Friday, Feb. 20, at 5:15 p.m. is the time for all Sedona soccer supporters to come to the aid of their sport.

That is the message from Nathan Hardy, commissioner of the Region 232 of the American Youth Soccer Organization, who will be looking for at least 17 volunteers to help revive what has been missing from Sedona since the retirement of local architect and former AYSO town commissioner Dan Surber.

“I will take anything and everything I can possibly get,” Hardy said. “I’m willing to look at any option. Somebody to deal with just the equipment would be great — a couple of parents for just striping fields, setting up and taking down nets.”

Adults willing to pass the AYSO national board’s background check are needed for everything from laying down field tape to becoming certified as Surber’s successor. Hardy and all of his staff will be ready to sign up volunteers at the Feb. 20 meeting, which will take place in the Vultee conference room at Sedona City Hall, 102 Roadrunner Drive.

“What I would really like to see from Sedona is people stepping up to coach,” Hardy explained, “or saying, ‘Look, I don’t have time to coach, but how do I get trained to ref games: What can I do? Here’s how much time I have.’”
That has been “a tough deal, always,” Hardy added, since Surber’s last year, when he had so little help that he met with his six other local soccer supporters, including Sedona Red Rock High School assistant girls soccer coach Will Geurts.

“Dan was doing it all, really, but there were times he had to have help,” said Hardy, who estimated the number of hours volunteered weekly by Surber to be equivalent to a full-time job — in addition to his job. “He laid it all on the line: ‘This is what I do. Do you all have time, between the five or six of you, to do my job?’ All of them said no.”

The Sedona Parks and Recreation Department reached out to Hardy after full-time AYSO commitments in Camp Verde, Clarkdale and Cottonwood kept three former soccer coaches — each with over 25 years’ experience as board members — from doing anything more than pitching in after Surber retired.

“Right now, we’re in tournament season,” Hardy explained. “If you’ve only got four to five teams in your town, it’s pretty easy. To do it right, once the season gets geared up in July and August, [the job] takes 12 to 15 hours a week.”

Although certain youth coaches such as Juan Beltran, Mark Creske and Jason Metzger remain dedicated to Region 232 players, Hardy added, the time commitment has diminished in the last four years as the number of registered players has dropped from 1,100 to less than 700 — in part due to the lack of volunteers. Player registration opens on the EAYSO website in March.  

“We had to give some refunds because there [were] players registered with no coaches,” he said. “The time is really indicative of how much help you have, how much you’re willing to delegate and how many players you have.”

In addition to a Sedona resident willing to make a three-year commitment to town commissioner, assistants to the registrar and regional commissioner are also needed to schedule practices and find coaches for local youth soccer teams to play on local fields by Wednesday, April 15.

For the full story, please see the Friday, Feb. 13, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.