Cupertino FC Philosophy

Cupertino FC was created by people who have been deeply invested in AYSO’s philosophies.

We are not part of AYSO, but we do share a similar approach to helping kids play. Since we are a competitive club this does mean that we do take a somewhat different interpretation of some of the specifics, but still these six philosophies do map well to how we work and play in this club.

As a competitive club we do not balance our teams, instead what we seek to do is find the right level of competition for the teams we have. We will work to place our teams in leagues where we expect they will be able to win about half their games (any team that doesn’t face losing around half its games is not competing at the right level to sustain a good challenge for the players).

We expect every player to be active in every game. We do retain the commitment that every member of a team who comes to a game properly prepared to play should expect to play at least half the game. Every player who earns a spot on one of our teams is a valued member of that team and will be playing with everyone on that team. We recruit players who want to play and to learn how to play better. We do not have a “benchwarmer” role in our teams.

Developing our players is the basis of everything we do at Cupertino FC. We are not doing what we do to improve a winning record or polish a reputation as a top-tier club. Everything we do, including striving to find the right level of competition, is based on finding what will best help each individual on our team develop to be a better player.

We believe strongly that registration should always be open, we do not think it helps anybody to force a a club assignment. Any player is always free to go join the team that best fits their needs; similarly, before every season we are open to players where ever they may come from so long as they share the belief that Cupertino FC offers a good fit for them.

Our approach to working with players is based on positive coaching. This approach is at the heart of how we believe we will be successful. We will do well when the players are enjoying what they are doing and feel encouraged to reach higher. At the end of the season our coaches are not evaluated on their win/loss record, they are evaluated on how many of their players want to come back and play with us for the next season.

Finally, good sportsmanship is fundamental to how we manage ourselves, especially as levels of competition increase, and is an absolute base expectation of everybody involved in Cupertino FC. We do not assume where we play that all others will value good sportsmanship as we do, still we do expect all who are affiliated with Cupertino FC to strive to model good sportsmanship in all situations.