LSA soccer gives Laramie youth the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and emotionally through participation in low-pressure team sports. Our two most fundamental rules are that every player must play half of every game and that LSA will not keep win/loss records or team standings. Players are taught that when they have given their very best in a game, that win, lose, or draw, they owe no apology to anyone for anything they did on the field. We believe children should play just for the joy of the game.
Sports competition, when carried on without outside pressure to win, is useful in developing healthy, normal, positive people. Whether they do or do not go on to sports excellence is far less important that that they get the beneficial experience that is also FUN. We think that those who do not excel in sports may gain even more from our program than those who do.
Our primary goals are to maximize the children's participation and to teach good sportsmanship. Although we work hard to insure balanced teams, some will inevitably be stronger than others. We specifically ask our coaches to avoid overwhelming the weaker teams through positions and substitutions that keep the game fun and improve friendly competition. Coaches insure that all players get the chance to play all field positions, and do not concentrate on developing individual players for specific positions.