Skyline Soccer Association

My child's team played a Skyline soccer team and it is clear that these Skyline coaches don't teach their kids proper conduct. Pushing, kicking, hair pulling all encouraged by the coach. This leads to unnecessary injuries and the kids are not being taught good soccer.

We have enrolled our (almost) 4-year-old in 2 Skyline Soccer Munchkin sessions over the last year and he absolutely loves it! Lots of age-appropriate games and drills for burning off energy and he gets excited each time it's soccer day.

We've been with Skyline for 7 or 8 years now. I've coached two kids' teams and have watched my oldest become a competitive player with Skyline. So why is it a good club? First, as with all volunteer organizations, its the volunteers who make all the difference. At the rec level, the coaches are usually the parents of the Skyline players and South Denver people are usually very cordial and interested in sports. Second, the Skyline staff runs a well-organized ship. Games, practice times, and fields are made known well in advance. Contact with management is frequent with good, periodic communications. We played one season with the old Fusion (now Rapids) club and the organization and notice were not as good as it is with Skyline. Third, the pricing is competitive. Finally, at the competitive level, my oldest child was coached by Neal DiDonna for one season. As a former high-school player myself, I was very impressed by the quality of the instruction that season. Subsequent competitive seasons with Konstantin Gray have also been good.

As a volunteer coach for nearly a decade, I couldn't be more disappointed at how far the club has fallen. There are still amazing coaches and staff members (Gina, Howard & Jack), but senior leadership is largely incompetent. We were long-time participants in the academy program (U13 boys) and played in the top tier of the recreational Front Range League, where we were very competitive. We kept the team together over the years because the kids were classmates, and they always had a great experience playing together. That noted, over the years, we faced significant pressure to move the kids to competitive teams. In 2023, all of our players who tried out for competitive teams made them but chose to return to our neighborhood team. We made the club aware of our intent to have our kids move to competitive teams (as they requested) in the spring of 2024. Nearly all of our kids tried out, but not a single player who tried out made a competitive team. We learned later that it wasn't because of talent but because of having literally zero capacity on the other teams. The lack of planning on their part is shocking, especially since they knew this was coming. The Academy Program (now known as Developmental Rec) is a sham. Between two U13 boys teams (roughly 30 players), they failed to send a single player who tried out to a competitive team. With such a poor batting average, I'm not sure how, in good faith, they can still register players for this program. I've had three kids play within Skyline over the years, and as a long-time coach, this outcome was incredibly discouraging. I hope they can learn from their mistakes. The good news is that we've moved the boys over to the Crestmoor/Cranmer Soccer Club and up to a competitive 11 v 11 division, which has been an exceptionally positive experience so far. I imagine more players will follow.

My kids have been in Skyline since the Munchkin program. I'm constantly impressed with Skyline's organization and passion. The club has provided all of my kids with a foundation for learning important life skills such as team work and good sportsmanship. Their soccer emphasis keeps things in perspective while developing their full potential as players. It's a great club for kids of all abilities.