10 Years + Ten Milestones: We've Saved Our Members More than $1 Million

The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks we'll be celebrating 

ten of the club's milestones over the last decade.

Below is an updated version of a post first published in February 2022.

No. 9: We've Saved Our Members More than $1 Million

When our club's co-founder Aaron Graffam and I hosted our inaugural player evaluations in July 2014 we had a crest, a deliberately-misspelled name, club colors, and the ambitions to build a quality soccer club that was more affordable and accessible than a couple of the most popular options that had existed in southern Maine at the time.

But we didn't have any registered players or registered teams, and our bank account was bare.

Since that modest start in July 2014 many of us (see acknowledgements below) have worked to gradually build the program into a 19-team club that has more than players ages 9-23.

A number of our club's teams have won their divisions in the Maine State Premier League over the years, and a couple of our teams have qualified as Maine's representatives in U.S. Youth Soccer regional tournaments in their respective age groups. And numerous players have not only enjoyed successful high school player careers, but have gone on to experience successful college playing careers. 

We're proud of the administrators, coaches, players, and teams we've been developing, and we think we've cultivated a reputation as a quality club.

And there's one other thing we're proud of besides building a quality club: Since that modest start in July 2014 we've saved our members more than $1 million in registration fees. 

That's right:

10 Years + Ten Milestones: Multigenerational Club (No. 8)

The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks we'll be celebrating

ten of the club's milestones over the last decade.

No. 8: Multigenerational Club

After rostering only youth teams since our club's founding in 2014, we rostered a 23U Men's team for the first time last summer as part of our longterm goal of becoming a multigenerational club.

Multigenerational clubs, of course, have been the international norm for decades, and they've recently become more common in the United States. But here in Maine there are very few clubs with both youth and adult teams, and we are a proud founding member of the Maine Soccer Association--a state association affiliated with U.S. Soccer and the U.S. Adult Soccer Association founded to provide men's and women's programming that complements our clubs' youth programming. 

One benefit of being a multigenerational club is it no longer requires our players to "retire" from our club when they graduate from high school, but they can instead continue playing for our men's and women's teams.

And besides extending the developmental pathway for our players, being a multigenerational club allows us to provide more developmental opportunities for our club's administrators, coaches, referees, and all other stakeholders.

As we plan our 2024 23U Men's and 23U Women's rosters, it's pretty cool to look back at our inaugural 23U Men's team whose roster consisted of about 70% of our youth alums and whose inaugural goal was the result of a sequence that included three of our youth alumni.

- John C.L. Morgan

10 Years + Ten Milestones: National Championship Competitions (No. 7)

The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks we'll be celebrating ten of the club's milestones over the last decade.

No. 7: National Championship Competitions

In previous posts we've written about how our club's structure is designed to position ourselves as just one of numerous regional clubs in Maine that represent distinct communities and compete in a state-based league called the Maine State Premier League.

But that's not to say that we limit our club's aspirations and programming only to the confines of the Pine Tree State. 

There is, of course, the Iceland capstone experience that we're designing for future teams, so that our club's members may experience international play at least once in their youth club careers. 

But on an every year basis, we're looking to provide more opportunities for our teams and members to experience national-level competition. And we've been doing that by competing in the U.S. Youth Soccer (USYS) national competitions, the National Championship series and the Presidents Cup competition.

The geographic footprint of U.S. Youth Soccer's National Championships and Presidents Cup

There are four regions in the USYS national competitions, and our state's region spans from Maine to Virginia. Each year, USYS hosts a National Championship and a Presidents Cup with similar structures and processes for 12U-19U teams: Qualify to represent your state in your age bracket, compete in one of four regional events, and potentially earn a spot in a national championship.

A photo of our U18 Boys team in 2015, before setting out for a 13-hour drive from Westbrook, Maine

to Charleston, West Virginia in a 12-passenger van we rented from a local muffler shop

Since our inaugural season, four of our club's teams have competed in USYS regional events, and we have two more teams--our 17U Boys and 14U Girls--competing in the 2024 edition of the Presidents Cup in West Virginia next month. 

Over the last decade, our teams have traveled to West Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. And over the last decade our teams have become progressively more competitive each trip, with our 17U Boys and 14U Girls teams earning our first win and first positive result respectively last summer in Pennsylvania.

A team photo of our 17U Boys team that earned our club's first win in a USYS national 

championship event last season

A team photo of our U14 Girls team that earned our club's first point in a USYS national

championship event last season

As a club, we'd prefer if these two options for regional and national competitions featured an Eastern Region that was split in half from, say, Maine to New Jersey. We think this would not only boost the number of teams competing in the regional tournaments, but also the number of teams competing in the state-level qualifying competitions. 

But we'll continue to be deliberate about selecting which competition best fits our teams, so that we can provide our members another level of positive developmental experiences.

- John C.L. Morgan

10 Years + Ten Milestones: Regional Club Model (No. 6)

The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks

we'll be celebrating ten of the club's milestones over the last decade. 

Since our founding in 2014, our club has always aspired to just be one of many regional clubs in Maine that serve a distinct geographical area.

Initially we referred to our regional model as a "sister club" model, and then there was a period of time when we referred to our model as a "hub club" model. But more recently, we've found the "regional club" moniker to be the most descriptive and simplest way to describe our club's model.

Whatever we've called our model, it's always featured the same characteristics: Drawing most of our administrator, coach, and player pool from a limited number of neighboring communities; providing programming that complements the programming offered by those communities' high school programs and fellow Soccer Maine member clubs that offer programming from August-November; and fostering collaborative working relationships with the other soccer programs in our region.

As a result, most of our club's administrators and coaches live and/or coach in Gorham, Scarborough, Westbrook, and Windham. And about 89% of our club's 300+ players live and/or play in those four communities.

A cool dynamic our model creates occurs every fall, when our club's coaches and players compete against each other while they represent their respective high school and town-based clubs in competitions.

Scenes from our members' high school games at Scarborough High School, Gorham High 

School, Westbrook High School, and Windham High School in 2023 

But there are also more practical benefits for our club's regional model:

• A regional model for clubs would lead to the development of more clubs in Maine, which would likely result in lower coach-to-player ratios in clubs, lower registration fees for players, less travel time for everyone, and other benefits that are more beneficial for all of Maine's soccer stakeholders

• A regional model for clubs would lead to closer working relationships among the all soccer stakeholders in particular regions, which give Maine clubs the best chance to provide coaches and players with a consistent, 10-11 month experience coaches and players around the world receive by playing with a single program

• A regional model for clubs would provide everyone--parents, players, coaches, administrators, etc.--a clear developmental pathway within Maine. Our state does pretty well offering defined and understood programming at the local and state levels, but more regional clubs would serve as a vital connector for the local and statewide programming we have in Maine

A simple graphic that shows the developmental pathway Maine's soccer stakeholders

could follow with more regional clubs serving as connectors between local, 

town-based programs and statewide programming

Unfortunately, the trend in U.S. youth soccer is the development of soccer "clubs" that aim to vacuum up as many (relatively high) registration fees as possible across an entire state, across state lines, or even across national boundaries. 

This trend has resulted in a confusing and ever-changing alphabet soup of competing leagues and competitions. And this trend has also resulted in a disjointed and uneven developmental ecosystem that requires the highest participation fees and the most time-consuming travel demands in the world.

On the other hand, Maine has shown with its Fall Classic youth clubs and high school programs that geographically-defined organizations cultivate more stability, ensure lower participation fees, and foster good levels of competition.

And we're proud that our club has demonstrated over the last decade that more regional clubs in Maine can provide more affordable, more competitive, and quality experiences *within* our state.

- John C.L. Morgan

10 Years + Ten Milestones: Cooperative Club Model (No. 5)

The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks

we'll be celebrating ten of the club's milestones over the last decade

No. 5: Cooperative Club Model

Since our club's founding in 2014, we've tried to utilize a cooperative club model whenever possible--especially when it comes to our club's geography, size, governance, and relations with other Maine clubs.

Club Geography + Club Size

One inspiration for our club's name is the Roosevelt Trail, or the Route 302 road along the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway that was initially designed to be part of a highway that connected Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon. 

Specific to our club's name, Roosevelt Trail connects three communities we initially identified as the geographical footprint of our club. And though that specific geographical footprint has evolved over time, our club's aspiration to serve as a regional club has not shifted.

We've never had aspirations to become a statewide franchise, a multi-state franchise, or even an international franchise like other youth sports organizations in the United States. 

Instead, we've always aspired to just be one of numerous regional clubs in Maine that could work together to play an important connecting role between the 40+ town-based clubs in our state and a statewide select program in our state. 

This specific definition of our club's geography has not only motivated us to try to be as cooperative with other Maine soccer clubs as possible, but it's also helped us define our club's size.

Because we've deliberately focused on a handful communities to roster our teams, we've tried to be careful about emphasizing quality instead of quantity when rostering our teams. And we've tried to be careful to emphasize quality instead of quantity when designing our programming. 

As a result, we've figured out over the last decade that an 18-team, 332-player club that offers playing opportunities to boys and girls ages 9-19 is probably the maximum ideal for our club's cooperative model. 

Club Governance + Club Relations

When we're developing our programming and budgets, we see ourselves as a responsible steward of our members' funds to maximize our players' on-field experiences instead of a business that devotes a significant amount of our budget toward staff salaries and/or profit margins for investors. 

We strongly believe amateur soccer clubs should be professional, but not professionalized. And our cooperative approach to our programming, budget, and registration fees reflect that belief.

Thinking of our club's players and their families as our members instead of our customers has also helped us develop good governance practices like including a club representative elected by members on our Board of Directors and providing numerous opportunities for our members to provide formal feedback and attend our Board meetings. And when we restructured our club has part of the process of becoming an independent club, we put into place a process for our club's coaches and directors to become co-owners of the club. 

In fact, we currently have one majority owner, 15 co-owners who've accumulated (and continue to accumulate) actual equity in our club through their sweat equity, a number coaches and directors who are potential future co-owners, and a plan to eventually sell at least 10% of ownership in our club to members and/or supporters as we continue to mature as a multigenerational club. This cooperative approach within our club has also informed our attempts to be as cooperative with other Maine clubs as possible.

The primary reason we run our programming from January-June, for example, is so that our club complements--instead of competing with--the town-based U9-U14 Fall Classic clubs and high school programs in Maine. We love the fact that our players can focus on representing their communities and their schools from August-November, without also worrying about juggling responsibilities and schedules for our club.

And when it comes to our working relationships with our Maine State Premier League clubs, we try to adhere to the mantra of one of the former directors of that league: Compete on the field, and cooperate off the field.

- John C.L. Morgan

10 Years + Ten Milestones: Iceland Capstone (No. 4)

The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks we'll be celebrating ten of the club's milestones over the last decade.

No. 4: Iceland Capstone

Our club first developed a relationship with Icelandic soccer clubs in February 2019, when one of our co-founders and chairman visited Iceland's federation and three clubs for a whirlwind 72-hour tour of Iceland's federation and three of its clubs--Breiðablik, Grindavík, and Víkingur Reykjavík.

We had hoped to further develop those relationships by planning a 3-game tour for our 19U Boys team in April 2020, but that trip was unfortunately canceled when international travel was shutdown by the outbreak of COVID-19 about a month before our team was scheduled to fly to Iceland.

But we reconnected with all three clubs with another set of administrator-level meetings in Iceland in April 2022, which laid the groundwork for our 19U Boys and 16U Girls teams' 3-game tour in Iceland last April.

That inaugural trip featuring 78 of our members was such a positive and successful experience that our club's directors have identified it as a culminating experience we'd like our club's oldest players to continue to experience in the future.

The planning, logistics, and resources required for a recurring trip to Iceland are too daunting for us to undertake every year, or even every other season. 

But it's probably realistic for us to plan a similar every third year, which will play a factor in how we structure our youth pathway to try to ensure our 17U, 18U, and 19U players have the opportunity to play in Iceland at least once before the end of their youth careers with our club.

Our members' on-field experiences during our inaugural trip were eye-opening, and our off-field cultural and social experiences were enriching. And our continued partnership with Icelandic clubs can be just the latest example of growing connections between Maine and Iceland.

Breiðablik is a large club located in the Reykjavik suburb Kopavagur, and the club hosted both of our teams for friendlies. Their women's team earned a spot in the Round of 16 in the UEFA Women's

Champions League in 2019-2020 before being knocked out by Paris Saint-Germain.

Grindavík is a small club located along the coast, and the club hosted both of our teams for friendlies. Their men's and women's teams are known domestically for punching above their weight, but 

their town has been the focus of international attention since December because 

of an active volcano in the area.

Not only did Víkingur Reykjavík host both of our teams for a friendly, but they also recognized our 

club and players during the pre-game introductions of one of their club's

men's Iceland Cup games.

- John C.L. Morgan

10 Years + Ten Milestones: Youth Pathway (No. 3)

 The Rosevelt Soccer Club is celebrating its 10th season, so over the next ten weeks we'll be celebrating ten of the club's milestones over the last decade.

No. 3: Youth Pathway

As we wrote in a previous post, the original plan in 2014 was for our club to roster only a U18 Boys team and a U16 Boys team for the remainder of those players' high school soccer careers. 

But before we kicked off our first season in the Maine State Premier League in April 2015, we'd added a U13 Boys team to our club's roster. And in 2017, we added our first girls' teams to our club's roster. 

So what started as a small club that was designed to last only a few years has gradually grown to become a club of 17 teams that has articulated a very ambitious long-term plan.

One of the key milestones that we identified for our club was the development of a youth pathway that provides playing opportunities for players ages 9U-19U, and we're excited that we're well-positioned to build a roster of teams that will help us build that pathway among our boys' and girls' teams next season!

- John C.L. Morgan