Park Valley United FC

I came to Park Valley about 11 years ago now. I was brought on as the Assistant Director of Coaching and Rec Director. A friend of mine was the Director of Coaching, and we had discussed about the possibility of myself coming on board. It was a small club at the time, looking to do some things differently and looking to expand, and the opportunity was very intriguing to myself, and I've also now been the Head Director of Coaching for the past 6 years.

My experience here at the club has just been great. It's been phenomenal to watch the growth of the club and the growth of all of our kids and our coaches. When I first came on board 11 years ago, we had 20 some odd competitive teams, mostly in the lower levels of city-state, a couple of regional teams. Now we have 46 competitive teams. We've got everything from ECNLRL to N1 and also still have our regional, state, and cities level teams. Our rec program when I first came on board was around 200. We are now around 900 rec kids. So just phenomenal growth in the last 11 years, and it's just been really fun to watch and be part of.

I've really been impacted by the community feel of Park Valley. The families, the kids, the coaches, they all really love Park Valley. They're all in for Park Valley. It's just a very, very tight-knit community, and that has just impacted the way I see things and the way I do things now here at Park Valley. Especially the last 6 years as the director, and it's just a real community-focused club. And everything we do is for the community and for the kids.

Our facilities are right in the heart of St. Louis Park in Golden Valley. We train out of Sandberg Middle School and Purpch Fields in Golden Valley. Our center hub is Louisiana Oaks Park in Saint Louis Park. Our winter facilities are a little bit more spread out, but we have excellent facilities in the Holy Angels Dome in Richfield and the Winter Park training facility, which is the old Minnesota Vikings indoor training facility.

Our club continues to grow and get better, and the proof is that we will for the first time ever be fielding ECNLRL teams at U19 boys, U17 boys, U13 boys, and U17 girls, and we'll be fielding N1 teams at U14 boys, U16 girls, U15 girls, and U14 girls. So it's something that our club has never experienced before. We're super excited about this upcoming opportunity, and it's really a testament to our coaches and the hard work that our players and our families have put in.

I've been with Park Valley United Soccer Club since 2013. I've been coaching close to 20 years. During that time, what has been important to me is also important to Park Valley United, is that the players challenge themselves, they build confidence, they learn about the sport, they fall in love with the sport, they love working with their teammates, and they also want to push themselves and challenge themselves along with their teammates. All the while, they wanna have fun. Learn how to work as a team, and want to return year after year. To me, that's what's successful, is are they learning and do they want to return. It's not about the wins or losses, especially at the younger age, but are they building the foundation to help themselves and as their teammates as they grow and develop over the years.

I have a lot of memories working at Park Valley United Soccer Club. Some of my favorite experiences are just watching the kids grow and develop over the years and to see how they play. And building new skills, confidence, working with their teammates, their teammates growing together as a group and moving from year to year to new teams, seeing the highs and the lows, and how do the players respond. We may have a goal of wanting to win a tournament, or we may want to learn, win the league, and we may not have the best year. But my favorite parts sometimes is the low parts, and to see how do they respond, how do they come back, how do we work together? To improve and maybe achieve those goals the next year. And then we do achieve those goals, just to see the joy in their eyes and to see the excitement that they have, and it sometimes it could just be a small thing, with the joy and the excitement that the kids have. And to me, that's what makes coaching so much fun over at Park Valley. So sometimes the highlights isn't always winning the tournament. But seeing the small joys, the individual growth, and the accomplishment that the kids do, and then the love that they learn about the sport itself, from the small little joys and playing with their teammates. And then also for me is, seeing the kids grow from year 11 to year 19 when they move on to college, do they continue on with that love with the sport just cause they enjoyed it so much that they want to play maybe intramural or some other form if they don't make it to a college-level soccer, but they still just wanna play and just enjoy it just because they had so much fun growing up and playing the sport itself that they love, and they just want to continue on playing.

Park Valley is very supportive with their coaches. They provide a lot of tools, they provide the support. They also provide training for their coaches throughout the seasons. Park Valley has a lot of coaches that have 10+, almost 20+ years of coaching. So we do attend each other's training sessions. We do support each other throughout the year. We attend each other's trainings, we bounce ideas off of each other on how we can maybe coach better or different ways to coach. So that does help that it is a smaller group, so we get to know a lot of the coaches. The club also very supports us going to the coaching courses to get your certificates or your training license, to be able to bring back that information to the teams, and then with that, it helps with the players learn and grow, just as long, just as we ask the players to go to camps to become better, we go to the coaching courses to become better coaches, and then hand to hand, with the players going to camps and the coaches going to the coaching courses, this becomes a stronger team and that helps everyone grow.

One neat thing about our facilities is most of our fields are clumped together for our competitives or our junior age group, or for the younger age group. This way you get to know the other coaches, you get to know the other teams, you get to know the other players, and you get to know some of the other parents. Along with that, if you are running late, another coach could just step in while you're trying to make it to the practice, or if you're ill, they might be able to step in and help out just for that one practice or for the game. And then also with the games, you can sit and you can watch the other teams play and provide support, encourage the other players as everybody just loves having people come and watching their games and supporting, especially other teammates or other people within the club coming in to watch the games. And it's also fun if they're teams that are close to advancing to the next level, be able to watch them, grow and cheer them on, and then also to celebrate the advances that they've had, to be able to go to the to the next level. Also with our communication with the parents, with the size of the club, it's getting the information out, and we also get to know a lot of the parents, so that does also help with the communication.

I would definitely recommend playing at Park Valley United, as Park Valley provides a lot of support to players and for families. They can tailor some of the training programs throughout the years based on what family needs are and also what the players are looking for themselves individually. They have a lot of coaches that have been there for several years, with a lot of experience, and the club really does focus on players' development, and they want to make sure that each player is developing based on what their needs are, what their desires are, and it's a great place to build friendships and to have lifelong friends.

I've been a part of this club, Park Valley, for about 6 to 7 years. What attracted me to Park Valley, I got referred by a friend, one of the coaches that were there. And what kept me here is the fact that is it's a community-based club, players come first. Developing players, which I enjoy to do, which I love to do. And just you have great people around you, great director, and everyone that runs the club, they run it pretty well. And they want to see you grow. So that kept me the most around is that they want to see you grow as a coach, to support your coaching abilities, there's not macromanaged. They allow you to make mistakes and then also correct your mistakes as a coach, as you develop in your career. So, I think that's what kept me around the most is just the development aspect of the players and then developing as a coach holistically.

My favorite experience at Park Valley has been just watching how the players grow in this environment. From when you started with them, maybe at U 12, and then now seeing them at U 17-16, and just seeing how they have grown as people and also as players. And another favorite part I'm putting out would be probably seeing how the level was the developmental stage from younger age, from a 9 v9, transitioning to 11 v 11, going to big tournaments like the Minnesota Cup. My favorite part in that cup was us coming as a runner-up. We never made it to that stage before, but having the team to play in that tournament for such a long time and not make it to that stage or that level, with the U17 boys being able to be a runner-up or 2nd place, and planning a championship and competing. That's one of the best thing ever as a coach.

I'll say Park Valley has impacted me in many ways. As a leader at work, as a leader at home. As the head of the house. Working with different kids at Park Valley, made the transition at home working with my kids even smoother. And also, they support your coaching career of how far you wanna go. They're behind you all the way, and they encourage you to go get your coaching certificates. That has significantly impacted the way, the type of coach I am today compared to when I started at Park Valley. I think, right, it impacted the way how I structure my training. Going into these courses and learning and Park Valley played a big part of it. And just being more of a tactical thinker, and how to prepare my training section and transitioning into game readiness. Working with the teenagers and working with the kids and knowing now how I can work with my kids personally moving forward.

I think what stands out at Park Valley facilities is how well kept our environment is, whether it comes to the grass, and the safety for our families and our players. I think our facility is one of the top-notch facility within the state of Minnesota. We go to different facilities here and there, different stadiums. We visit different stadiums here and there. And I don't think their goal, the frame of their goals are well kept, and I think Park Valley goals are well kept and are up to date. And when it comes to scheduling at Park Valley, as coaches, we make our own schedule of what, what works best for us. And our family, as a family man, having been in this environment works perfect for me because, I get to work around the schedule of what my family may need, and what Park Valley may need. So, which is really good. Communications are great. Our directors response so quickly to any concerns, any questions. Which is really, really good and it keeps you up to date about every single thing that are happening, not just within Park Valley, but what's happening in the world of soccer, whether that comes with how to better off yourself as a coach, that's being communicated to you, what's coming from the league that you play in, and, what to expect moving forward. I think this type of communication is very, very fluent, very smooth for us coaches at Park Valley United.

Yes, I would recommend Park Valley United to anyone. I think we're the best club within the state of Minnesota. We're the best club within the Midwest. We're the best club within the states. And I think we're the best club within the world. Number one is, I'll say our leaders, how they run things out here at Park Valley, it feels like a family environment, a true family environment. And on the coaching standpoint, Park Valley allow you as a coach to really, display what you have as a coach. Your talent, your coaching talent, whatever it may be, whatever philosophy that you have, Park Valley allow you to display that. So easy, easy recommendation. Best club, best environment, best facility, best coaches that you would have. And just the fact that they continue to encourage you to better off yourself as a coach.