The Highlands Soccer Club:
Building Skills, Teamwork, Community and Good Health

By Umit Gokce,
Club Director

If you find yourself around Issaquah Highlands’ Central Park on a Sunday afternoon this spring or fall, chances are you will see uniformed children kicking and running after balls. That would be the Highlands Soccer Club. It is a weekend tradition that has become increasingly common for residents in the community. With the 2008 program beginning on April 20th, it is the largest organized program in the Highlands.

The Highlands Soccer Club was conceived in early 2005 by fellow Highlands resident Mark Velicer. I saw a notice in the Connections and gave Mark a call. A few weeks later, we held the club’s first practice at the sport court on Park Drive with a small but enthusiastic group. Run continuously as a volunteer based organization, we have grown nicely since our simple beginning.

I have been playing soccer for over 30 years and coaching my daughter Tessa for the last 6, but I never felt more excited about the game as I do now. It is a passion I hope to help pass along to even more of the area’s families in 2008.

The Highlands Soccer Club is unique on a number of levels. In addition to being volunteer based, it is exclusively co-ed, it runs during both the spring and fall, and is offered to children as young as 3 up through 12 years old. We also manage all our costs very carefully so that in the end, parents pay only $45 (plus a team uniform fee) to register for the entire spring and fall season.

Perhaps most importantly, the club’s approach favors skill building and individual development. Some clubs may apply only a few sessions to skill building and then immerse them exclusively in games for the remainder of the season. This method does not do very much to correctly introduce new techniques or sort out issues. Our philosophy places an emphasis on player enjoyment, positive feedback, and conditioning as well as team play. I suppose that is one distinct advantage of a program provided by community-based volunteers -- they have a more vested interest in the happiness and well-being of the kids participating in the program. And after all, their parents know where you live.

The Highlands represents a unique opportunity for residents to take part in creating an ideal lifestyle in their own vision. We have had some very good response and results with the soccer program so far. However, our continued success will be shaped in large part by new volunteers. I would like to ask people living in and around the area to help by volunteering in ways that may be familiar or to take on a new challenge.