As parents of kids who have been playing with YSI for many years, we would like to take a moment to express what YSI and The YSI Foundation mean to our kids and us. The YSI philosophy of emphasizing fun first, player growth, team building, and fair play resonates with us because it matches the values we have for our kids within the experience of competitive sports. Additionally, we embrace YSI’s approach of providing the right level of competition, which teaches our kids the joys of celebrating as a team and the resilience to carry on when things don’t go their way. We feel like these are important lessons that our kids will carry with them throughout life. With YSI, we know our children will strengthen their bonds with a Chicago and global soccer community, and become life-long fans and ambassadors of the beautiful game.

We know that it takes a village to raise our children well, and through their dedication to developing our kids and to soccer, we deeply trust the YSI coaches and staff to be valued and treasured members of that village. By now, so many of us have witnessed the many ways that YSI coaches and the YSI philosophy build up our kids’ self-confidence, empathy, and emotional and physical intelligence. We have seen how the YSI team cultivates within our children a sense of joy, hard work, humility in victory, and persistence in defeat. Their interaction with our kids brings us joy. They’re inspirational, caring, and give them the proper amount of discipline that comes with being on a team. We see it in how they interact with each other, celebrating together after successes and supporting one another when they make mistakes. It is through these experiences that we see our kids grow, not only as soccer players, but also as positive, confident, and caring human beings.