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US Youth Soccer University
How etrainu created a digital University for US Youth Soccer and their community of 4 million players, parents, coaches, referees and administrators.
US Youth Soccer is on a mission to provide world-class support on and off the field of play.
US Youth Soccer is the largest youth sport organization in the country, and is on a mission to provide world-class support, resources, and leadership, helping every member fulfill their goals on and off the field of play.
US Youth Soccer registers nearly 2.5 million players annually. Through its programming, resources, and leadership, US Youth Soccer is advancing the game for its 54 Member State Associations, 10,000 clubs and leagues and nearly 1 million administrators, coaches, and volunteers.
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Sport
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United States
4 million+
Customized LMS; Course development; Subscription management; Custom home page
“The overall focus of USYS University, powered by etrainu, is to build a dynamic community that brings those who love soccer together and provides them all of the resources necessary to allow them to become life-long fans and students of the game.”
“It is an exciting and meaningful project, where every member of the USYS Family can turn to support and guidance”
Tom Condone,
Chief Football Officer at US Youth Soccer
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Prior to etrainu, US Youth Soccer had an initial version of the USYS University. This was a central web page with links to helpful resources developed by education partners.
The key challenge for etrainu was converting this web page into an immersive education experience. The University also needed to be capable of funding its own development. This meant a self-sustaining commercial model was needed to ensure the library could continue to grow with world-class resources, developed in partnership with US Youth Soccer’s existing education partners.
The resources that existed were primarily blog articles. As part of the re-launch of the USYS University, the etrainu studio team needed to structure these resources into immersive eLearning courses.
Subscriptions
State soccer partnerships
Courses
The solution was to launch the US Youth Soccer University powered by etrainu, the first-ever gathering of educational resources designed to educate members on a multitude of subjects so they can perform better on and off the field of play.
In order to help further customize the University to the individual learner, etrainu created a multi-tenant architecture, with each State association receiving their own version of the University. This helped State’s like New Jersey leverage the USYS University to offer their State coaching certificate for learners within New Jersey. It also created another layer of reporting so key stakeholders at each State could understand what content is in demand within their region.
In collaboration with US Youth Soccer and their education partners, we created a comprehensive roadmap of courses for players, parents, coaches, administrators and referees. Currently, there are over 30 online courses available through the USYS University. The course list is available here and includes topics such as; how to lead an effective warm up, college recruiting in soccer, introduction to officiating soccer, diversity and inclusion and much more. etrainu continues to work closely with US Youth Soccer to release more courses covering more topics.
In order to create an affordable solution that could also generate revenue to be reinvested into the University, a subscription model was formed. This saw the creation of two subscriptions, freemium and premium. Users would be able to access a subset of courses through the freemium model. The freemium courses would give users an understanding of the quality of the University while also covering important fundamental topics.
A greater range of courses are available through the premium subscription. Users have the option to opt into a premium subscription for $5 per year. Clubs and State associations also have the ability to sponsor a number of premium subscriptions and issue promo codes to users. This model helps keep courses contemporary and allows both US Youth Soccer and etrainu to continue to invest in the University.
The results of the USYS University speak for themselves. To date there are over 25,000 subscriptions with players, parents, coaches, referees and administrators across the country benefiting from the content available on the University. Clubs and State associations have adopted the University at scale, rolling the courses out to their communities.
The course library continues to grow, with an evolving roadmap that is shaped by feedback from the soccer community. This has helped re-engage users to revisit the University to find more quality content the next time they log in.
The multi-subscription model has also proved popular with almost 30% of subscriptions being premium subscriptions.
Overall, the USYS University has been successful in helping US Youth Soccer achieve their mission of providing world-class support on and off the field of play.
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