More Opportunities to Play: Palo Alto Soccer Club and Silicon Valley Soccer Academy's New Adult League

In a typical year, Palo Alto Soccer Club (PASC) and Silicon Valley Soccer Academy (SVSA) provide scholarship aid to over 100 youth soccer players.

This past year has been anything but typical.

“All of our main fundraising events were cancelled due to the pandemic,” says PASC and SVSA Administrative Director Eric Madrigal. “We’ve had to turn talented players away from the club because we didn’t have financial support available for them. As someone who came from a less privileged background, it really hurt and really stuck with me when we couldn’t help those players."

The club directors came up with a number of ideas to raise money, but most still weren’t viable due to the restrictions in place.

Then the idea of an adult league came up.

“We had talked about it but never really had the time to put the structure into place for an adult league. With events cancelled and less travel for games and tournaments, we finally had the time and energy to put something together,” explains Madrigal.

Inspired by futsal and small-sided play, PASC and SVSA created a co-ed 7v7 league. The club chose the smaller size format to get more players involved in faster paced, more engaging games.

Best of all, proceeds from the adult league would go towards scholarships for PASC and SVSA players.

Launching the new league

The clubs began promoting the league to their club members and in several social media posts

Only a few players registered. “It was really slow at first,” recalls Madrigal. “Then all of a sudden, whole teams started signing up.” The clubs planned to run the league on Monday nights. Thanks to demand, the league quickly expanded to Tuesday nights too.

The league has been a local success with “150 players signed up” and “more signing up as word of mouth spreads.”

Feedback from the players has been overwhelmingly positive.

“People want longer games and more playing time,” says Madrigal. “Even teams that aren’t successful on the field are hanging around for 15, 20 minutes after the game and just enjoying themselves and the atmosphere."

For PASC and SVSA, building community is the real goal.

What's next?

In its current state, the adult league will only generate a small portion of the two clubs’ typical fundraising. While Madrigal plans to grow the league and thus fund additional scholarships, he stresses the importance of the league as a community initiative.

“Now that we’ve started the league, we want it to become a part of the culture in the area. We don’t want there to be any barriers to playing soccer. This program allows us to help kids who need scholarships and also provides a place for adults to compete."

Madrigal has already made adjustments to the league format in response to player feedback, such as adding an extra player to make games 8v8 and changing some rules regarding goalkeepers. He envisions future versions of the league to have competitive brackets based on skill levels and a full year schedule.

“We at PASC and SVSA want our clubs to be synonymous with Palo Alto. We want to represent the community that we’re a part of and provide opportunities for everyone in our community to play soccer."

If you're in the Bay Area, sign up for the PASC/SVSA Adult Soccer League today! Watch out for new league seasons in the summer.

The Byga team is excited to be a part of a community initiative that's helping expand access to soccer. We look forward to continuing to support PASC and SVSA's operations and club management.