Our Club’s player development philosophies and methods do NOT align with those SuperClubs where MONEY rules and corrupts! Here, at Cooper City, a volunteer-based organization, we develop the kids the “right way” and it is why we are today among South Florida’s Top Youth Academy Clubs in the younger U8 to U11 age groups. We believe our Program offers the highest youth soccer training value package in South Florida today when you look at what you pay and what you get!
Why is our cost so low? Because your child will NOT have to pay coaching fees or high field usage fees which you do in the "money" clubs!
Ø The Cooper City Optimist (CCO) is a 100% volunteer-based not-for-profit organization responsible for managing our Travel Soccer Program. All of the overall program management, soccer coaching, and team management services are done voluntarily (PRO-BONO). In return for all this community service volunteerism, the City of Cooper City provides CCO priority access to its Sports Complexes fields. Here at Cooper City, we do it for the kids and the love of the game!
How is it possible for a small volunteer-based organization to achieve such extraordinary league play and tournament results in the Academy age groups?
Ø Because we can develop our players the “right way”. The 8 to 10-year-old age groups are the golden years of learning where kids are most open and accessible to learning and why we should teach everything about the game of soccer. We try to give all our kids a chance to play and experience playing multiple positions. The kids learn such social values as SACRIFICE (sharing playing time and their favorite position; Sportsmanship (winning & losing with grace); Teamwork (Roles & Responsibilities; Set Plays; collaboration as teammates), PERSEVERANCE (learning never to give up!), and many other important life values. By removing financial compensation from the Coach and Club relationship, Coaches no longer feel the pressure for delivering immediate results (winning) to guarantee their contract renewal the following year. Therefore, our Coaches are not tempted to “specialize” 8, 9, and 10-year old’s into simply playing one field position (like having a full-time GK at U8) or sit players during games and only play the team’s top talent to ensure or preserve a win. Adopting the conventional player development models used by the "money" Clubs will at best allow us to keep up with their Program’s player development pace.
However, to reach our goal of being among the best in South Florida, we must be able to "out-develop" their player development programs; meaning, our player development rate must be faster than that of our competition. To help us achieve that objective, the CCO Player Development Program features 5 unique player development strategies with long-term benefits some of which will not be apparent until the 2nhalf of the season and in another year or two.
1. The development of "versatile players" - such that our children will be trained and allowed to play different field positions. Our Player Development Program does not believe in field position specialization at an early age like having dedicated goalkeepers, goal scorers, or defenders. Instead, we want our kids to see play as many positions as possible. To see the game from a different place on the field. Different positions and roles require different skill sets and playing multiple positions will help our kids become complete players. VERSATILITY is our primary player development objective at the Academy level (U9 to U11) age group. We may not be able to offer this option to all the kids on the team, but we will make our best effort to do so.
2. The development of “bench strength” – we will try to give all our children the opportunity to play in every league game and tournament qualifying round games that they attend. That is why we try to limit our team rosters. Limiting the number of players on our bench makes it a lot easier to make sure all our kids get a chance to play. On the other hand, "money" Clubs will roster up to the maximum roster limit. The more players and teams they have, the more revenue they generate for their Club to cover their operational costs. In those clubs, some kids rarely see the field. It is sad to see this but…. you will see it. However, it is important to emphasize that although you will have our best effort to make sure all the kids will play, as stated in our CCCS Club Player Agreement Form, our Program does NOT guarantee a minimum playing time standard. Ultimately, each kid’s playing time will be impacted by ATTENDANCE at practice, the player's EFFORT during the game itself including the week’s practice sessions, and the coaches’ game-time decisions.
3. SUPPLEMENTAL Training – such that twice a week training is not enough if you want your child to go to the next level. We strongly encourage all our Program Membership interested in accelerating their child’s soccer development to consider supplementary training for their child. Reinvest the savings gained from our very economic program into providing private training for your child.
4. Enrich our Coaches Train the Trainer Program – providing all our coaches with age-appropriate audio-visual soccer weekly training lessons (source: YouthSoccerSkills101) and other teaching & statistical technology tools (use of VEO).
5. Development of 2 teams in the younger Age Groups – key to being able to transition through the various age groups. U9 and U10 play 7v7 with a 10-player team roster, U11 and U12 play 9v9 with a 12-player team roster, and U13 and older vary between 16 to 22 depending on the Age Group and competition level.