Letter from the President

May 3, 2023

Hello Chatham United Soccer families,

My name is Jonathan Yee, your new President for Chatham United Soccer. Over the last 8 years, I have served in various roles for our club, including recreation coach, travel parent manager, and TOPSoccer coach — to name a few. In my new role as President I aim to revitalize our club strategy with added emphasis on player development, improved access to higher quality fields, increased opportunities for social and community connection, enhanced club operations, and further engagement with the Chatham High School soccer program.

We have recently installed a new Board of Trustees and enlisted an amazingly energetic team of volunteers to execute on our new strategic direction. With their collective experiences as soccer players and coaches at all levels of the game, in addition to their passion, leadership qualities, and individual skill sets, I am confident that our team is in a great position to forge a new path forward for Chatham United.

As one of our first strategic actions in service of improving player development, we have hired Coach Tom Worthington as the club’s first-ever Director of Coaching (DOC). Tom has been coaching since 2003 and is currently the Varsity Head Coach at Oak Knoll and an ECNL Staff Coach at PDA, as well as owner of T.WO Touch Soccer.  With his soccer experience, knowledge, and training, he offers tremendous value and strengthens our ability to develop high quality, technically confident, soccer players. The youth sports landscape continues to evolve around us and we are extremely fortunate to have Coach Worthington onboard as we work together to elevate Chatham United to the next level. In this critical DOC role he will primarily be responsible for player development, technical training curriculum and clinics, input to team formation and trainer quality management.

Since taking over leadership in March, the CUS Board has already accomplished or begun to tackle the following initiatives:

• Player development: 
  1. Hired first-ever Director of Coaching, Tom Worthington
  2. Launched a new series of technical soccer clinics – the first being a supplemental goalkeeper training

• Higher quality fields:

1. 1. Field improvements, including replacement of old nets and sandbags, and grass seeding
   2. Exploration of additional turf field options

• Club operations:

1. 1. Migrated all teams to the TeamSnap mobile app (SI Play discontinued)
   2. Established and approved new club bylaws
   3. Defined club committee structure and confirmed volunteers

 

Building upon the club’s current momentum, our next action steps are as follows:

• Player development:

1. 1. Announcement of additional soccer training clinics
   2. Strategic planning for improvements to the Recreation Soccer program
   3. Exploration of a 7U TDP program

• Increased opportunities for social & community connection:

1. 1. “Meet the Chatham United Board & DOC” opportunities in the form of practice/game visits, social events, and focus groups
   2. Launch “Off the Pitch” Newsletter as a forum to share Club news
   3. Plan for presence in July 4th parade, along with exploration of other club & community events
   4. Launch Chatham United spirit wear shop

• Club operations:

1. 1. Parent Manager meeting to drive further engagement between the club and team levels
   2. Redesigned Chatham United website (www.chathamunitedsoccer.org)
   3. Recreation Soccer and TOPSoccer registration launch

 

This is an exciting time for Chatham United and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the local soccer community as we reshape our club. I hope that you will join us on our fun and engaging Chatham United Soccer journey.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jonathan Yee

President

Chatham United Soccer