U.S. Soccer awards Innovate to Grow Fund grants to state associations

LINK

Spin off article about how the money allocated to Washington will go to Tom Byer's program.

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Tom Byer, an innovative American soccer coach who helped develop a generation of technically skilled men’s and women’s players in Japan, is finally going to work for U.S. Soccer in the United States. And in the wake of the U.S.’s failure to qualify for the men’s World Cup, Byer’s long-awaited return to America could cause a sea change in the way young soccer players develop their skills around the country.

Byer, who lives with his family in Tokyo, is in Seattle this week after signing a contract with U.S. Soccer to run a pilot program in conjunction with the federation, the Seattle Sounders and the Washington Youth Soccer association. Byer is devising a strategy called Soccer Starts at Home to establish his philosophy of focusing on the parents of soccer-playing kids between the ages of 2 and 6.

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A New York native, Byer, 56, finished his playing career in Japan in 1989 and went on to become a legendary figure there in grassroots youth soccer development. Known as Tomsan, he established more than 60 soccer schools in Japan, taught clinics, made regular appearances for 13 years on Japan’s top children’s TV program and had a regular coach’s corner in a popular comic book.

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Japanese stars like Shinji Kagawa, Aya Miyama and others have credited Byer for helping improve the technical skill level of the Japanese men’s and women’s teams as they have risen to prominence in world soccer over the past 15 years. (The women won the World Cup in 2011.)

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On a somewhat related note, I saw that Target is teaming up with USSF to build 100 soccer places across the US.

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That's great. Either Total Soccer Show or Top Drawer Soccer show was talking about this last week. Corporate sponsorships for youth soccer where we can build a ton of pitches all over the US.

Things like this are why I continue to be bullish and optimistic about the future of soccer here, despite the horrific setback of missing the World Cup. We have the potential to be a sleeping giant if we build the program the right way. Every little bit helps.

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Tom Byer, an innovative American soccer coach who helped develop a generation of technically skilled men’s and women’s players in Japan

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why the hell wasn't he doing this stateside the past 13 years?