Layton Soccer

I've been the soccer coach this year for Ethan's team. Ethan and all the other players have grown a lot so I'm glad that I was dragged into this! Soon after our move, Michelle called to sign Ethan up for AYSO soccer. The person she talked to asked her if she would like to be the coach. Apparently our region has a lot of players, and so they doubled the number of teams this year to keep a maximum 7 players per team. Michelle volunteered - me. I was suprised by quite a lot of things with Soccer in Layton, UT. First of all I was suprised by a number of things required to be a soccer coach. Secondly, I was suprised once we started practices and games at the difference between AYSO here and where we just came from in Lakewood, CA.

To be a soccer coach for AYSO, you need to go to orientation each year, new coaches need to take a coarse on technique and rules. Also, every coach is required to take a Safe Haven course, which ensures safety and emergency preparedness practices that help protect the kids as well as the coaches. Everything from safe play and first aid to insurance and preventing law suits are covered. AYSO also checks professional and personal references not from your family. I wasn't overly suprised by these requirements, but I wasn't aware of them before I volunteered.

The biggest things that surpised me between my son's team last year in Lakewood (where I assume he was playing U-6 or under-age-six soccer) to the changes here where he has moved up to U-8 since he was 6 before the season started. The surpise is that it was a step backwards!
Instead of playing 6 players including a goalie in California, we only play 5 people total and no-one is allowed to be goalie. The biggest difference between UT soccer and California soccer was the level of participation by the parents. Parents here aren't as excited to volunteer to help out as a Team Parent, Assistant Coach or Referee. The level of support at the games is a lot less as well. I would have thought it the opposite, but the more I think of it, I can understand why. People here are so much more busy in other areas of their lives, with most parents volunteering in their church and raising more kids than in California. The fact that there are so many kids in Layton that are in soccer (21 teams just from our city at my age level) tells me that parents really want to give their kids a good experience, but when they are doing the same thing for their other kids as well, plus volunteering in other things, you get wary of signing up for anything extra. I have had one Dad who is great at being a referee.

Asking for donations gets you just as far. The AYSO coaches manual suggests getting a Team Banner. So I brought that up and asked for someone to take care of making one. In CA, a team mom would have been super excited to make a really cool flag or else all the parents would donate to have a really nice one made. I soon found out that our team was the only one that got a banner, and I've only had half of my parents donate $7 to pay for it, so I've had to cover half the cost myself. I hope the same thing doesn't happen if I have to pay extra for trophies or something.

That said, there are some things that are better in Layton soccer, the teams seem to abide more by the AYSO standards of playing to have fun, rather than yelling at your kids to try and guilt them into doing well. It seems that the coaches here are more apt to follow the five AYSO philosophies, or maybe people here are more likely to follow them, not just the coach.

Everyone Plays
Our program’s goal is for kids to play soccer—so we mandate that every player on every team must play at least half of every game.

Balanced Teams
Each year we form new teams as evenly balanced as possible—because it is fair and more fun when teams of equal ability play.

Open Registration
Our program is open to all children between 4 and 19 years of age who want to register and play soccer. Interest and enthusiasm are the only criteria for playing.

Positive Coaching
Encouragement of player effort provides for greater enjoyment by the players and ultimately leads to better-skilled and better-motivated players.

Good Sportsmanship
We strive to create a positive environment based on mutual respect rather than a win-at-all-costs attitude, and our program is designed to instill good sportsmanship in every facet of AYSO.

Only three more soccer games until the end of the season!