Welcome to YTS!

Dear YTS Parents and Players,
With tryouts over, I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself to you and discuss the Youth Training System (YTS) Program here, the philosophy of the program, as well as some of the new ideas and improvements that we are making.

I am very excited to be back working at CASL after a 5 year stint as the Assistant Men’s Soccer Coach at Wake Forest University where I was fortunate enough to be a part of 3 final 4 appearances and winning a National Championship right here in Cary. As I said when I was first given the opportunity to re-join the CASL staff, there is no better youth soccer club in the country and I truly believe it, I am equally excited to be a part of the YTS program, the future of our club.

Many of you have heard about the changes that we will make to the YTS program to improve the experience for everyone. The teams will play in the North Carolina Champions League, which is a league and partnership with Triangle United and FC Cary. We will also have Mid-Week MatchDays, which will be run by the coaching staff and refereed by older CASL Classic Players (a chance for our young players to get to know some of the top high school aged players in the club). These schedules are being worked on as I write and as soon as I have finalized everything, you all will know.

Many you have also voiced interest in "playing up" and I'd like to address this issue. The very simple answer is that your kids will be pushed and challenged in their age group, and my goal is for these kids to improve at the highest rate possible. After that, I can tell you that there will be measures taken so that I am able to work with each player in the YTS training pool and there will be potential "all-star" games and training sessions throughout the year.

Finally, I would like to speak about this blog that you are reading. My goal for the entire program is to create an environment that allows these kids to enjoy themselves, learn a ton, and improve each time they step on the field. I would like to have an arena to recognize some of these accomplishments and follow the teams as they go through the year. After each playing week I will ask our coaches to give me notes on their teams. With these notes I will recognize kids and teams on this site for their improvements and accomplishments. This will not recognize the "best" players it will recognize improved players, players who demonstrated teamwork or leadership and players who are benefitting from the experience. I will also post a weekly column (during the season) that touches on our program and also includes a soccer "story" or video clip. My hope is that this becomes a place where you and your YTS child can go to read about themselves as well as their freinds and also learn something more about the game. I am also asking your help...as we go through the season if you are a photographer I would like to have pictures posted after each week of games, please send them on to me.

When I update this site, you will recieve an email, if you do not want to recieve an email when there is a new article or group of pictures please let me know and I will take you off the list.

That is it for now. The least favorite part of joining YTS (Paperwork, registration, payments and uniforms) will follow in the next few weeks. Until then, congratulation on your selection and we look forward to working with the group.

Carson
carsonp@caslemail.com