VISION & VALUES
Southwest United Soccer Club (SWUSC) is a non-profit organization serving the Lenexa and Shawnee Mission School area communities. Southwest United believes that maximizing the FUN factor is a critical aspect of recreational soccer. More and more families spend some (if not most) of their weekends involved with youth soccer. The time commitment is far too much for it not to be fun.
Our Recreational Program has well over 800 participants each session. Most of our teams are within the U5 – U8 age groups. The make-up of individual teams varies, but many are formed based on elementary school attendance. As a result, most teams choose to practice at locations that are aligned with or close proximity to elementary schools. The majority of children come from Lenexa elementary schools, including Rising Star, Sunflower, Holy Trinity, Bonjour and Crista McAuliffe. We also have a large percentage of players from outside the Lenexa community including Shawnee, Overland Park and Olathe. Our U5-U8 teams play an eight game schedule with games played at Lenexa’s Freedom Fields located at approximately 83rd St. and Monticello.
Our younger teams (U5 and U6) play in a small-sided format that has two 3v3 matches occurring simultaneously side by side. A coach of each team is on the field with each player group. There is no goalie and the emphasis is on having fun, learning some very basic techniques for dribbling, shooting and spacing while letting the kids enjoy scoring goals. The U7 and U8 teams move onto a somewhat larger field and a 6v6 format that includes a goalie. At this level actual positions come into play (forward, midfielder, defender) and spacing and passing become more important to the game. Coaches are now on the sideline. We strongly believe in the small-sided game format (as recommended by the United States Soccer Federation) in that it emphasizes participation and touches on the ball by the maximum number of players.
We also believe in development at all levels of participants. We require that all of our Recreational Coaches attend at a minimum the Kansas youth module training course (Recreational Certificate). We encourage all of our referees to be Certified Officials through Kansas State Youth Soccer Association (KSYSA) and only schedule Certified Officials for our U7 and U8 matches.
Our older REC teams play their league schedule through the Heartland Soccer Association. While we still provide those teams with their practice fields, games are played at Heartland’s locations (Heritage Park, Community Park, Overland Park Soccer Complex, etc).
After each Spring season, SWUSC creates two “All Star” teams. These teams are made-up of players from our boys and girls U8 age group teams. The players are selected based on their performance over the season, by their coach. The teams are registered to play in a local season ending tournament over the Memorial Day weekend. There is no additional cost to the parents, as the tournament registration fee and uniforms are provided by SWUSC.
Let us not forget the physical benefits of playing soccer as well. Soccer is aerobic, children who play soccer are getting into the habit of regularly including exercise in their lives, and the running can help combat obesity in children. Soccer is cooperative, allowing children to play together, through passing and communication. And most of all soccer is FUN. It is estimated that over 40 million children and young people participate in soccer in the United States.
