In 2012, Ethos FC was established to provide a philosophical, beliefs-based development approach for the Folsom Lake region’s youth soccer players. The club’s values, being those of character, commitment, respect, transparency, and positive attitude were articulated to permeate throughout its community of players, families, coaches, and leadership.
These values would direct how players treated each other, their coaches, and competitors. These would direct how coaches communicated and developed their players and how they interacted with parents and families. These would direct how parents behaved on the sidelines, fostered a love of soccer within their children, and communicated with each other within the soccer community. Finally, these would direct the decisions and communication of the club’s leadership.
At the very heart of these values was an observed lack of positivity within the youth soccer community. Much of this was driven by a culture of posturing by coaches and parents who, while for the sake of their children, would compete for the region’s talent and the most competitive opportunities for players regardless of the impact on the children.
This focus often led to players and coaches jumping clubs, coaches not communicating with others about player invitations or keeping players from trying out for other teams and clubs. It also led to overwhelming drama within the community that, in our estimate, impacted hundreds, if not thousands, of kids over the years.
Most importantly, it drew attention away from the need for long-term player development and putting players in the best opportunities for them to grow and develop a love for the game; a game that teaches life-long skills that transcend youth sports and leak into real-life, schools, careers, and overall successes.
A lot of this too was driven by the number of youth soccer clubs in the Folsom Lake region. Players and coaches had (and still have) opportunities to “club hop” depending on real or perceived opportunities. Ethos FC and the Folsom Soccer Club decided to merge by creating a competitive club that became one of seven Northern California Clubs to affiliate with the San Jose Earthquakes – in part to mitigate this as well as other risks emerging in the youth soccer community.
The idea was to bring two clubs together into one that would provide a strong player pathway and enough playing opportunities to challenge and develop children and young adults where they were on their soccer journies; a community of players, families, and coaches that stayed with a club because there were enough playing opportunities, and more importantly, because the club was a “light” of positivity with an eye toward player education and development.
The Folsom Lake Earthquakes built a framework and culture for player development. Within the Folsom Lake Soccer League organization, players had access to recreational and competitive pathways, as well as roads for recreational players to make competitive and teams and competitive players to move up through higher-level play.
When the San Jose Earthquakes ended its affiliate program, the Folsom Lake Soccer League Board of Directors voted unanimously to become part of the Surf Sports network. The Folsom Lake Surf Soccer Club will be the next phase of the vision. The club will retain the player pathway framework of developing competitive soccer players from the ages of six to eighteen. At the Academy level, young players ages 6 to 10 will be trained on age-appropriate skills and assessed at every level so that they are prepared to make competitive teams. At the competitive level, the Elite and Premier programs will be offered with sub-levels within each section to allow for players to grow and be challenged. For recreational players, they will have access to the Folsom Soccer Club, Orangevale Soccer Club, and Rancho Cordova Soccer Club. The club will also hold clinics throughout the year to develop both recreational and competitive players.
To realize higher levels of integrity in this vision, at the very top, the Folsom Lake Surf Soccer Club will have an executive team that embodies the values – character, commitment, respect, transparency, and positive attitude. These will be the root of decisions, communication, and training methods. The Folsom Lake Surf Soccer Club will also expect its children, families, and coaches to embody these values and demonstrate these through their behaviors on the field and within the community.
Folsom Lake Surf Executive Director for Player Development Fritz Libby, an educator by trade and former soccer pro, believes in long-term player development and commitment to club. This means buying into the club’s player pathway and working with club personnel to resolve issues in positive ways before moving on to other programs. It means moving away from a club-hopping culture and into a life-long relationship with the home club.
What does the player pathway look like?
The Folsom Lake Surf is investing in coaching quality, resources, and indoor training opportunities to facilitate its player pathway.
It starts with working with recreation players playing in the Folsom Lake Soccer League who might be ready for competitive soccer. Surf coaches work to identify players through camps, clinics and all-star events that are ready to be on-boarded to The Surf Way through attending rec-to-comp programs. They are assessed at every level to assure that by the time they are ready to play comp soccer, they are rooted in fundamental soccer skills and have the soccer acumen required to make the team.
In addition to participating on a team, players U7 to U10 participate in an academy skills development program. The goal of this program is to ensure no players transition to Surf’s U11 to U14 program without being introduced to the technical skills, vocabulary and terminology required to play soccer successfully. Players are monitored closely, identified early for advancement, and will be assessed regularly against a clearly defined set of objectives outlined for each age group.
For players U11 to U14, besides playing in higher level leagues (including NPL at some levels), State Cup and tournament matches with their teams, players are exposed to additional training programs. These focus on advanced skills development through repetition training of technical soccer skills. Repetition training is crucial to muscle memory, which allows players to shift more attention to strategic decision-making on the field and apply skills to their desired or strongest positions. This is a critical stage of development in all facets of soccer: tactical, technical, physical, and psychosocial. Advanced players are identified at this stage for higher-level, regional, and national playing opportunities.
As players move into their high school years, U15 to U19, the Folsom Lake Surf leverages the Surf Soccer network for those players desiring more exposure to college scouts and coaches. Players are invited to play in regional and national Surf Soccer showcase tournaments and college ID camps. Annually, 1500 college scouts and coaches attend these events. During this stage, at its indoor facility, the Folsom Lake Surf holds topical lectures on college admissions and ushers players through the scholar-athlete admissions process. Folsom Lake Surf will host college coaches to work with players on a monthly basis starting this spring and will host its own college ID camp.
From the educational and developmental perspectives, the Folsom Lake Surf Soccer Club will have a dedicated training facility (or a school) in which it will provide players with technical skills development at both the recreational and competitive levels. Our trainers will be more like teachers in a classroom, enabling learning and fostering a love for the game. The training center will also help high schoolers on their paths towards university-level competition – ushering them through the admissions process and helping them make the best decisions according to their goals.
The Folsom Lake Surf Soccer Club seeks to offer something different for our families – a positive, development-oriented community. We believe the successes will come as a result. If you believe in this vision, be sure to visit folsomlakesurf.org, learn more, and subscribe for updates on tryouts and club developments.
We will have open houses for families starting in January that will run up to tryouts in May 2020. Stay tuned and we hope you can make it.
To stay apprised of 2020/2021 tryouts, camps and clinics, and club developments, subscribe today.
For questions, email info@folsomlakesurf.org.