​Congratulations to Sporting Iowa, who was named Sporting Club Network Member of the Year, presented by Price Chopper.
Co-Leaders of Sporting Iowa, Chuck Ebensberger (WDMSC) and Scott Vander Hart (JUSC) accepted the award at Pitch Black, Sporting Kansas City’s annual team awards ceremony, on Friday at Children’s Mercy Park.
Sporting Iowa put forth serious effort in promoting coaching education opportunities throughout the year. The club spent their money sending additional directors to our affiliate visit at Sporting KC’s preseason where they had the opportunity to engage and share best practices with Manager Peter Vermes and the rest of the technical staff.
In the spring, they brought 20+ affiliate coaches to Kansas City for an exclusive observation day. At observation day, they spent time on field learning from coaches of professional and youth teams. Sporting Iowa regularly requested additional spots at our various directors’ summits, which gave many key staff members the chance to learn from our club and the other affiliates between our program.
Along with promoting Sporting Club Networks educational opportunities, Sporting Iowa helped educate their staff on the developmental methodologies implemented at Sporting Kansas City. Therefore, the supportive efforts of player development events and competitions were also prominent.
Sporting Iowa helped us co-host our first affiliate market camp in the Des Moines area. They sent a record number of boys and girls teams to participate in our academy affiliate friendlies tournaments in the spring and fall. Additionally, they sent countless players to Kansas City for player identification and developmental purposes through our All-Star Experience and our regional player pool.
Internally as a club, they made a massive commitment to supporting their players in the college recruitment process by hiring full time college advisors who had extensive careers in coaching in collegiate and youth ranks.
The Sporting Club Network proudly congratulates Sporting Iowa for winning SCN Member of the Year and appreciates all the organization does for the Sporting KC’s overall youth development system!
