The Drayton Valley and District Soccer Association says they need some new blood to help bring soccer in the community forward.
Brad Kelly, the vice president, says there are ten people who sit on the board. Three of the volunteers have been on the board for decades.
“We’re not getting any younger,” says Kelly.
He and his dad Russ, have been heavily involved in the DVDSA for many years, and both are struggling to find the time to commit anymore. The other longtime member, Lori Clark, is also hoping to step back.
Kelly says his dad has been in the club since the 1980s and Clark has been in it for about thirty years.
He says in the past the parents of kids on the travel teams typically volunteered for the board. However, Kelly says there has been a decline in the number of players for a few years, and the pandemic also didn’t help.
“We plan on sticking around to mentor. We were hoping to do that for the last couple of seasons,” says Kelly. He says there has been some interest, but no one has gone ahead and committed to the position.
He says it’s getting harder and harder to give the DVDSA all of the attention it needs. “It’s not that our hearts aren’t in it,” he says. “We all have other things now.”
To help make the positions seem less intimidating, Kelly says they have broken down lots of jobs into smaller pieces. He says this helps to prevent volunteer burnout and makes each bit less time consuming.
On their Facebook page they use infographics to show the level of commitment and experience needed. Each position is gauged by four different categories: pre-season, during season, post season, and experience required.
Kelly says they’re hoping the smaller tasks will be more attractive and manageable.
He says ideally volunteers would have kids in the sport, or have past experience. However, that’s not necessary. Kelly says there is a lot of long-term knowledge that has to stay there, and that’s why they will be mentoring the new board.
He says his dad and Clark are both still involved in the NorthWest Division of Alberta Soccer. This means they can help out with the new board and provide necessary information.
Kelly says they are hoping to have two people for each position because they want to have a backup in case someone has to back out at the last minute. “We keep losing people that we’ve been starting to mentor,” he says.
He says that the DVDSA hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves over the last few years, and if there are no new volunteers, it won’t get better.
“We can’t run a professional looking program with what we have,” says Kelly. “We can’t keep doing it.”
He says the idea of shutting the program down is hard for them to even consider. “We used to have a huge soccer program. One of the best in the province. We’ve gotta save it.”
