Mass Youth Soccer Quarterly- November 2022

ISSUE #1

FINAL SCORE

Mass Youth Soccer CONNECTING SOCCER FAMILIES ACROSS MASSACHUSETTS

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Contents Photo Competitions

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Mass Youth Soccer Night at the Revs

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TABORKIDS FC

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Goals for Success

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Improving the Soccer Culture in MA

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Fundraise4U.net

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Recycle-A-Ball

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Cleat, Uniform and Soccer Equipment Drive

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District Select Program School Supply Drive

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TOPSoccer

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Mass Youth Soccer Leadership Workshops

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Generation Zero

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For more information and registration go to: www.mayouthsoccer. org/programs/odptryout-information/ 3

Mass Youth Soccer partners with Apex Entertainment in Marlboro to offer our Fall Kick-Off Photo & Video Competition.

Our first place winner in the 2022 Fall Kick-Off Photo Competition are the Pepperell Girls 3/4 Revolution team (pictured to the right). The girls have won $1,000 in credit to put towards a team event Apex Enttertainment!

Our runner up winner in the photo competition is Amoz Green playing for IFA vs. Boston Bolts (pictured below).

The runner up winner recieves $500 in credit at Apex Entertainment for a team event!

Photo Competitions

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Mass Youth Soccer Night at the New Revolution On September 4, 2022- Players had the opportunity to play on the turf at Gillette Stadium for the Skills Challenge in the afternoon and finished the day cheering on the Revs with their teams and families!

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TABORKIDS FC “Forging champions for life”

TABORKIDS FC was founded in December 2020 in Revere, MA, and has been affiliated with the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association since May 2021. Due to COVID-19, a family of six members reflected on the necessity of exercise and creating something to help children and families keep strong. The Taborda family’s dad had substations experience on the soccer field as a player, coach, and leading a group of children in his country, Colombia. He wanted to establish a soccer academy in the U.S.A to practice his sports knowledge many years ago. His wife and four children shared his passion for soccer which helped him achieve his dream after the pandemic. TABORKIDS started with four children who belong to Taborda’s family, and today is fomenting recreation for around 60 children and youth from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds who have limitations in assessing regular soccer academies. Furthermore, TABORKIDS’s members have interested in learning more about soccer and teaching principles taking advantage of the Mass Youth Soccer Association certifications to get the required licenses.

TABORKID’S staff wants every member of the academy to enjoy soccer, have durable, healthy habits, and adopt values that impact their lives positively. The club developed an organized action plan to focus on growing each child’s physical capabilities at different ages. TABORKIDS also focuses on teaching soccer techniques and developing physical skills by practicing resistance, coordination, balance, flexibility, strengthening of muscles, and leading the player to know how their body works and what to do to improve their potential and unique abilities. The Club operates under the motto ¨forging champions for life¨.

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In August of 2022, after a year of working with the community, TABORKIDS FC received the Innovate to Grow COVID-19 Recovery Support from the United State Soccer Federation.

This Grant positively impacted the organization to make real the goals of becoming a pioneer in training and practicing soccer, counting on resources related to its initiative’s optimal development, implementing social values, and transforming children and youth. TABORKIDS will work to develop formative spaces for children and families to learn about nutrition, mental health, social and emotional development, and physical development. All these look forward to the inclusion and integration of families from different backgrounds, cultures, and languages.

TABORKIDS wants to continue to apply soccer initiatives to serve and support low-income families in the community. The Grant will also benefit TABORKIDS to continue to grow and participate in competitions; because of Covid -19, the organization experienced limitations in participating in-season games and tournaments. In addition, TABORKIDS wants to expand its programs to other neighborhoods and be economically stable to support other communities around the state, and continue to work to initiate a seedbed of soccer lovers in our community that access even more population and cultures. All in all, the club pretends to continue to promote awareness of the need for movement, recreation, and sports as critical factors in children and youth development that impacts their future learning, behavior, and daily habits.

The 19 Covid Recovery Grant will permit TABORKIDS to guarantee the program functioning for the fall/winter of 2022-2023, contributing to afford the indoor fields and the necessary equipment as implementing its soccer initiatives to continue to serve and positively impact the community and get access to economically and linguistically diverse families.

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Goals for Success

We asked Tamie Endow, Technical Department Manager a few questions about the GOALS for Success Program...

Can you give a brief overview of the GOALS for Success Program?

The GOALS for Success Program is designed to provide children who attend school in urban areas an opportunity to play soccer after school while strengthening their social and emotional skills. These are players who may not have the opportunity to participate in the local soccer program due to cost or lack of transportation. The program is designed to increase the following life skills: teamwork, goal setting, social skills, problem solving & decision making, emotional skills, leadership, time management, transfer of life skills, while learning the game. The program typically runs for 6- 8 weeks in the fall and spring. Meeting once or twice a week for an hour directly afterschool, on the school grounds.

Who does the Goals for Success Program serve?

We are currently running this program with Burncoat Prepatory School in Worcester, MA. Burncoat Prep is a Worcester Public school that serves approximately 260 children. Many of the students who attend this school live in public housing. 100% of the school population receives free lunch (this was true prior to the pandemic as well) The demographic makeup of the school is 55.4% Hispanic, 23.8% White and 13.1% African American, 4.2% two or more races and 3.5% Asian. We are currently working to expand the program to additional schools in this neighborhood beginning in the Fall of 2023.

What is the purpose of the program?

The purpose of the program is to provide students in Urban and Underserved communities, the opportunity to learn the game, while learning real life skills. This has become more important in the return to school after the pandemic. Many of the students served through our program had a notable decline in both physical activity and their social and emotional skill levels when they returned to school.

Is there a cost to participate in the program?

This program is offered to the school and its students free of charge. Currently funding comes through grants and private donations.

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Improving the Soccer Culture in MA Welcome back to another energized soccer season. Throughout the almost 2 year hiatus of covid, we all struggled to keep the game of soccer in the spotlight. MA Youth Soccer provided resources for how to keep children safe and involved in the game at any level possible. We provided activities which allowed children to safely play in and around the house with their parents/guardians and siblings. We also conducted virtual player, coach, parent, referee and administrator workshops to help maintain a connection to the game. Now that we are back on the field, we hope to see these initiatives having a positive influence on training and the value of game-like activities that emulate the child’s game day experience. We have seen the true desire of children to be outside playing soccer again. Our next step is to make their experience even better.

We are excited to see the number of player participants exceeding pre-covid numbers. Many of your town and club’s coaches have been hard at work reestablishing our state’s soccer culture. During the pandemic, over 800 coaches participated in grassroots courses. This past year, almost 650 more coaches have earned a grassroots coaching license. Many of the coaches mentioned above were not coaching teams or involved in games, they simply took advantage of the opportunity to improve their soccer readiness when they could get back on the field.

The US Soccer grassroots coach education methodology encourages coaches to adopt a “player first” mentality. At its core, the player is at the forefront of every decision the coach makes. This would include starting line up, playing time, players learning different positions as well as what is important to each child off the field. The coaches have explored a deeper understanding into what is important for each child and how to keep them involved in the game of soccer now and for years to come. Fun, development and a sense of belonging are the ingredients to maintaining involvement in the sport.

What may seem as a straightforward task, building rapport with each player can be challenging because their desire to play and their needs may not be in line with why the adult/coach in the program.

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The popular Apple TV series, Ted Lasso, is a great example of how a coach, who is in the process of learning the game, can achieve success with the team by creating a player first culture. As much as many of us watch the show for its comical take on English soccer, there are lessons taught that resonate in the youth game. The game results in his environment are important but coach Lasso still prioritizes the relationship he has created with the individuals over the “win at all cost” approach. Clearly, the players do not enjoy losing but they do enjoy and work hard in the environment they are in. Fear and intimidation are not the motivators in this environment. Instead, coach Lasso uses a caring and understanding approach.

Creating a Positive Culture.

We support US Soccer and follow the coaching methodology of Play, Practice, Play (P-P-P). This methodology teaches children the game of soccer through the game of soccer. P-P-P is intentionally designed to bring the game back to the children. Many of the coaches in your organization who have participated in these courses have been putting the methodology to the test. The responses they have received from the children in the program have been quite positive. Children want to play and the coaches hear them.

Not only does this methodology keep the children active and engaged, the coaches who have reached out to me feel much more confident in conducting a training session and guiding the children to the solution instead of lecturing to them. They have commented on how much more supportive of the children they have become during games. They have also experienced a calmer relationship with opposing coaches. We could not be more delighted to hear all the positive responses from our membership.

What does this mean for us?

Studies suggest that by creating a culture which allows children to experience enjoyment in a safe environment where they are treated with dignity and respect while developing a better understanding and abilities in the game of soccer will keep them involved in the game for longer periods. The 800+ coaches mentioned above, as well as all the coaches who have taken grassroots courses over the past several years, are pioneering a new generation. This concept of leading the children down this path, and helping them find the game within each child is paying dividends. Finally, many children are receiving a consistent message about the game. These children are learning a common language. As you walk past soccer fields, children are playing and engaged in discussion instead of standing in line waiting to receive instruction. This is what the game should look like.

We are so thankful for all the organizations and coaches who are supporting a common methodology for our grassroots players through Play-Practice-Play. For all the coaches who have not joined the movement yet, please click on the Play, Practice, Play link above then reach out to your organization to learn more about how you can help us improve the soccer culture in your town and across Massachusetts.

By creating a culture where every child is coached by a Licensed Soccer coach we can stem the tide of dropout from the game. Research is telling us that 72% of Youth Soccer players are under 12 years of age so only 28% continue on through the 11 v 11 game. What does that say about the cultures that we have created and more importantly what can WE do to keep our players in the game?

Ian Mulliner & Tommy Geis

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WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT

MARLBOROUGH, MA

FIND US ON:

APEXENTERTAINMENT.COM

We have a passion for soccer and would like to make the sport more accessible to those in need. We collect gently used soccer balls from local sports facilities, soccer clubs, and individuals. The balls are then donated to local nonprofit soccer programs in Massachusetts. It is a win-win situation — no unused soccer balls taking up storage space or going in the trash, and free balls for those who can’t afford them.

Recycle-A-Ball

www.recycleaball.org

Ball Donation Drop Off: Where: Mass Youth Soccer Fields at Progin Park 512 Old Union Turnpike Lancaster, MA 01523 When: October 29th through November 13th

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Cleat, Uniform and Soccer Equipment Drive M

‌ ass Youth Soccer will be hosting _a Cleat, Uniform and Soccer Equipment Drive at Progin Park from October 29th through November 13th.

Collection bins will be located at the at Main pavilion on front fields or at lightning shelter on back fields. All gently used cleats, uniforms and soccer

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equipment will be donated to local and overseas communities.

Mass Youth Soccer will also be working with Recycle-A-Ball to collect gently used soccer balls.

The balls are then donated to local non-profit soccer programs in Massachusetts.

District Select Program School Supply Drive

‌ he District Select Program School Supply Drive was a success. Students from‌ _Barnstable Community Innovation School received school supplies from our District Select School Supply Drive. Thank you to all that donated these great supplies!

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WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT WESTFORD | MARLBOROUGH MAYNARD | WRENTHAM | MALDEN

FIND US ON:

EVVIVATRATTORIA.COM

TOPSoccer US Youth Soccer TOPSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) is a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers. The program is designed to bring the opportunity of learning and playing soccer to any boy or girl, who has a mental or physical disability.

Our goal is to enable the thousands of young athletes with disabilities to become valued and successful members of the US Youth Soccer family.

TOPSoccer Night at the Revs

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Mass Youth Soccer Leadership Weorships

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WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT BERLIN | ATHOL | WORCESTER CHELMSFORD | LEOMINSTER | MARLBOROUGH

FIND US ON:

110GRILL.COM

WORLD CUP/HOLIDAY BOOK REVIEW

A UniÞed Theory of How We Got Here Baseball has the 19th century National League.

Basketball traces its roots back to Dr. John Naismith and his peach baskets. With Generation Zero, the new popular history from author and MYSA alumnus Hal Phillips, American soccer Þnally has a Creation story of its own Ñ a modern one, beÞtting the game’s extraordinary growth since 1970.

Released in July 2022, Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories & The Making of Soccer in America (Dickinson-Moses Press) is today the bestselling soccer title on Amazon. It’s available for purchase there, at Barnes&Noble.com and Þner independent bookstores everywhere.

With a World Cup upon us, with the tournament spilling over into the holiday season, this exuberant tale (much of it set here, in the author’s native Massachusetts) might just be the perfect holiday gift for all the parents, players, coaches, referees and club volunteers on your list.

“U.S. soccer fans of a certain age all remember growing up in a famously soccer-indifferent nation,” says Phillips. “Today, we live in a completely different America, thanks to Generation Zero — this cohort of boys and girls born in the 1960s and raised on futbol in the ‘70s, during the Youth Soccer Revolution.”

Generation Zero is Phillips’ narrative shorthand for Generation X, the cohort of Americans (born 1961-1981) that Þnally produced both ends of soccer’s formative equation in the U.S.: national

Generation Zero

Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers and Carin Jennings celebrate the 1991 women’s world title, the first ever contested.

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teams good enough to compete on the world stage and an audience that would care, the country's Þrst legitimate futbol fan base. The author also asserts that everything we associate with today’s rich American soccer culture was enabled by the U.S. Men’s National Team that qualiÞed for World Cup 1990 Ñ and the newly formed Women’s National Team that claimed the Þrst world championship ever held, in 1991.

“World Cup participation was the key, because pro soccer didn’t exist here once the North American Soccer League folded in 1984,” Phillips says. “And here’s where the GZ narrative connects: Every member of those pivotal national teams participated in the Youth Soccer Revolution during the 1970s. During the century prior, outside a few immigrant enclaves, soccer had never been a game played by suburban boys and girls — not as kids, not in such overwhelming numbers.

“That lit the fuse — because those same boys and girls grew up! As adults, their fan support for U.S. national teams, men’s and women’s, starting

WORLD CUP/HOLIDAY BOOK REVIEW The 1989 USMNT, just minutes after securing its first World Cup berth since 1950.

That’s a young Andrés Cantor at left, interviewing Tab Ramos.

This book is chock full of rare images from official USMNT photographer Jon van Woerden, including this one, and the cover shot.

in 1990, proved critical. Their attendance and viewing habits made a success of World Cup ‘94, then MLS, and now the NWSL. And just go ahead and state the obvious: The game of soccer, in all these forms, is everywhere on TV in the 21st century. It’s stunning how far it’s come.”

Nothing happened overnight, however. These pivotal moments in 1989, 1990 and 1991 were two decades in the making. Generation Zero details that evolution as no book ever has: from the default reign of largely clueless Soccer Dads during the Seventies, to the critical launch of the Olympic Development Program (1978); from the Carter-era heyday of NASL to its sad demise in 1984 — just as future members of the 1990 USMNT were poised to make their professional careers therein.

The 1980s did indeed foist upon Generation Zero one futbol indignity after another. The dearly departed NASL would not be replaced for 12 long years. Soccer on TV? Only the indoor variety could be found there — late at night, on content-starved cable outlets, right after competitive lumberjacking. When the U.S. failed to qualify for its 9th straight World Cup, in May 1985, soccer’s domestic critics danced on its grave.

However, these failures moved the U.S. Soccer Federation to drop the entire senior national team program in the lap of Generation Zero, half of

whom were still in college — none of whom had anywhere to play professional club soccer.

Phillips spoke to a dozen different national team players for this book, and he did so from a unique vantage point: He is exactly the same age as these primary sources. In fact, he competed against them during youth tournaments, at college, in the urban/ ethnic leagues that topped the American soccer pyramid during the post-NASL apocalypse.

“The personal couldn’t be avoided,” says Phillips, who grew up in Wellesley and played soccer at Wesleyan University, then in the semi-pro LASA League during the late ‘80s. “I mean, [USMNT striker] Bruce Murray did billet in my house, back in 1976. I grew up with women’s national team pioneer Lauren Gregg. These are legends, but we all lived through the same period — and I was determined to paint a nuanced portrait of those two decades. The 1970s were so rich, so eclectic, so detached from convention: I don’t think soccer would have gained such a cultural toe-hold, for example, had that decade been more effectively tied to traditions and uniformly held ideals of community and sport.”

As for the late ‘80s, the author defers to 3-time World Cupper Marcelo Balboa: “We wanted to leave something behind, a legacy — and I think it was the mullet. We tore it up on the mullet front.”

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