Mill City FC Youth Soccer Club Tryouts Starting June 10th

It's that time of year again – time to choose your child's soccer experience for next year. How do you choose the one that will be the best for your player?

Mill City FC, the re-launch of Westford-based PASA FC, is set on being the answer to that question. It's a new club with an Old World, European focus on long-term player development. Its coaches have produced multiple players who have started as freshmen on their High School varsity teams, and who have gone on to Division 1 college soccer careers. They have coached multiple Division 1 MAPLE teams, the 3-time Northeast Regional Futsal Champions, the 2012 US Girls Under-15 National Champions, and the 2013 Girls Under-16 National Championship Finalists.

But Massachusetts youth soccer is now Big Business, with small clubs being swallowed up by huge clubs with dozens of teams and hundreds of players. Directors of Coaching are making well into six figures. The clubs compete for parents' dollars by stressing both their win/loss records and their team rankings as published by companies selling soccer software and advertising clicks.

This ecosystem benefits the clubs, their Directors of Coaching, and the companies that sell soccer software, but does it really benefit the players? Claudio Reyna, the former captain of the US Men's National Team and the current USSF Youth Soccer Technical Director, doesn't think so. “I think the winning aspect is what has caused some really ugly youth soccer,” Reyna said. Neither does Jose Ramon Alexanco, the director of world-famous soccer club Barcelona's youth program: "We don't demand that the youth teams win," said Alexanco. "We demand that they play good soccer. We don't use the word, 'winning.'"

Mill City FC's challenge is to get parents to focus not on the short term quest for the best teams they can get their players on this season, to a search for the club that can improve their players the most by the end of High School. Says President and Director of Club Operations, Wayne Currie, “College coaches recruit elite players with elite skills, not elite teams.” As Head Womens Soccer Coach at Emmanuel College since 2002, he should know.

Director of Player and Coaching Development, Jeff Lamy, has raised the bar on soccer skills development by introducing futsal to his players. Futsal is the only indoor soccer game sanctioned by FIFA, the international governing body of soccer. It is played 5v5 with a smaller ball on a basketball-sized court - ideal for snowy New England winters. It develops skill and speed in tight spaces,quickness of thought, and the movement by players without the ball so essential to keeping possession of the ball, whether indoors or outdoors. Coach Lamy says developing players is his top priority. "Mill City FC will provide our players with many different options to grow and develop their skills. As the Director of Coaching it is my job to make sure our players are both technical and tactical. It is also my goal to make sure our players have the skills necessary to play the highest levels if they choose."

Long-time player and Director of Communication John Morrison says that Mill City FC is the fruit of a soccer culture finally taking root in Massachusetts. “Three of our coaches grew up playing locally in the same possession-oriented system they now teach. They live here, are committed to our communities, and are not just here on work visas. Massachusetts soccer parents are no longer satisifed with `boom ball' or `bully ball' wins. They want to see quality soccer. And that's what we'll give to them.”

Tryouts begin week of June 10th at Jack Walsh Field in Westford, MA. Summer foot skills clinicsbegin the week of June 24th, also at Jack Walsh Field.

For more information, please visit http://www.millcityfc.com.