Several years ago (well, more than several), I started a travel soccer club after my sons and many of their friends, who had been on an undefeated U 12 (under 12) travel soccer team, were not offered the chance to continue playing travel soccer that fall when they moved up to U-14.
Stunned and saddened for all the children who had no place to play (except in the town's co-ed and less competitive recreational program), my immediate goal in starting a new travel soccer club was to give them, and the eighty other boys who were also excluded from the existing program, a chance to keep playing travel soccer and to continue to develop their soccer skills on a travel soccer team during the fall season.
My ultimate goal was to bring about changes in the existing club so that all of the kids playing in the new program that I created would be offered spots on the existing club's teams the following spring season, at which point we would discontinue operation of a separate club.
Fortunately, as things turned out, every player on all of the new teams (all of which had successful seasons and more than held their own, even against teams from the established club), was offered a spot in the existing club's program that spring after they adopted a more inclusive model, so we were pleased to discontinue operations.
And, as I suspected would be the case, some of the players, branded by the existing club as not being good enough to play travel soccer, later went on to make the varsity soccer team when they got to high school.
You will need a team of dedicated individuals to head the effort and the support of parents who share your passion for providing a place for children to play based on the MomsTeam mission of "safer, saner, less stressful and more inclusive." You and your team will have to be able to put everything aside because as will often be the case you will be under severe time constraints. There is nothing like a good adrenaline rush to help complete a monumental task.
Be prepared for the possibility that the existing club will wage a behind the scenes battle and pull as many strings as possible to prevent your club from getting off the ground. But know that if you do your homework, if you understand all the hurdles that you are likely to face, you will be better able to clear them.
Phase One: Justifying Your Decision
Starting a new program should always be the last resort, so it is vital that you do everything in your power to reform the existing youth sports program before you make the decision to start a new one. If you can document the meetings you attended and your written request for more inclusive program then it will be easier to explain the reasons you have been forced to start a new one.
There are four main reasons to start a new club:
Phase Two: Research
This is the phase in which a lot of the research that is necessary to organize a new club and get it off the ground will be done. Among the questions you will need to answer are:
Are there enough interested children?
Where will the children play?
Who controls the permits?
What national organization will your new club join, if any?
Who will handle the money?
Who will officiate the games?
Facilities Inventory
Because it is the rare town that has recreational facilities that aren't already being fully utilized, you will probably have to be creative in finding the space you need for your teams to play:"
Start off by conducting a facility inventory. If you are trying to start a new soccer club, for example, make a list of every soccer field (or potential soccer field) in town. Look at the community fields, the school fields (both private and public) and fields that aren't even fields (for instance, many large businesses have expansive fields that can be turned into soccer fields)
Permitting
Once you complete the field inventory, determine who is responsible for giving out the permits for each field. Figure out how many fields are needed for your new club, best case and worst case.
The next mission is to secure permits for practice and game fields. Usually the recreation department within a city or a town keeps a master list of fields and facilities and gives out the permits. For school fields, you will need to get permits from the school's athletic directors; for businesses, you will need to talk to the facility manager.
Securing permits may be the most challenging hurdle to clear. You are likely to find that just finding enough space for existing clubs in an issue. If the person who is in charge of permitting is overworked or shorthanded the challenge will be even greater. In my experience in speaking with parents from around the country, most of those who are responsible for issuing permits are used to working with the established youth sports organizations and view a newcomer as one more headache, not as a solution to the larger challenge of finding a place for every child to play.
Expect to be given multiple reasons why you cannot have permits. If this happens you will have to take the matter up the chain of authority to that person's boss. If there truly are no fields available, you may reach a dead end (this is why this step is in the beginning of Phase Two).
I have often found in working with parents that where there is a will, there is a way; and that if you are very creative you can come up with a solution to the facility shortage. Ask to see the existing schedule. At the very least, you will have a better understanding and appreciation of the challenges the permit person faces. At worst, you will see that the existing program is hogging the fields (like tying up a field five days a week when it only plays games on two) and have to "rent" fields from them. Hopefully, by using a scheduling software program, you will be able to free up the necessary fields.
Remember that there are laws that restrict the ability of municipalities or recreation departments to hand out permits for public fields in a discriminatory manner. Be ready to plead your case to your elected officials. In the case of the club I started, I was faced with a situation in which the recreation director had simply given the existing club essentially unfettered access to all of the town's fields. I was forced to appeal to the town manager.
When I didn't get anywhere with the town manager, and with time running short, I approached the athletic director at all the town's schools. As it was July, most were on vacation, not to return until August. The AD at the high school told me he had no available fields. Because I had actually walked around the high school, I knew that there was one run-down soccer field up a hill in the middle of the woods that nobody used (for obvious reasons, as it was in dire need of reseeding). He tried to pour cold water on my idea, referring to the poor condition of the field ("too many holes" etc.). I told him our club would clean up the field and that the school department had to cut the grass anyway. He agreed to let us use the field. But we needed more. Ultimately, after lots of hard and creative work, we were able to cobble together enough game and practice fields to accommodate five teams of about 90 boys who would not have had a place to play soccer in the fall.
Some communities such as Scarsdale, New York have implemented a policy that requires that a set of standards are met before a permit is issued.
Look at all your options. In the case of soccer, there are a number of national organizations, including US Youth Soccer and AYSO (American Youth Soccer) with which your new club could become affiliated.
Once you have decided on the national organization to join (if any), identify the persons to contact at the state, county or regional level to find out how to become a member and enter teams. You will probably end up speaking with the registrar at the regional/county level who will tell you what you need to do, most likely including completing a variety of insurance and other forms and then appearing at a meeting of the league's Board of Directors to obtain approval to enter teams. Be prepared at the board meeting for representatives from the existing club to argue against the admission of your club to the league.
If the league in which you want to play has a rule against more than one club from a town being a member, don't let it be a road block: just see if you can get your club under the umbrella of another national organization. In the meantime you may need to find teams your kids can play against if the existing organization will not let you join. During the first season you may need to resort to playing scrimmage games against the teams in the existing organization. This can actually be a fun way to keep the children playing for the season without being overly concerned about league standings.
In order to affiliate, many national organizations will require that your group create a non-profit corporation headed by a board of directors. At the very least, they will want to know who is running the club (president), who is handling the money (treasurer) and who is keeping the records (clerk), and will require that you provide a driver's license and social security number for each. Of the three, the treasurer is the most critical person to select first. A person with a financial background (ideally, an accountant) willing to be treasurer can make things a lot less confusing.
Money will need to be collected from parents to cover such costs as registration fees, officials fees, uniforms, and field permits. It is best to identify a person in the group who will serve as the treasurer early on, as handling the money can be rather daunting job. With no money in the bank and without a large pool of players you may need to ask for help from a local business in exchange for printing their name on the uniforms.
The treasurer will need to set up a bank account and the board will need to declare the type of organization you are to become. Even if you incorporate as a non-profit corporation it will take time before you can obtain 501(c)(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service so you can accept tax deductible contributions.
The clerk will need to check with the league to get a list of all the paperwork necessary to enter a team (teams) in the league. Keep in mind that some organizations will not offer much in the way of help and this is where you will need to use a mother's skills as a detective to anticipate what will be needed. This part of entering a team is critical. In most cases, a miss is as good as a mile: If you fail to furnish every piece of the required information in the proper format your application to enter teams may be summarily rejected.
The following are some of the basic requirements:
Rosters (the minimum number of teams in most leagues is two or three).
Birth certificates (copies) for every player
Coach and co-coach names, proof of identification, and social security numbers. Hopefully, the league in which you hope to enter teams requires background checks on coaches and any other adult volunteers. Your local police department should be able to provide you and the coaches with a clearance letter that should be sufficient for the league. You will need to find out what the league will accept. Even if they do not require this information you will want to keep a record to let parents know that you are looking out for their children's safety in selecting coaches.
Some organizations will not allow you to enter teams until you provide proof that you actually have fields, courts or diamonds on which the kids can play. Remember that the league will be scheduling you to play with many other towns or teams and they do not want to schedule home games for your teams with no fields to play on.
In most instances it will be your responsibility to line up licensed officials for your home games and you may be asked to submit the names of the game officials as part of the registration process. Locating officials can be very tricky as most of the time the list is maintained by the existing organization. When it comes down to actually hiring referees, you may need to motivate them to ref your games by paying them more than the going rate. Look for younger referees at the high school level, since they usually have no allegiance to an existing club. This is an excellent time to think about taking a referee course yourself and encouraging other mothers and older siblings of players to become certified. Not only can they earn extra money, but they will learn to appreciate just how hard a job it is to officiate a youth sports contest and understand why there should be zero tolerance for yelling at referees.
You will need to collect extra fees to cover the cost of membership in the national organization for each coach and player, as they will be required to present their membership cards before each game as proof of age and qualification. Be sure that each coach laminates the cards, punches them and keeps them on a large key ring so they can be taken off quickly and handed to the players when they line up to meet the refs. Lamination keeps the signature from blurring, which might potentially eliminate a player.
You will need to select the coaches very carefully. If you have time to draft your own list of requirements and ask each potential coach to sign an agreement it will make everyone's life easier. Remember that the reason you are starting your own club is because of the problems with the existing league or club and most times it is because of poor coaches and administration. Since you are writing on a clean slate, this is an excellent time to approach mothers to ask if they will coach, as they are more apt to become involved if they know they are wanted, needed and will not be joining a club which may have a pre-existing bias against women as coaches.
You also need to make sure that whoever volunteers to coach appreciates the time commitment that will be required. Too many times a parent will volunteer not knowing that they will have to run two practices a week, and clear a three hour chunk of time for a game on Saturday or Sunday. If you are coaching baseball or softball, it is possible you will practice or play a game three weekday nights, and will also play one weekend game. If a coaching candidate cannot commit to the time needed to do the very best job, he or she should step aside and let someone who has the time to do the job to step forward. If volunteers are scarce, consider creating co-coaching teams (ideally, a man and a woman) and then make sure that parents and players know up front that co-coaching is necessary because the coaches' other commitments will conflict with some of the practices and games.
In order to have a successful club you need to have enough players in enough age groups to stock teams with enough players to avoid forfeits. It is also important to have enough players to give each a free game pass that they can use to miss a game during the season without being penalized (as long, of course, as they tell the coach in advance).
As you are starting a new club, find what each player's family is willing to do to help make it successful. Put together a list of ways they can help, distribute the list to each family and ask parents to volunteer as they see fit. You will usually find that parents of players in the new club will be so thankful that their child or children is being given a chance to play that they were willing to do just about anything that is needed. When parents are part of the team and feel they are appreciated, stress levels go down all around and the harmony is contagious. It similar to hosting a pot-luck supper: giving everyone a small task makes them vested in the outcome and reduces the stress for everyone, most especially the coach.
Phase Three: Implementation
After you have succeeded in establishing your new organization, it will be time to purchase uniforms and equipment. Pay a visit to some of the sporting goods stores in your area and ask to speak to the manager. Many sporting good stores do screen-printing of uniforms and will be very happy to help a new club get off the ground, as they will also benefit as you grow.
Equipment needs may be expensive unless you are willing to ask for donations from local businesses, or buy from used sporting goods stores. If you know the person in charge of all the soccer balls, cones, vests etc. for the existing club see if he has any spare equipment you could use. This approach as it will keep you in the "loop" with some of the folks connected with the existing program who share the mission and values of your new club.
Most leagues now require that clubs purchase liability insurance and accident and medical insurance covering players, managers, coaches, scorekeepers, and volunteer officials.
After you have worked out all of the details you will want to make sure that all children and families know about the registration dates and the ability to play for the new club. Because you may not have a list of the children cut from the existing program, it will be important to get the message out by any means possible.
Talk to the sports editor of your local paper and send information to local radio stations and the cable access channel. If you are lucky, the sports editor will write a story about what you are trying to accomplish. At the very least, the newspaper will run notices about registering for your club. Be aware, however, that as soon as your organization and the reasons for starting a new club are made public the critics may come out of the woodwork. Newspaper articles may be great PR for our new organization, but very poor PR for the board running the existing club, which may be cast as entrenched and out of touch with the needs of the community.
Trust in yourself and remember: if you are a child-centered organization in which the needs of the children come first, it doesn't matter what the naysayers may say. As long as they do not slander you or try to ruin your good name, hold your head up high and turn the other cheek, knowing that you are doing something that benefits the children.
Updated July 24, 2015
Links:
[1] http://www.momsteam.com/blog/brooke-de-lench/power-permit-improving-youth-sports-safety-one-municipality-at-time
[2] https://mail.momsteam.com/team-experts/using-power-permit-promote-concussion-safety-in-youth-sports