Hello, my name is Daniel, Coach Daniel for those players and sports families that know me. I am raising funds in Partnership with Coach Evan and our competitive soccer families. Coach Evan and I coach at a competitive soccer program. Each year during the Month of May we have tryouts in which we have our local talent showcase their skills with competitive clubs, like ours, in order to possibly earn a spot on the competitive team roster. After all the hard work and earning a place on team, families turn away these great opportunities due to financial challenges. Turning down the opportunity due to family financial predicaments happens every year. Important football [soccer] figures agree this is a problem in the US that should be fixed. We are sick and tired of players missing out on opportunities and having dreams crushed at such an early stage of their development.
With Soccer stars like Zlatan stating "Sports in the US are too expensive. My children play in a good team and I paid $3,500 per child. I don’t like that because not everybody has the money and sport should be for everyone because it unites people regardless of their origins.”
Even Fifa president Gianni Infantino can tell that the “pay-to-play” model in American youth soccer isn’t good for kids or the sport. “One of the things which shocked me here in America is that children have to pay in order to play [soccer]. We have to stop this,” Infantino said
As we wait for the US to fix this problem, Coach Evan and I have decided to do something about it. Coach Evan and I will also proudly be contributing to this fundraiser.
We are hoping to provide a starting 11 full scholarship program. Goal is to raise the funds to fund a whole starting 11 football [soccer] squad. A full scholarship is around $2,500 at our club. This is a nationwide problem with competitive soccer programs. Some clubs charge exorbitant fees for player participation.
Our goal may be quite ambitious for a small community but we aim to impact as many families as we can. Soccer has taught me so many amazing life lessons about hard-work, ups and downs, working as a team, leadership and given me many great tools that have helped me succeed in life. I hope to continue to pass down these tools to all players. Not just to those who can afford it.
We are hoping to have families reach out and apply for our scholarship program. Many families have already expressed their situations to us and have asked for assistance. Financial aid from clubs are not enough. To be clear this will not necessarily, only go to players on our teams. All players from our soccer community can apply and share their situation.
Families can fall into 4 tier categories.
Tier 4: Families needing initial registration cost cover and can make monthly payment installments on rest of cost.
Example: Low income with (under $65,000) with working parents/guardians multiple dependents
Tier 3: Families needing a 1/2 scholarship.
Example: Low income family (under $50,000) with working parents/guardians multiple dependents
Tier 2: Families needing a 3/4 scholarship.
Example: Low income family (under $30,000) with working parents/guardians multiple dependents
Full-time working parent/guardian, 2nd parent recently laid off.
Tier 1: Families needing a full scholarship.
Example: Low income family (under $15,000) with working parents/guardians multiple dependents full-time working parent/guardian in household, multiple dependents
Thank you for checking our gofundme, please donate what you can. Those donating publicly can email me for some Marin soccer sponsor gear/gifts.
If you are not in a situation in which you can donate, that's okay. You can still help us out by sharing our link to your local community threads, Facebook, instagram or private message to people you know.
We are hoping to raise goal by June. Registration deadline for teams are early June and want to provide funds ahead of time.
Thank you Coach Daniel & Coach Evan
