CC United Soccer Club Testimonial Coach Josh Wackerfuss

SUMMARY: Josh Wackerfuss, a coach at CC United Soccer Club, shares his extensive history with the club, having been involved since he was five or six years old as a player and now as a coach. He highlights the strong sense of community, dedication to player and coach development, and commitment to creating opportunities for all players as reasons for his continued involvement. Josh highly recommends CC United for its opportunities at all youth levels, focus on personal development, affordability, accessibility, and its ability to instill a lifelong interest and passion for soccer in all its members.

CC United Soccer Club Testimonial Featuring Coach Josh Wackerfuss

Read more about a member's experience at CC United Soccer Club, a soccer club in Minnesota.

How long have you been a part of CC United Soccer Club? What attracted you to the club?

I've been involved with CC United for pretty much as long as I can remember. So I first started in CC United at around age five or six, I was a rec player, and then I continued with CC United until about age 17. So pretty much the majority of my youth soccer playing career was at CC United, and my best memories of my youth career were at CC United. Since then, as a college student and coming back as a recent college graduate, I've tried to stay involved in any roles I can. So helping out with coaching, working tryouts, or even talking on college panels. A couple of things that have kept me and my family highly involved in CC United is, first of all, this sense of community that CC United creates within the Carver County area, its commitment to player and coach development, and also how it strives to create opportunities for all players within the area.

What has been your favorite experience at CC United Soccer Club?

So it's pretty difficult to pick just one favorite experience at CC United because I spent so much time with the club, and as I spent pretty much my entire youth playing career there. But a couple of my favorite experiences were, first of all, when I was younger, I would always go and train with my own team, but also my brother's team. And I remember as a nine or 10-year-old, I would think that was so cool being able to train with so many different teams and being able to play up with my brother. And then kind of as I got older, some of my favorite experiences were being able to travel with the team. Those away tournaments, when Kansas City, for example, the USA Cup was always a great time playing with teams from pretty much around the world and being able to compete and trade pins with them. That was always such a fun time.

But I would say, related to the club, one of the coolest moments I had...I remember my senior year of high school, when we played and we did well, and we played Chan. And it was pretty much my entire U13-U14 on the field at one time, playing in the same game. So that was definitely a super cool moment.

And now coming back and being involved with with the club as a coach, there's been a lot of cool moments, specifically just kind of helping younger generation, younger kids go through that same process that I went through developing as a player, making friends, and just having fun with the game is always such a cool thing to see.

What kind of impact can the club have on a player’s development?

So for me, it goes without saying that finding the right club and the right environment goes an incredibly far away in a player's personal development, not just in their own development as a player in their own skill set, but also developing a deep passion and a lifelong interest for the game, which I believe to be most important.

One of the things that was special to me as a player coming in at five or five or six years old until I graduated high school at 18 was that the club always seemed to take a very personalized interest in my own development as a player, and I felt that throughout the entire club at all levels. So when I was a youth player, I would always find ways to go play with other teams in the weekend and just get extra playing, as was appropriate for me. And the club always had the right things along the path that was set up for me to develop correctly as a player. And that's one of the things I always found be always find to be very striking, even coming back as a coach, that even from the youngest levels in Rec or in United in Development, the player's personal development always comes first above all else. And for me, that's what most important, and that's how the club develops its players and what makes it special.

What do you like about the facilities used by CC United Soccer Club?

I always found it cool how many different facilities CC United had access to around just the Carver County area. Whether it was summer or winter, there's always places to play and go play extra and train and train with different teams, which I always thought to be super beneficial for my own development as a youth player.

Would you recommend CC United Soccer Club to a friend or colleague? Why?

Yeah. I would very highly recommend CC United to any player or any parent. CC United has always held a very special place in my heart. I started with CC United when I was about five or six and continued for the majority of my playing career, and I've kept coming back ever since as a coach. What makes CC United so special is that it has opportunities for players across all levels of youth soccer, and it continues to take into account players' personal developments, whether they are a rec player or in United Development age five or six, or if they're playing at the highest levels of U19. CC United also remains very affordable and accessible to all players, which I think to be super important nowadays in youth soccer. And most of all, CC United makes sure to spur a lifelong interest and passion of the game of soccer within all of its players and coaches.

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