BACKGROUNDER - FLYERS UNITED GIRLS SOCCER 03/04
I am Gary Johnson, dad of a couple kids at Truman Middle School. I am also an assistant coach
on a U12 yr old girl's select soccer team named the Flyers United. The head coach is John
Westerman, whose resume includes 8 yrs as Head Girl's Coach at Fontbonne University, and
over 20 years of coaching select girls soccer. Our other assistant coaches/manager are Cheri
Thomas and Claudia Fife.
Flyers United is an independent team which was formed 4 years ago and is comprised primarily
(but not exclusively) of girls who live in the Lindbergh School District. The intent is to keep the
players together until high school. While we have the "Flyers" name, there is no formal ties to
the Lindbergh School District and we are fully funded by the parents. Being an independent
team has pluses and minuses: + our annual fees versus BIG clubs are much, much lower due to
"low overhead" (vs Lou Fusz, Scott Gallagher, WC St Louis, etc.); - but, being a smaller
independent team makes it more difficult for us to advertise and recruit new players.
We play 11 v 11 games against other select club teams in the SLYSA league (St Louis Youth
Soccer Ass'n) and in a variety of tournaments in and outside of Missouri. The "Soccer Year"
runs July through May, and new kids typically join or drop out during "try-outs" in mid-June.
We play 9 SLYSA games in the fall and 9 in the spring, plus Futsal over Nov -> February and a
couple tournaments. We are not a "hard core" soccer-only team, and several kids play other
sports during the year (although we do attempt to coordinate game schedules).
I don't want to get too technical, but this is an unusual year for St Louis youth soccer tryouts in
that the USYSA (like the rest of the world youth soccer federations) is moving to "birth year
teams." For example, that means that rather than being comprised only of girls who turn 12
during the soccer year (and are typically in the same grade - 6th), our team will change to being
girls who were all born in the same calendar year, such as "born in year 2003, or 2004." This
means our team will span a couple grades, as long as they are girls born in 03 or 04. So this
year we are looking for girls who were born in both years 2003 or 2004 (note: we will required
to play in the older '03 division, although some of the kids on our team were born in '04).
Our practices are usually at fields somewhere in the Lindbergh District, and we typically hold
two per week during the league season. Futsal season is more casual, with fewer practices, and
games are indoors often in a gym. The futsal season focus is more on improving ball skills and
passing and uses a little smaller, less lively indoor soccer ball.
What questions could I answer for you?