2021 Holiday Soccer Camp

Our annual Holiday Soccer Camp was located at Fresno Indoor Soccer, and featured our free all-you-can-eat Health Matters snack bar. Big thanks to our event sponsors, Calviva Health Cares and Fresno Unified School District.

Finding inspiration on Zoom

On June 29th, we had a great Zoom session with Coach Ivan Mirkovic, who shared his inspirational story about how he went from a soccer player at Fresno Pacific University to becoming a professional soccer player for Sacramento Republic and other teams. Coach Ivan answered a variety of questions from the youth soccer players who attended the Zoom meeting with him, from “which shoes are best” to “how to not get down on yourself when you make mistakes during the game”. In his answers, Coach Mirkovic spoke about his soccer career, from a young player in his native Serbia to his journey in the American soccer scene, as a college player at Fresno Pacific University and as a professional soccer player in the USL with Sacramento, Orange County, Saint Louis, Tulsa, and Fresno FC. Coach Mirkovic also provided the attendees with valuable advice about how to reach their potential as athletes by avoiding to fall prey to either despair or overconfidence. 

Soccer during a pandemic

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, Level the Playing Field is temporarily suspending our Spring events until further notice and in compliance with California public health guidance and in observance of Norcal Premier recommendations for youth soccer. In the meantime, our regular board and youth board have been meeting via Zoom to discuss how to support the youth soccer community during this time of uncertainty and physical distancing. We have an ongoing, weekly Zoom session for players age 8-14 years old every Monday at 3:30 pm where board member, Coach Amine, will review soccer history and tactical education. For safety and privacy reasons, the zoom invitations are not published openly online. Instead we ask that you email us if you’re interested in joining, and an invite will be emailed to you. The youth board is working on several other plans to engage and support the youth soccer community. Stay tuned!

Email inquiries regarding our Zoom sessions to Setareh@leveltheplayingfieldfresno.com

For our pre-recorded video series, please check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTIIMZyU6U&t=709s

Holiday Soccer Clinic

We wrapped up the year with our Holiday Soccer Clinic on Monday 12/23/19. The day began with a one hour training session, then the kids were divided into 3 groups based on age. For the next 2 hours, they rotated through 3 stations: (1) scrimmages, (2) a snack break with an all-you-can-eat healthy snack bar, and (3) a video training session where a coach showed the kids some great soccer goals and blunders in the conference room. We even spent a moment allowing the kids to write a message on our "confessions of a youth soccer player" banner. While most of the kids said their favorite part was the scrimmages, I personally loved reading all the messages they left on our banner. 

The first youth board meeting

The first youth board meeting was held on Saturday June 8th and included introductions and a discussions about soccer and fundraising. Matin asked the board to think about ‘why is soccer important to us” and the kids concluded that soccer keeps them fit, helps them make new friends, is fun and brings them joy. The second question they were asked is “why do you want to help other kids get a chance to play soccer”, and they answered “we wants kids who are good at soccer to get involved with a club for a chance at playing professional or college soccer someday.” The fundraising conversation was very ambitious. If this is day 1 for the youth board, we are excited to see where things go.

Gooooaaaalllllll

On March 18th we made a goal: to create a nonprofit organization dedicated to fundraising, advocacy and leadership training for youth competitive soccer. Like a game of soccer, this requires focus, hard work, passion and teamwork. We can’t wait to update you as we dribble down this path towards our goal. Let’s go!