Youth soccer: Equally rewarding for adult volunteers

 

Reminder: Register for fall AYSO soccer from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, August 4

The blossoming growth of youth soccer in the United States is creating demand for more and more adult volunteers.  Oak Ridge is no exception—as the local American Youth Soccer Association (AYSO) Region is always looking for more volunteers to help grow its youth soccer programs.

AYSO is an all-volunteer organization, with parents, kids, and friends of AYSO working together as coaches, players, referees, and administrators. It’s not unusual to find two, three, or more children in the same family playing AYSO soccer—while Dad serves as a referee and Mom as coach. It can be a family experience like no other that gets everyone outside together.

But here in Oak Ridge, AYSO’s volunteers go well beyond family members. Having seen their children grow up successfully participating in youth sports, many parents whose kids have gone on to college or beyond are still volunteering to help the next generation of youth.

Volunteers find the experience continually rewarding. Coaches and referees see first-hand that they’re having a direct impact on kids’ lives. The players learn skills, develop positive attitudes, and gain values that can shape the rest of their lives. Years later, coaches find that the kids they’ve coached previously will still view them as their coach—and remember how the mentoring from that adult volunteer helped set them on the right course for the rest of their lives.

Volunteers also get many other benefits from helping in youth sports:

• It’s a way to get exercise and keep more physically fit and mentally active.
• It provides a sense of purpose and fulfilment that can reduce stress and increase happiness.
• It builds connections and relationships in the community with others—and often opens doors to other new adventures.

No experience is required to volunteer to help AYSO in its youth soccer programs. AYSO will work with each volunteer to identify the best way for a volunteer to serve, and then provide any training that’s required—at no cost to the volunteer. There are many ways to volunteer within AYSO, with varying commitments of time and expertise, and not all volunteer roles require being on the field.

Anyone interested in becoming an AYSO volunteer in Oak Ridge, and helping our community’s youth, can contact the local AYSO office via email at [email protected], or by visiting www.aysor390.org, or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SecretCitySoccer/.

The final registration date for families wishing to register their children for the fall AYSO season is from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, August 4, at the AYSO Office at 1990 Oak Ridge Turnpike (next to United Grocery Outlet on the corner of Louisiana and Oak Ridge Turnpike) in Oak Ridge.

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