Are you a younger or older youth player looking for a Challengers Soccer Team in the future? Blog a comment here and complete the form below with your email address. When a coach is found we will give him/her your email address and they can contact you. Please list the players 1st name, last initial current school, grade, and birth month. If a coach is found we will give him your email address to contact you. Teams can be u7 to U19 but the challengers currently only have u10-u12 teams. This entry is specifically to help people form new teams. Check back from time to time. You can see the progress as comments are added along with yours
Do you know a Good Coach? If you know a coach or team manager willing to help organize a new team please ask them to blog their name and email address as a comment bleow. Their email address will not be visible on the web but club leadersd can login and see it. When their is some synergy started we can and help you connect your new team together. Most teams form starting with a coach and 3-5 players. The club then guides the coach or team manager through the rest of the steps. A good time to start a team is May-July 10 for Fall or November through January for Spring. If you are or know somebody who wants more options and freedom to put together a Naperville Based soccer team please post a comment below.
How are teams formed?
Each of our teams started with a coach who want more flexibility, club support or a higher level of competition. The Challengers Organization offers coaches the support behind the scenes. Our volunteers help coordinate with finding fields, league contacts, referees, equipment, uniforms, professional trainers and communication systems. We also help players and coaches network to find each other.
My story is typical of how our teams get formed. My son Chris who is now 10 was no longer challenged by the Subdivision and Park District soccer by the time he was 6. I was an OK coach but he was very cooridinated for his age. Chris had fun but I knew his learning was limited by the low level of competition offered by random team formation. Another Park District Coach had more soccer experience and decided to start a team full of 6-7 year olds that fall. He entered them in the Northern Illinois Soccer League as a u8 team. This is how the Challengers were born. That coach is Don McBride the founder of the challengers.
Chris will be playing u11 on that same team this fall still coached by Don. His original team u7 team has expended to 3 u11 boys teams for fall 07. Don's coaching is now suplemented by an excellent Professional Trainer chosen and hired directly by the team itself. Meanwhile, our example encouraged and attracted other similar teams at other age levels. The Challengers will have 13 teams for fall 2007 ranging in age from u10 to u12. We have both boys and girls teams.
Many excellent younger players age 6-8 want to play on a team like the challengers. To start teams for them all it takes is one Parent committed to starting the process. You will be amazed that with a little guidance your energy can be rewarded and how easy it becomes to find the perfect parent coach, players and professional trainers necessary to take your team as far as you want it to go. That same little u7 team that started it all is still together at u11. Dispite the fact that we pay less than half of what the teams we play against pay, we have not lost a NISL seeding tournament game in 3 years. We have won local tournaments and been Runner up in the Best of the Midwest Tournament. The U12 Cobras play Platinum NISL soccer. On the other hand we are not here just for the current elite. Children develop at different rates and all our families are equally important. We also field teams at the middle levels of the NISL and WISL as well. Each of our teams grows and adds new players each year. Our magical formula is a combination of volunteer administration, professional training, focus on player development and the complete absence of a profit motive that has lead to our growth and success. That magic allows us to keep roster sizes small maximize your kids playing time and smiling parents.
At u7 I was glad to put Chris in a more appropriate level of soccer competition. But I had conditions. My costs had to be low and the travel needed to be very local. Challengers was actually my only choice at that young age but still I had my conditions. My daughter (now 17) was playing on the very expensive travel soccer clubs when she was ages 11-15. Her team stayed together but actually that team rotated through 3 different clubs. Frankly her experience lowered my expectations of program quality and and inflated my expectations of what the real costs were.
When my son was 7 I was happy to be dodging the long trips to games and the high expenses of "for profit" soccer. My daughter's clubs provided marginal trainers who rarely showed up and gave us no input into decisions that effected our time, money and most importantly the positive learning environment that can make competitive soccer more fun. So while I was 1st attracted to the challengers for the low cost we stayed for the maximized playing time, smaller team rosters and better educational philosophy that only the removal of any profit motive seams to allow. I know that everybody has their own reasons for staying with our club but ther is not a faster growing youth soccer organization in our area. We have gone from 1 team or 9 players in July of 2004 to 13 teams or 145 players in July 2007. We must be doing something right.
Anyway blog us below and help us get your new team started. If you do, the outlook is very bright! For your own security please do not list your last name or phone number in the text. Remember, This is the internet. We can email you for your contact info when the interest builds for your level.
Please list the players 1st name, last initial current school, grade, and birth month. If a coach is found we will give him your hidden email address to contact you. Teams can be u7 to U19 but the challengers currently only have u10-u12 teams. This entry is specifically to help people form new teams. Check back from time to time. You can see the progress as comments are added along with yours.
