A Year Of Growth In The Great Basin Youth Soccer League

By Richard Jay, President, Great Basin Youth Soccer League

The snow is on the mountain, the skis are waxed, Boreal is open — let’s go skiing! Oops, I forgot this is a soccer article and we’re supposed to be talking about soccer in Northern Nevada.

Well, where do we start?

Our Sierra Recreational program has seen awesome growth. In the fall of 2007, we had 1,219 U5-U12 players, and this year we were slightly short of 1,900. Our U10-14 competitive division had 51 teams last fall and this fall we have 74 teams; five additional teams came from our U10/11 division. We have adopted the 8v8 concept, which increased the overall number of teams. This has been a success as players get more touches on the ball and their skills are improving as a result.

SoccerFest was held in August, and had over 1,000 soccer players from Northern Nevada attended. We had picture day, small-sided games, booths and hot dogs. Dave Baumgarder was the chef of the day, serving over 300 hot dogs while dressed in his referee gear; had to yellow card a parent or two for sneaking in front of the kids.

We just finished writing three grant requests with Us Youth Soccer Foundation:

• Kick for Success — We identified Title I schools and have requested funds to run a program to introduce soccer to the kids. It will include games, uniforms, training and a mentoring program.
• New South Valley artificial turf field — We have requested money to build a full-sized field at South Valleys. It will be lined so we can run two U10/11 fields when not using it as a full-sized field. GBYSL has raised over $130,000 so far, and have several fundraising ideas.
• Equipment — With all the financial difficulties facing our parks and recreation departments, we have asked for new mowers, field repairs and general maintenance items to keep the fields in tip-top shape.

In addition, ELKO Indar and Tahoe Wave Futbol Club, based in Incline Village, have joined GBYSL. Welcome!

We are venturing into areas of Northern Nevada where GBYSL does not have much of a presence; teams have come into the league from Winnemucca, Dayton and Susanville. Several clubs will be focusing in parts of Reno/Sparks to increase our presence.

Our website also continues to grow, with additional training material added every day. The best source for information about GBYSL is our website, www.gbysl.org, and information about upcoming events can be found on our calendar. Join us on Facebook!