The 2024 soccer season is preparing to kick off at the end of the month with plenty of players and some room for coaches.  

Jordan Isbister president of the Estevan Youth Soccer Association said there are 365 youth enrolled to play this year. This brings the enrollment to 65 more kids than the year before.  

“Younger age groups are really growing in size. However, we are growing the older age groups as all the younger kids are graduating up,” said Isbister, “so I think overall we’re kind of getting a larger age increase in all the age categories."

Isbister also noted that they offer the Youth Free to Be program for players ages 3 - 15 with disabilities.

While the number of kids enrolled in soccer is growing the number of coaches is not keeping up.  

“Coaches don’t need to have kids in soccer. It could be any member of the community that can join to be a coach.” 

To become a coach Isbister said to access the Estevan Youth Soccer website and respond that way or to email estevanyouthsoccer2017@gmail.com. 

Referees are another key player in the soccer season; however, it is not necessarily a volunteer position as the board will pay for those refereeing. There will be a referring clinic this year, as well as a coaching clinic so that they have the right certification in each category.  

In addition to the house leagues, Estevan Youth Soccer has three development teams. The age divisions for those are U11, U13 and U15/17. Isbister added that there is no additional fee to play on those teams.  

“Those teams are intended to travel and go to tournaments outside of Estevan as well as play home-to-home games with cities like Weyburn and Redvers.”