This is an opportunity for parents and kids to read the same information through different platforms and discuss them on the way to practice, on the way home from a game, or at the dinner table. It’s an opportunity to have real conversations about important health topics. Clubs can facilitate this by giving families the ability to have this information at their fingertips on a weekly basis.

Any club can tap into TAD?

AB: Yes. If a club is interested in offering a greater sense of care and well-being for their players and families, they can visit our site and simply contact us to learn more about what we can do to benefit the club and their members. I feel there is a huge opportunity for clubs to show their members that they not only care about what happens on the pitch, but that they truly care about each individual and want to help them improve who they are as a person as well as a soccer player.

How do you measure the success of what performance training does for the Bolts?

AB: That’s the hard part. As I said, we have 1200 kids. As much as I want to, I can’t get to everyone. Since TAD launched with the Bolts, it’s topics of conversation we have with the kids. “Hey, did you read the post this week? What did you think of the exercises? Did you listen to the interview with Coach D’Agostino from Boston College?” We’re really happy with the level of interest, and again, from the players that I deal with as part of MLS NEXT and ECNL, we’ve had some really good conversations about protein intake, sleep, hydration, all those necessary things.

I don’t know if it’s something that we can put a number on per se. The reason why I like coaching youth soccer is I’d like to see, every so often, maybe one or two kids make it into the national team from our region in the Northeast. If we can do that consistently, it’s not necessarily because of the information that we’ve given them, but we must be doing something right.

For parents who get personal training for their kids, how do they know if their investment is worth it?

AB: Here’s a couple of things that I always say. If your kid is playing football 12 months of the year, that’s a problem. They need to have time away from it. Not just physically, but psychologically they need time away from it. If your kid isn’t asking to go see a trainer so he or she can work on technical and tactical stuff, then maybe it doesn’t need to be done. And again, if you’re looking at a situation where a kid is going off with someone who isn’t a performance coach, how much are they learning in an individual environment? Because it’s a team sport. Soccer is the repetition of communication, decision making, execution of the decision, and doing all of that at a high tempo for 90 minutes. So if you’re seeing a trainer, not necessarily a performance coach, and you spend a lot of time with him or her, and you don’t see improvements on the field, there’s something wrong with that. Because in a one-on-one situation, you’re not teaching the communication and decision making. There’s no template to it. So it’s always better to be in environments where there are other players around.

What role does technology play in performance training?

AB: You can have all the gadgets. Some of them are great, and some of them help, but what use are all these add-ons if we don’t have the foundations, correct? It’s like building a really beautiful house. If the foundation isn’t there, what point is it? So what if you measure how far a kid runs in a training session on a Thursday? If you do that three or four weeks in a row and you see the numbers are similar, are you not going to play the kid on Saturday because you think he’s run too much? What have you got that to compare to? You don’t know his rate of recovery. You don’t know his mindset. Maybe he can push through like nobody. Maybe he just has that ability.

Most youth clubs these days, except for the MLS NEXT that has sports science along with the clubs, don’t have enough staff to be mindful of all the things that shouldn’t be done. That goes back to the reason why I started the TAD newsletter. Kids don’t go out and play anymore. They don’t run, they don’t jump, they don’t climb trees, they don’t play freely. Everything is so organized. If we don’t teach the fundamentals of movement at an early age, the chances of injury once you start increasing loads go up. I see a lot of kids who have dysfunctional movement patterns. How is somebody in a youth club going to fix that unless they know exactly what they’re looking for?

What do you think is the number one cause of injury in youth soccer?

AB: Whether it’s because you’ve overtrained, or you haven’t had enough sleep, the number one cause is fatigue. We have seen over the last 20, 30 years, such a rise in ACL injuries, and in soccer specifically, hamstring injuries. I think 12% of all injuries are hamstring strains. And the majority of kids, or players, who come back from that either rush back or don’t do enough rehab work. The re-injury rate is anywhere between 12 and 33%. So again, that’s more of an educational thing. It’s teaching somebody to sit out eight weeks, and not come back in the first game and play 90 minutes.

Now, a coach may not know that. It might be his best player, and they want him back for the championship game. Not because he wants to hurt him, but because he knows he’s his best player. It’s ludicrous to put a kid back in like that straight away without some kind of ramping up to that level.

How do you address the different goals of your different audiences – the player, the parent, the coach?

AB: Education is key for parents and young players. Try and get an experienced source. That doesn’t have to be me, but somebody who you trust, somebody who has the kid’s best interest at heart. That was one of the reasons I started TAD. We’ll go back to the hamstring strain example. If a kid pulls his hamstring and he’s out eight weeks, we want the parents to be educated enough to know what protocols to discuss with the coach on coming back to training and games. That’s a conversation that should happen between player, parent, and coach. And then, the player and parent should be comfortable with what that looks like.

Who do you think has the ultimate responsibility for knowing what’s best for the young athlete when it comes to returning to play, performance training, etc.?

AB: I don’t think you can say one particular person because if you look at it from just a kid and parent perspective, the parent wants what’s best for the kid. But if you don’t know about this stuff, how do you know the right questions to ask? That’s one. Two, you may have a coach who played soccer at a significant level and has a USSF license, and knows about the game, but doesn’t necessarily know the physical side of it. Are you going to blame him for putting a player back in if he’s not educated on it? Or are you going to blame the club that thinks they’re getting a really good coach because he has a license? Sometimes those are the things that fall through the cracks, and ultimately the person who pays the price is the kid. And it’s nobody’s fault. The coach doesn’t want the kid to get hurt. He thinks he’s doing the right thing by putting the kid in, maybe helping the team win, which boosts team morale, and all the other things that come with winning.

Even if everybody’s on the same page, how do you sell the patience required from players, parents, and coaches?

AB: The old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” I think you can show examples of people who have done it right. Show them the Ronaldos, Ibrahimovics, the Lewandowskis, even the Tom Bradys. Again, I’ve done a lot of research on all these guys, and they take what they do very seriously. David Villa, Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo. They all make personal sacrifices. Ronaldo doesn’t drink alcohol. He doesn’t party a lot, he sleeps multiple hours a day. People don’t see that stuff. They only see the ritz and glitz. That’s not his life. His life is a routine, and it’s day after day after day, and he prepares all week for 90 minutes on a Saturday. It’s his full-time job to prepare for that game.

I’ve seen so many talented kids who didn’t make it not because they didn’t have enough time, but because they didn’t have the right attitude, they didn’t have good habits. And it frustrates me a little bit because we only get one chance at this.

Do you think performance training, both on the physical and knowledge base sides, will be a new revenue stream for youth soccer clubs?

AB: It could be. I just want to reach as many people as possible, so that at least they have the information. I don’t want to force it down anybody’s throat. The format of TAD is it’s some kind of article, some simple recipes that teenagers should be able to make. I’m not asking anybody to make beef Wellington or anything like that. There’s pre-activation mobility work, which everybody needs, and then there’s a short workout for the week. And then, we also have an interview with a college coach or a performance coach.

As devil’s advocate, why can’t players go on YouTube and watch videos on how to do some of these exercises?

AB: Well, one, do they know the right weight? Do they know the number of repetitions? Do they know when to do it? Are they training correctly if they’re loading an Olympic barbell with 45s? In the newsletter, there are bodyweight exercises, fundamental exercises. This is stuff that a 10-year-old kid can do and stuff that’s very valuable for an 18-year-old. So the only thing that changes would be the normal fitness, the frequency, intensity, time, and type. Yes, anybody can go online, and there are millions of YouTube experts and videos, and some of them are very good, but how do they relate to the game of soccer?

I can’t tell you how many kids have come to me over the years and said they were in the gym yesterday and hurt their back because they were squatting 225 pounds. And I’m like, “What are you doing? Who told you to do that?” Again, that’s part of the education. I know I keep coming back to this, but I think it’s so important that we help. If you want your kid to maximize their potential, try and do it as best you can.

Thanks for your time, Aidan. Let’s close with one-word reactions. I’ll throw a few things at you and I want you to respond in only one word.

US Soccer

AB: Up and coming.

That's three words.

AB: Rising!

Development Academy

AB: Needed.

Player Development

AB: Important.

Performance Training

AB: Essential.

Esports

AB: Crazy.

TikTok

AB: Wild.

Regional Showcases

AB: Overdone.

Get the “greatest hits” from all of the GOALS interviews. Download here.

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

Buyer's Guide to Modern Club Management Technology

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Sun, 01 May 2022 16:07:26 GMT

Evaluating technology for your youth soccer club can be a challenge. If you're using multiple tools to manage your club, you may not even know where to start. The good news is that modern club management technology allows you to do everything in one place. From member registration to financial tracking, it is possible to get more control over all of your club management processes than you ever thought possible. But with all the choices in youth soccer club management technology these days, finding the best platform for your needs requires a well-informed evaluation and buying process.

Knowing When To Shop for New Club Management Technology

You have the people and passion to run a great youth soccer club. But you also need great technology to run more efficient processes and deliver the best possible experience for your players and families. If your club uses multiple club management tools and hacks them together to try and make things work, you're not alone. (If you're not sure of all the software and systems your club is using, then it might be a good idea to start with an audit of the technology used across your club. )

A few signs you're ready to shop for new club management software include:

Club staff use different tools to perform similar tasks.
There is no single location or source of key data accessible by club administrators.
Important forms and paperwork are sent and collected as email attachments.
Coaches prepare for practices on their own using different tools and training materials.
Field planning is done on a whiteboard.
Player information is kept in physical file folders.
Teams use different methods to communicate with players and families.

Becoming a Savvy Technology Buyer

When ready to start looking at club management software, this buying guide is an excellent reference to help walk your club through a smarter evaluation and shopping process. It takes you through 13 key areas of club management, what to look for in technology to power them, and even how to question potential vendors to make the best decision for your club. For example:

What communication channels are included (e.g., email, text/SMS, push notifications, alerts, group chat, live game chat)?
Are player profiles updated when changes occur, such as a new team assignment, or does that have to be done manually?
Can I include a financial aid application option in the registration process?
Are automated alerts included for failed payments (e.g., alerts sent to parents and admins)?
Can I create my own form templates?
Does the system alert me if I have fields double booked or if I have one team on two different fields at the same time?
Does your curriculum builder allow directors to segment a season into weeks with corresponding objectives?
What level of customer support should I expect from your organization? Do you offer support to our member families?

Put Technology Vendors in the "Hot Seat"

The decision your youth soccer, or any youth sports club, makes into club management software and technology is a serious one, and any vendor should expect to be put to the test. By preparing yourself to challenge vendors with key questions and must-have components, you're putting your club into the best possible position to getting everything you want - and deserve - from club management technology.

Get the Buyer's Guide Now

We're unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

GOALS: Interview with Denise Rice

admin-duda@playmetrics.com (Justin Brehm) — Thu, 26 Dec 2019 14:56:38 GMT

“Look mom, it’s Joe Palumbo’s daughter.”

It’s not uncommon for Denise Rice to overhear the whisper on any ordinary outing. While she would never self-identify as such, some would say she is “soccer royalty” in her Putnam Valley, NY, community. Her father immigrated from Italy as a child and grew to fulfill his dream (and cement a legacy) by creating the Joe Palumbo Soccer Academy . If true, then she is royalty who put in the work. From an early age, Denise jumped in to help anywhere she could, from “schlepping” cones and balls to working the snack bar.

But don’t let the family ties fool you into thinking she walked right into a leading role at the Academy and its club organization, Just Play Soccer Club . Her goals were different.

After an injury ended her soccer career when she was a freshman in college, Denise found herself in a space a lot of us do in our late teen years; lost.

She left school to “figure it out,” realized she wanted to be in radio, enrolled in broadcasting school, and got a job at a local station. But she never disconnected from the club that helped raise her. She was a regular at the games and around the offices when she’d stop to have lunch with her dad.

It was only a matter of time.

Today, Denise is the registrar and marketing director, and a walking advertisement for everything Joe Palumbo Academy. Her effervescent personality and enthusiasm for the kids she serves is as genuine as it is boundless. And while “Palumbo” as it is affectionately called, is a smaller organization, they operate and run with the same care, business sense and approach as the big guys.

Denise Rice may be known around town as “Joe Palumbo’s daughter,” but make no mistake, she is making her own mark on youth soccer families. In this interview Denise talks tradition, how she keeps her radio chops sharp, what still surprises her in youth soccer, and more about the path that led her home.

Tell us the Joe Palumbo Soccer Academy origin story.

DR: My dad, Joe Palumbo, came to this country from Italy when he was 13 years old. Having this Academy was always his dream. At first, it was just camps and clinics. He studied to be a teacher and loves to teach the kids the game. He was never really into the big club status and system. He just wanted to grow the game and teach kids.

We’re a smaller club located in Putnam Valley, New York. The Academy has more than 1,000 players among all the programs throughout the year. Between part-time and full-time, we have about 15 staff members. All of our coaches are paid positions.

The Academy is open to everyone and you can sign up on a program-to-program basis. We also have the Just Play Soccer Club which is more of a commitment. You’re here two times a week every week and games on Saturdays and Sundays. The Just Play Soccer Club consists of upwards of 24 travel teams, about the same size as other clubs we compete against in the league. Regardless of whether it’s the Academy or Just Play Soccer Club, everyone refers to it as “Palumbo.”

How old were you when you started working in the family business?

DR: I was three or four when it all started so it’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It’s special to me now that I get to give back not only to my dad, his craft, and what he’s built, but also to our youth. It’s important to me that his legacy and what he believes in are still part of our day-to-day. Our staff must know his history, and our parents and players know the history. It gives everybody a sense of family and a sense of home.

I’ve been working at the camps and the Academy since I was 12. Probably too early to even work! I would help as an assistant with the youngest kids, schlep the cones and the balls. I’ve always had a big, bubbly, outgoing personality, so that was natural for me. I’m a lot like my dad. I also worked at the snack bar. When it’s family, you just jump in where you’re needed.

Surely you didn’t only schlep cones. How about your on-field experience?

DR: I played center midfield or outside midfield up until college. I went to Western Connecticut State University, but an injury during my freshman year put an end to my soccer career.

And now it’s you and your brother running the show?

DR: I became my mother and my brother, James, became my father. James is more into the soccer management side of things and what’s happening out on the field. I am involved in the administrative side. I take care of the behind-the-scenes. There’s so much that goes into the final product that I think people don’t realize. You have to have players rostered, you have to have players approved, background checks for our coaches, and on and on.

Tell us more about Denise’s story. You weren’t sitting around waiting for your parents to retire.

DR: It’s not like I always knew that I wanted to be a part of the Academy. I went to school for elementary education, and then when I got hurt, I left school altogether. I was a lost 18-year-old and went home to figure it out. That’s when I realized that I wanted to be on the radio, so I enrolled at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting. Even though I didn’t go on to be a radio broadcaster or work in television, I like that I can make it a part of my work now. I’ve done podcasts, and I also direct the media and the marketing part of the business. We’re making videos daily and doing interviews with the kids. It contributes to my day-to-day life.

Where on the timeline did you realize you were destined to work with your dad?

DR: I got a job working at a local radio station, mainly bringing coffee and doing other things in the background. And even though I wasn’t active in the business for some time, I was always interested in what was going on. I’d go to the games, come by the office and have lunch with my dad. It’s funny because now that my dad is retired he does the same with me. My path just led me back naturally.

How many clubs in your region do you compete with for members?

DR: About 15 to 20. There are clubs that are less expensive and don’t require as much of a commitment. You get to play with your friends from school. And then there are the more prestigious clubs for kids at a certain level who want or need more. We fall in the middle category. We’re serious, we value commitment and preach that, but we’re not drill sergeants.

What have you done to get that across in your messaging?

DR: We’re impacting kids. They grow up and some of them go on to play professionally and some of them don’t. But I think the biggest thing, which I say and my dad always says, is that we’re just as proud of the kids that they didn’t go on to be a professional or didn’t go on to play in college, but they studied law for seven years and they’re one of the best lawyers in their city. They’re good people.

So I think that’s more of what we try to show in our brand. Yes, we’re developing soccer players, but we’re also developing young people who, when they get to the real world and get a job and move on with their lives, they have good values and principles. Our motto is ‘skill, sportsmanship, and self-discipline.’ That applies to the game, but it also applies to life. You have to have discipline in your life to get up at 6:00 AM and go to the gym because you want to feel good and have a productive day. These values are things that they learn to be the best person they can be, not just be the best soccer player in the world.

What are some unexpected things you learned in running the business side of things?

DR: There’s so much that goes into preparing a coach, administrative-wise, for a game. It could be different in other clubs, but in ours, we do a lot of the heavy lifting because they have to be concerned about what’s happening out on the field. I do a lot of the work making sure that all of the players that you’re going to have at the game on Sunday can even step on the field. So their rosters, printouts for the referee, passes that they have to bring, and protocols now with COVID. Making sure every kid, every parent does their health screening before they get to the field. Recording scores and standings after the game, the list goes on.

In your experience growing up in the business and where you’re at now, how have you seen the role of parents change?

DR: I have a unique perspective because I used to hear my parents talk about this when I was young. I think the way that it’s changed the most is that clubs are so prevalent now. Nobody plays for their school anymore. Everyone has to play at the highest club, at the best academy, or at the best place to go to college and get a scholarship or go overseas and play professionally. I think the societal change that people see, even outside of soccer, is to be the best. When I was younger, there wasn’t so much pressure. It was more understood that this could be a hobby for your kid and that could be where it ends. Where now, I think parents are pushing the best.

There are plenty of parents that just want their kids to play and have fun. And if they end up playing baseball in their senior year of high school, so be it. This is something that their friends are doing, they enjoy doing it, and they’re learning good things about values, about life, about soccer. They’re happy, it’s a good environment, and a healthy situation for their kids. But, I think that’s less common today.

Do you think the kids have greater expectations as well, or are they still there to mostly have fun?

DR: I think the kids have remained constant. They are there to play and enjoy themselves. Now some serious kids say, “Really, mom, I need to be playing in Barcelona.” For sure.

What skillsets and personality traits do you think are best suited for someone in your role?

DR: The biggest is to be comfortable communicating. Something I struggle with even now is telling people what I need rather than just doing it myself. Nobody can take on this world alone, nobody can take on youth soccer alone. It is way too big of a burden. I don’t like to ask for help. I don’t like to say that I’m overwhelmed and I need somebody to do something for me. The hardest thing for me was learning to communicate that way.

The other thing that is important in youth soccer, is you have to be patient. These kids are not going to be Messi overnight. Let’s slow down. Let’s enjoy a kid scoring a goal this weekend that he’s probably super psyched about. Let him enjoy that before jumping in to do more. I think you have to be patient in the process, and that goes for the kid who scores 50 goals, and it also goes for the kid who isn’t scoring any or doesn’t feel like he fits in. You have to be patient, they’re kids, and they grow and develop at different stages.

What do your mom and dad think of the way you work and manage the club today?

DR: My dad is amazed at everything because he still needs me to turn on the computer for him and log him into Instagram. There were so many things that I didn’t know how to do when I first started and my mom was onboarding me. I was like, “Wow, mom, you’re so great at Excel. This is amazing.” And now I just do things and she’s like, “What was that? How did you even do that? Wow, I wish I had that.” Today, everything is a system. Everything is in a program or software.

Other than business operations, what other aspects of the club have changed since you and your brother took over?

DR: It’s huge how game and session planning have changed over the years. My dad was very hands-on. He did planning in a notebook that he kept in his back pocket. He didn’t require that of his coaches. He didn’t go in and say, “Look, guys, you have to have this written plan in this format.” Where now you can say you have to do it, and this is the game plan you have to submit on Thursday of every week to the director of coaching. I think that’s what fascinates my dad the most. You can submit your session plan before you even get here and our technical director can give you tips, you can sit down and talk about it.

Do you think that the technology and software available have helped your relationship with the parents?

DR: One thousand percent. We’ve gotten more feedback from parents saying we make everything so easy. With COVID and this whole mess of life they don’t have to worry about their kids, and I think that’s what parents want the most. It’s that peace of mind, which we give already in who we are, but also the systems we use have helped them to feel like they must be really off if they don’t get things because everything is right there for them.

Previously, communication was the biggest thing we struggled with as an organization. People were always telling us the communication was poor, and meanwhile, I’m sending 7 million emails a day and I think we communicate great. But coming from a parent, they want communication from the coach, they want communication from the director, so I think it helped to open that line of communication.

What other tools or technology are you using?

DR: We use PlayMetrics to run our club. In addition to that, some of our kids have a ball that detects their steps and their movement. For our older teams, we use video for when we go to college showcases and create highlight films. I use it a lot to create little highlights to post on Instagram. The camera is mostly for the coaches. It’s one of the coolest things.

You’re still surprised and delighted by new technology?

DR: Oh yeah. We didn’t have that when I was a kid. We didn’t have a camera following our every move that we could instantly share with college coaches. Even when I was going to college, we didn’t have the technologies that allowed us to communicate with coaches as we can today.

Do you think growing up in the “next” generation has helped you embrace changes in technology?

DR: Definitely. I’m always frustrated when I can’t figure something out. My co-worker, Julie, I call her “Stone Age,” because she is always putting something down on paper. She has to print it out and read it so we joke all the time. That’s the way she works. The way I work is I know every kid’s name, every kid’s birthday, their address by heart, and I don’t even realize it. When we were onboarding PlayMetrics, she even said to me, “Denise, you’re going too fast. You’re skipping the steps.” But I just usually figure it out myself rather than read the tutorials.

How do you make the decision to adopt a new system or tool?

DR: There are different pieces to it. Christine on our team must be involved because she handles the financials. It really is a group of us. For example, with PlayMetrics, when we saw all the features and things you could do, and also eliminate doing, I was like “James, we need this, Christine, we need that.”

What has technology allowed you to do more of?

DR: Marketing and media. I’m able to share more, show more. And then again, back to communication, we’re able to communicate better. We’re able to send a video and say, “watch this video before practice today and we’ll talk about it.” Communication is more streamlined.

Would you still go into radio if you could do anything besides run the club?

DR: I can’t even picture doing anything else now. But, I think so, yes. I love people, and as you can see, I love talking. I think that’s why I’m so good at what I do. I am in customer service. People are coming into the office every day. Part of me being in charge of the marketing is because I was naturally selling. James will always say to me, “Denise, you don’t even realize how much you sell just by being yourself and connecting with people.”

You are your greatest advertisement.

DR: That’s what everybody tells me. They say having a conversation with me gets people to go to Joe Palumbo Soccer Academy. And my husband will say it all the time too. It’s hilarious. We’ll see a kid in the grocery store and hear, “Oh my gosh, it’s Joe Palumbo’s daughter.”

Not Denise, you’re “Joe Palumbo’s daughter.”

DR: I enjoy being Joe Palumbo’s daughter.

What do you look forward to the most when you get up in the morning?

DR: I’m most excited for when the kids get here. Sounds crazy because of how many admins deal with the kids. But we’re unique. Not many kids go to a club and know the lady working in the office.

And then on the flip side of that, what keeps you up?

DR: Stress from emails and all the things I didn’t get done.

If you were to name the one thing the club does better than anything else, what would it be?

DR: Care. We care about families and kids, and it’s so much more than soccer. It’s so much more than a camp or a program. It’s a family and a true connection.

We like to close our GOALS interviews with one-word reactions. I’ll throw a few things at you and I want you to respond in only one word.

US Soccer

DR: Strong.

TikTok

DR: Young .

Parent emails at 11 p.m.

DR: No.

Regional showcases

DR: Silly.

Marketing

DR: Fun.

Your dad

DR: Incredible.

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