United States Youth Futsal - Entrepreneur of the Year

Company: United States Youth Futsal
Company Description: United States Youth Futsal is the largest youth futsal organization in the country, with more than 70 local leagues
Nomination Category: Entrepreneur Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Entrepreneur of the Year - Media & Entertainment

Nomination Title: Brian Catrine

US Youth Futsal, aUS Soccer member, is the largest andfastest-growingfutsal organization in the United States, overseeing more than 100 local leagues in 30 states across the country. USYF is committed to the growth and development of youth futsal in the United States – and through online training, across the globe.

Brian Catrine, the Executive Director of United States Youth Futsal, knew they needed to scale their Coaching Education Program to fulfilltheir committed to growing the game. To achieve this, heplanned to identify players without access to futsal, and along with players, the potential coaches who could be trained to coach the game.

Brianlaunched this effort at the time it was needed most – during the pandemic. The storyboarding for the online coaching courses started prior to the pandemic, but its launch during 2020 was a fortunate accident. During the shutdown, potential coaches were able to access training and be ready for the season once it was deemed safe to play.

Challenge
USYF had a wealth of great knowledge and resources, but no technology or method of delivery.

Solution
USYF partnered with CD2 Learning, a technology company with a shared love of soccer and futsal. Finding a partner with shared language and experience was important to Brian. USYF providedthe subject experts, the concept of focusing on what a grass roots coach would need, and future plans to provide online training to more advanced coaches and referees.

Results
The result was a world class online program with a high level of content, instructional videos on playing and drills, and tips from professional coaches. This was proven by the extremely high percentage of learners who started and finished the program. (Including global users from Brazil, Lebanon, Ireland and more.) Following the success of the entry level coaching course, Level II for more experienced coaches and referees was launched at the end of

CD2 Learning took a vast amount of quality information and valuable videos, then broke it into engaging segments that would appeal to different styles of learning. Bite-sized chunks of information made mastery of content more successful. The platform is available to a global audience. The greatest challenge was managing the sheer amount of valuable information.

2020.
About the Online Courses:

USYF Executive Director Brian Catrine stated, “USYF is committed to providing innovative coaching education programs and we are extremely excited to release the Level 1 Course today to the futsal community. Our partners at CD2Learningdid an exceptional job of capturing Coach Tozer’s futsal knowledge and creating a training environment that openly shares best-practices from one of the top futsal minds in our country.” The USYF Level 1 Course is designed to guide the participant through the FIFA laws of the game, provide futsal specific offensive and defensive terminology and concepts, and share best practice coaching methodologies that they can use to develop their youth players. Upon completion of the online course, each participant will receive one year of access to all of Coach Tozer’s training videos and session plans used in the Level 1 module.
https://www.cd2learning.com/Home.aspx

The United States Youth Futsal Level 2 Course builds off the foundation presented in the Level 1 module. In this course, we take a deeper dive into the Offensive and Defensive systems, principles, and phases of play. Coach Keith Tozer is back and guides the experience sharing specific futsal methodologies that he used with his US Futsal Men’s National Team while winning 2 CONCACAF Championships. This course also includes several animated templates and videos demonstrating the key concepts.

The sport of soccer continues to grow in popularity. Along with the popularity among players, the sports and sports entertainment accounts for the largest percentage of the entertainment industry. Providing the coaching, training, and promotion of USYF through online software contributes to the elevation of the game and industry overall.

1. First Online (Global) Coaches Training for Futsal
2. Videos and activities featuring top coaches, top players, and solid instruction
3. Completion of course includes a year-long subscription to revisit information
4. Extremely high percentage of learners who started and finished the program
5. Timing is everything, content and production took place in 2019 with a launch in 2020
6. Global interest from the start
7. Advantage of collaborating with a software platform with interest and experience in soccer. Shared language and understanding
8. Goal of truly reaching areas and players and potential coaches who had no access to the sport. The online format made this possible in a way that was not possible before