A Letter from the Chairman and Board of Directors

November 30, 2021

Dear LaPorte soccer family,

You might not realize this but The Laporte Travel Soccer Club has been around for 35 years and your child is part of its history.  That’s a long time for a soccer club and it’s safe to say that a second generation of kids is currently playing for the Club.  In more recent years the club has had a modest presence in the community. This is mainly because it’s purely a volunteer run organization and the volunteer-ship has not been what it needs to be for the club to truly prosper.  As the Chairman I’m writing to you to let you know that recently, due to an influx of enthusiastic volunteers, a new and exciting direction for the club is unfolding.

First, a new board of directors has been formed.  The board is putting together many new initiatives, one of which is the club’s new name,  La Porte FC (La Porte Futbol Club).   So what’s with the name, “futbol”?   Well the modern game we know as soccer has its roots in England dating back to the early 1800’s.  Back then the sport was officially called Association Football.  Also, at that time in England it was common to shorten nouns and append “-er” to the end.  So an Association Football player was called a soccer (from the 3-5 letters of “Association”).  As the popularity of soccer increased around the world the term football was the more common way to refer to the game, but it took on the phonetic version, futbol.  So why is this important to our club? There is no arguing that soccer is the most widely played game in the world.  FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) has 211 countries with national teams.  This is more member countries than the United Nations has at 193.  To say soccer is a common denominator bridging nearly every culture in the world together is an understatement.  We feel by taking on the new name which incorporates “futbol” we link our small but promising club to this expansive variety of humanity, tradition and history that is associated with the sport. . 

Second, as I mentioned, the board is putting forth many other new initiatives to improve the quality of soccer it provides to Laporte’s young players.  A key initiative is a program to educate and train volunteer coaches.  We feel so strongly about improving the quality of the coaching two board positions, Director and Assistant of Coaching,  have been created to develop this program.  Josh Aaron and Connor McCoy, coaches of the Laporte High School soccer team, have been elected to these positions.  Both of these gentlemen have a deep understanding of the game and we feel fortunate to have them spearheading this initiative.

Another key initiative is the development of a non-travel component to the club.  Pat McCoy a few years ago created the Laporte Soccer Academy for the U5 to U9 divisions.  It teaches the kids the basics of the game without the added commitment of traveling.  It has had good success and is very popular with parents of younger children wanting to expose them to soccer (or team sports in general) at a young age.  The next natural step to the Academy is an non-travel intra-club (in-house) league where teams are formed from our local players and coaches and they practice and compete weekly amongst each other.

Finally, the club has its roots in travel soccer.  Travel soccer will remain the club’s flagship program in that it will cater to those athletes who want to compete at a more advanced and competitive level.  The intention of the travel program is to field the best of La Porte FC, both players and coaches, and participate in competitive leagues at the regional and state levels.  Creating a larger base of well trained players that have gone through the ranks of the Academy and competing in the intra-club program will allow us to conduct try-outs for the travel teams.  Essentially one could say if the travel team is succeeding then the non-travel programs must be thriving as well.  So there’s a lot of motivation for all of us to have the different programs working in conjunction. Between improved coaching and a player selection process we are confident we’ll be competitive in the more advanced leagues.  As a result of these efforts, the young soccer player who wants to compete at this higher level will have a better overall experience when she/he is on the field representing La Porte FC.

These initiatives require an extraordinary amount of effort.  As I mentioned already the club is purely volunteer-run and that all of this is happening because a group of enthusiastic volunteers have stepped up.  More volunteers are still needed so please consider contacting us to help out.  In the meantime here is a list of ways you can help.

What can you do to help the club now?

• Any email you receive from us, especially ones offering a soccer program, please share with someone you think would be interested.
• Follow our social media accounts and like, comment and repost our social media posts.
• Invite friends and family to our games.
• Come to the public board meetings.
• Volunteer!  We need coaches but there are many other positions in which we need help also.
• Run for a board position as it comes up for election.

Before I forget, ultimately the best way to support the club is to sign up your children to play!

Yours truly,
Tom McCoy
Chairman
La Porte FC

Board of Directors
Chairman: Tom McCoy
Vice Chairman: Zach Huber
Secretary: Krishna Pillai
Treasurer: Patrick McCoy
Registrar: Pablo Saban
Director of Coaching: Josh Aaron
Asst. Director of Coaching: Connor McCoy