As we close out 2024, we want to give you a brief recap of what the year looked like. We are excited about where we are, what we have accomplished and the direction we are headed.

Over the past year we had 7,001 players registered for the 2023/2024 season (about 750 players over the previous season) and so far for the current seasonal year, we are over 5,200 players and have the upcoming Spring season to see where we end up.

Wyoming Soccer has had an exciting year and we have been consistent in our board of directors and staff. We are all on board to carry our organization and support our clubs through the next year and beyond. We also built a brand new web site.

This past year, 46 players from Wyoming were invited to a West Region ODP Camp. Out of those 46 players, twelve (12) of them were selected for West Region ODP Rosters and will play in the US Youth Soccer Inter-Regional Events in January 2025 in Florida! You can view the full list of players HERE. From there, players can be selected for the national ODP teams, and this past year, Wyoming had one player, Reagan Barthel from Casper, who made the 2011 Girls National ODP team and played in the Easter International Cup in Orlando, FL this past Spring.

On March 2nd, we held our annual general meeting and we were joined by Sean Covel, the producer of Napoleon Dynamite! We engaged in small group creative work that made us think outside the box, and then he delivered a thought-provoking (and hilarious) keynote presentation at our sixth annual Awards Celebration, honoring players, coaches, referees, volunteers and administrators from across the state. We also inducted our third person into the Wyoming Soccer Hall of Fame, Charles Wolf from Cody! The 2024 awards resulted in one of our state winners being selected as a national finalist with Emma Prior from Sheridan in the National TOPSoccer Buddy of the Year category. All of our winners from 2024 can be viewed HERE.

We held our annual Wyoming Cup & Championships and our fourth Annual Wyoming United Cup event over Memorial Day weekend at the Casper Soccer Complex with 145 teams between the two events and 1600 players.

In June, we had five teams participate in regional events. The Sheridan 19U Boys & Gillette 19U Girls traveled to Honolulu, HI for the FarWest Regional Championships and the Casper 14U Girls & 14U Boys participated in the Farwest Presidents' Cup in Salt Lake City, UT, along with the 12U Boys from Gillette who played in the 12U Farwest Regional Championships, which were also held in Salt Lake City.

In 2023, we welcomed the Star Valley Soccer Club, and this year we welcomed another into the Wyoming Soccer family with Sublette United Soccer Club. We are excited about having new clubs on board and hope to add another in 2025!

Also in June, we held our first College ID Camp in Casper for players in grades 9-12, and it was very successful with 95 players in attendance and coach representation from six colleges across the state. We plan to continue this in 2025.

In October, we held our fourth annual Equality State Championships event for teams aged 16U+ in Gillette, WY at the Energy Capital Sports Complex. We had a total of 15 teams participate, and the winners (19U Casper Girls & 19U Casper Boys) are both now qualified for the regional events in June, both of which will be held in Boise, ID.

We currently have 321 players enrolled in our Wyoming 307 Select Program (a 20% increase over last year) and we are taking nine teams with a total of 143 players down to Mesa, AZ THIS WEEKEND for the annual FarWest Regional ODP Championships!

We recently received news that we secured our fifth Innovate to Grow Grant, and this one will be focused on ensuring we have Spanish resources available for our members! We can't wait to share details with you! Our SOW Soccer program/grant will continue through 2025 and we have club grant opportunities available. This past year, we were able to provide grants to Newcastle Soccer League and Sublette United Soccer Club, along with funding Soccer for Success (see more below). Our Play It Forward grant will remain active through 2026 and we have partnered with MOJO and will support our coaches as they pursue coach education along with working with colleges to get our young adults involved as coaches and mentors within our clubs.

Casper Soccer Club and Jackson Hole Youth Soccer also received US Youth Soccer grants this past year. Casper Soccer Club received a TOPSoccer Grant and Jackson Hole Youth Soccer received a Game Format Project grant for 5-6U recreational programming.

We are actively engaged in a partnership with the US Soccer Foundation to implement soccer curriculum in physical education classes within our schools through the Soccer for Success program. This past year Dave Eldred became a national trainer and we held our first training in Sweetwater County, along with meetings and conversations in Laramie County, Albany County & Natrona County. We also became an official partner of the Soccer Parenting Association, which is available to all clubs, and we partnered with Keeper Wars Ink to host our first ever Keeper Wars Event at the brand new WYO Sports Ranch in Casper, which will be held this January.

We are excited about these successes and the growth we are experiencing through soccer. Thank you for being an IMPORTANT part of it! Stay tuned for continued stories of success in 2025!