Coach Volunteers

The Spring 2025 season begins on March 23rd and ends on May 18th.   All sessions are on Sundays starting at 1:30 pm and ending at 3:00 pm (1:30 p.m. to 2:30 pm for the younger players). We will be at Creekside Park in Cupertino.

Program Description

The South Bay VIP Soccer Program is part of AYSO's EPIC and serves children from the San Francisco South Bay Area who have some sort of disability. We have been running fall and spring programs since fall 2003. Over the life of the program, we have served over 500 children with disabilities. A typical season will have over 80 registered players. We recruit players from local schools and from agencies that serve children with disabilities.

We have three divisions: Tots (ages 4 and 5), Lower (elementary school age), and Upper (kids who are in middle school and high school). Within the Lower and Upper divisions, we group our teams based on size, mobility, and ability rather than by age. Teams have between 6 and 8 players. In the Upper division, we have separate girls and boys teams. For the other divisions, the teams are coed. We play once a week on Sundays for 1 1/2 hours. The session is broken up into a practice and a game. Our spring season is 8 weeks, and our fall season is 10 weeks.

We recruit high school and middle school students to be buddy volunteers. We provide VIP Soccer training to our coaches and buddy volunteers. We also hire professional soccer trainers, who rotate among the teams putting on soccer clinics and advising the coaches.

We have adapted the game of soccer so that every child can play regardless of their ability. For example, we use balls that beep for our visually impaired players. We teach five basic skills: dribbling, inside the foot pass, receiving, throw-in, and in-step kick. Some of our upper division teams are taught additional advanced skills.

For our VIP Soccer players, we try to make the soccer experience the same as our other AYSO programs. The players are assigned teams, with coaches and assistant coaches. Each player receives a uniform. During the season, we have picture day; each player receives an individual picture and a team picture. After the season, each player receives a trophy (in the fall) or participation medal (in the spring).  

If you are interested in volunteering as a coach, please email Art Zimmermann at southbayvipsoccer@gmail.com.

With your help, children with special needs will be given an opportunity to play soccer!

Coach Volunteer Sign Up Instructions

You will need to log on to www.AYSO64.org and sign up as a volunteer, unless you have done so with another AYSO region this year.