When it comes to youth club soccer, there is much more than meets the eye. To grow a sustainable youth soccer organization that takes American soccer
When it comes to youth club soccer, there is much more than meets the eye. To grow a sustainable youth soccer organization that takes American soccer to the next level, leaders must be creative and leverage both home-grown excellence and international expertise. In 2014, youth soccer organization Global Premier Soccer (GPS), a Massachusetts-based youth soccer organization, formed a partnership with German giants FC Bayern Munich to bring international expertise to the youth soccer scene. Today, GPS is growing its fan base and roster faster than we can keep up with, with clubs in over ten states. For the German powerhouse, they saw the potential in connecting with their fans in the U.S. and fostering a system that could bring young talent into the international scene.
GPS New Hampshire, the league’s biggest location outside of their HQ in Massachusetts, recently opened a new training facility in Bedford, New Hampshire. “We are extremely excited about the development of the new complex and the impact this will have on player development,” said Lenny Webb, general manager of GPS New Hampshire. “The quality of the surface will provide a perfect platform for developing technical players at the youngest ages.” The new complex will serve as the home of the youth programs for GPS New Hampshire, as well as the Bedford Recreation program run by professional coaching staff. Teams will be able to train throughout the year. Due to the addition of lights to the complex, fall and spring seasons will be able to run longer and start earlier.
As GPS takes steps to build on their success and continue to grow the game, they have partnered with SporTech B.I., a sports technology company based out of San Diego, CA. GPS uses SporTech B.I.’s cloud-based data visualization dashboard, WinSmart, to help manage their front office operations including their finances and social media outreach and marketing. GPS has been a trailblazer in youth soccer, and their use of WinSmart as part of their business reflects their vision to grow the sport by using powerful, easy-to-use business decision analysis tools. As they continue to grow, WinSmart helps GPS leaders gain greater insight into their business data to maximize opportunities on social media and make smart financial decisions to grow the organization.
In terms of cloud-based software, GPS is in no way limited to only using SporTech B.I.’s dashboard. In fact, there are plenty of other similar types of software that could be used to help GPS operate more efficiently. For example, Axxerion offers a computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) which could help them by organizing, planning, tracking, and simplifying any maintenance operations. There has been an increase in the number of cloud-based business solutions available recently, and with this trend set to continue, the sky really is the limit for businesses and organizations like GPS.
