New Jersey Youth Soccer: Helping Clubs Share Best Practices
It takes real leadership to make positive change happen. New Jersey Youth Soccer is a great example of this type of strong leadership in action.
New Jersey Youth Soccer recently completed its inaugural Club Summit series. This series involved four meetings throughout the state, inviting and involving member clubs and leagues to listen, learn, share and collaborate with the State Association.
Each event involved presentations and discussions on Member Benefits, Player Development, Registration, Risk Management, and Governance.
“The inaugural NJYS Club Summit was a unique opportunity to communicate with member clubs and build a better mutual understanding around key issues,” said Evelyn Gill, President of NJ Youth Soccer.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are so grateful for the club representatives’ time and dedication,” said Gill. “I would also like to recognize the Board of Directors that showed tremendous support and the staff for their role developing and executing the week-long event.”
Each night was highlighted by an involved discussion amongst member clubs surrounding ideas and strategies about the dynamic of tryouts occurring earlier and earlier each season.
The result was a significant majority of clubs in attendance advocating to adopt a standardized, consistent and uniform policies for tryouts.
Steve Brooks, Director of Travel for Livingston Soccer Club, noted the value of the Club Summit series for member clubs.
“Thank you to NJYS for putting together a great event,” Brooks said. “As a representative of a member club, I felt appreciated and informed. The presentations offered clarity on many difficult topics that promoted some great, healthy discussion.”
In addition to approximately 200 club representatives in attendance throughout the week, NJYS partners such as JAG-ONE Physical Therapy, Philadelphia Union, Sky Blue FC and New York Red Bulls activated on-site to communicate about NJYS member benefits. NJ Youth Soccer also shared information about NJYS member benefits from partners such as adidas and RWJBarnabas Health, as well as promotional partners such as Soccer Parenting Association and YouthSoccer101.
“NJ Youth Soccer’s ultimate goal is to help our member clubs grow the game in their respective communities by providing them the tools they need to improve every aspect of their operations,” said Rick Meana, NJYS Director of Coaching. “Through the NJYS Club Summit, we aim to constructively address topics like coaching education and player development that are important to administrators and coaches at clubs off all sizes.”
