About this site

Hi, I'm Frank. I'm not a soccer parent. I was the kid.

I grew up playing, and my parents were behind me the whole way. What they didn't have was a map. Nobody had ever explained to them how youth soccer works in the U.S.: which leagues are which, what gear a kid really needs, what's worth paying for, or what any of it leads to. They wanted to help me and often didn't know how, and that was never their fault.

If you're a parent reading this, you might be standing where they stood: you love your kid, you want to get this right, and the whole system feels like it was written for someone else. This site is what I wish someone had handed my family back then. If it helps even one kid show up better prepared and get a little closer to their potential, it's worth it to me.

I started The New Soccer Parent after the 2026 World Cup, when it felt like half the country fell in love with this sport at once — and thousands of families signed their kids up for a game they'd never played themselves. The information out there was either written for coaches, scattered across club PDFs, or trying to sell something. I wanted one place that just answered parents' real questions in plain English.

What you can expect here

• Plain English. No coaching jargon without a translation.
• Honesty about money. We tell you what's worth buying and what to skip — even though we may earn affiliate commissions on some product links.
• The kid comes first. Every recommendation on this site is filtered through one question: does this make soccer more fun for the child?

How this site makes money

Transparency matters: this site may earn revenue from display advertising and affiliate links (when you buy a product through one of our links, the retailer pays us a small commission at no extra cost to you). We never accept payment for positive reviews, and no brand tells us what to write.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections, or a topic you want covered? Email hello@thenewsoccerparent.com. I read everything.