Our philosophy centers on player development. Player development is a paradigm that focuses on developing each individual player to their full potential. This approach provides a player the best opportunity for growth contingent upon a player's passion for the game. This approach promotes the development of creative, skillful, and intrinsically motivated players. The result is that a player has the best opportunity to make a high school team, play in college, or reach any of their other goals in our program.
Winning is important but development is more important. We want our players to not fear failure by taking risks and making mistakes in order to improve.
We want our players to strive for excellence and focus on task mastery. When done correctly, winning at the youth level is a by product of development even if it takes a while.
We impress upon our players the following on gameday.
1. Play the game the right way
2. Individual merit is rewarded
3. Exhibit good sportsmanship
4. Play to win but never at the expense of the first 3 items
The measurement of success at the youth level is the improvement of a player over time. We want each player to have a competitive attitude and strong desire to win. However, winning in itself does not measure player improvement or if a coach is doing a good job.
If a team wins most of their games but the players do not improve, then the season is a disaster. In youth soccer, there are many who take shortcuts in development just to win games. We will not take shortcuts in development as we want to develop a well rounded player.
