How do I start a new youth soccer club in my area?
I have been coaching soccer for 25 years and my son is now 18 and would like to become a youth soccer trainer, we would like to start a new club, but do not know how to start. (Orange County CA)
Best Answer From A Brazilian Reader
It depends whether you want to coach because you enjoy coaching, or for money?
There are alot of reasons why you might want to go back into coaching but if you really have a passion for mentoring and building better soccer players I would highly recommend that you work with the urban inner city kids.
I play soccer for a club in my country and the best team in the city is an inner city team (most of the players are from really poor neighbohoods) but they are really good.
Our coach went looking for players in the poorer parts of the city who always play soccer but couldn’t afford to pay for club fees and he recruited them and found ways to pay for the fees and now we are the best team in the region.
You could possibly go to the inner city high schools, where alot of immigrant children go, Latinos, Africans, Europeans, Asians, are all into soccer, and you will defiantly find some good players, (post signs, posters, in neighborhoods, parks, rec centers, schools, e.t.c) and most of them probably wont be able to afford the club fees especially since American clubs probably charge more, you could think of creative ways of raising money, maybe fund raisers, selling stuff, government funding, community support, organizations e.t.c
This would be good for most inner city kids because they would probably otherwise be doing things other things that are not good to make up for the lack of extracurricular activities. You will also be surprised what you learn from them.
Comment From Spain-Football
I really like this answer. Football is a fantastic way of bringing people together. It doesn’t matter where we come from if we all share the same passion.
Since you are in the USA, you have 4 national associations to affiliate with; US Club Soccer, SAY Soccer, American Youth Soccer Organization and US Youth Soccer. I highly recommend getting affiliated with one of those 4 or you will never be seen as legitimate and your playing opportunities will be severely limited. Given that you are in Orange County, CA there are probably dozens or existing soccer clubs. If your goal is to become a trainer and coach, then save yourself a lot of work and affiliate with an existing club. If you are determined to go it alone, then decide if you are going to be a competitive soccer club or a recreational soccer club or both. You will need to find out what other clubs exist and how you will be different. If you want to be competitive, then I recommend US Club Soccer over US Youth Soccer. If you want to be recreational, I recommend SAY over AYSO. If you want to be both or be affiliated with multiple national associations, I recommend a combination of US Club Soccer and USYS and SAY. You will need to form a minimum of 4-6 teams. USYS is rife with politics. US Club and SAY are friendly. This is the tip of the iceberg. Contact me at matt@fargosoccer.org if you want more information. I did this in 2007 and could write a book on the subject. My club is now 5 competitive teams and 40 recreational teams. We have 350+ members and double in size every year.
Thanks for that, Matt. Really useful information.
As we’re based here in Spain, it’s hard to give the guy the right kind of advice.
I’m interested in growing teams in an urban area, predominately populated by racial minorities, ignored by the soccer club that claims the urban area as part of its territory. That club has promoted itself for over 30 years and grown a soccer culture in the predominately “White” part of its territory only. In fact, the folks in the urban area didn’t even know they were in a soccer club territory until I told them 2 years ago. Can you give me tips on how to best proceed to give incentive to the club to work with me. The club is the North Tacoma Soccer Club (NORTAC). The folks in the urban area are very interested but don’t know how to proceed. They’re politically shy.
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