When I was a kid, club soccer was much different than it is today. My friends and I played on a club team because we wanted to play together. We just wanted to play the game and stick with our friends.

Today things are far different. There are hundreds of clubs and thousand of teams, national tournaments, college scholarships and even the National Team. There is more going on today then ever before and there are, by far, more opportunities for young players and their families.

However, while the game has grown tremendously, the competitive pressure has changed the landscape of the youth game. In my opinion, this pressure has driven many kids, some of them with tremendous athletic abilities, away from the game.

As a parent, I want to see kids be able to take advantage of the new opportunities in the game today. But I know that a child’s journey in soccer is fueled by the strength of his or her love for playing the game.

This is why Walt and I started Saddleback United. Our objective is to create an environment for highly talented young soccer players that foster a child’s love of the game, rather than crushing it with over-competitiveness. A core component of our program is excellent soccer training, but even stronger is our commitment to positive coaching and keeping the game fun.

Continuity is another key aspect of our program. When I look back at my “soccer career”, the greatest gifts that I received from the game were the friendships that developed through the game. These friendships came from playing with the same people year after year, through good times and bad.

However, in today’s youth game, there is an intense focus on player recruiting to develop continually better teams. This pressure breaks up team continuity; and makes it very difficult for players (and their parents) to develop strong relationships both on and off the field. Consequently we are committed to improvement by developing the talent level of our players rather than by the “cut and recruit” method. Sacrificing a few wins to give our kids the opportunity to make life-long friends and to be able to play with a consistent set of teammates is an investment that our club will make in the kids.

And finally, the last core component of our program is our focus on helping our members to develop character skills. We are committed to using soccer to teach kids respect for self and others, self-discipline, self-motivation and other important aspects of character. Strong character is a pre-requisite for success in soccer and in life. We firmly believe that it is our obligation to teach both soccer and character skills.

So this is what we are trying to achieve with Saddleback United. Our club is for top-level players who love the game and are eager learn and work hard. Our commitment to our members is that we will provide top-level training while consistently maintaining a positive environment and a commitment to team continuity; so that when kids graduate from our program they are highly skilled, have a strong sense of character, truly love the game and will have developed many strong relationships.

For Walt and I, this is how we define success for our club, Saddleback United.

Yours in soccer,

Joy Fawcett