GETTING THEIR KICKS: Players in the Grades K-1 division of the Princeton Youth Soccer League (PYSL) go after the ball in action last year as the league played in its inaugural season. After a successful debut campaign, the PYSL, a recreational soccer league for children in Grades K-5, is back for year two. The league, which drew 160 players last fall, will kick off its 2026 season on September 19. The PYSL holds its games on Saturdays at Riverside Elementary School. (Photo by Felix Bird, provided courtesy of the PYSL)
By Bill Alden
At this time last year, the founders of the Princeton Youth Soccer League (PYSL) were scrambling to get their fledgling league up and running.
The PYSL hadn’t yet lined up a field for their games and was hustling to get players to join the recreational league for children in grades K-5.
Despite the challenges, the PYSL leadership team remained firm in the belief that there was a need in town — as they put it in their mission statement — for a soccer league that focused on “having fun, skill development, and promoting sportsmanship, character, and community.”
Last September, that vision became reality as the league secured the fields at Riverside School and drew around 160 players to the program, which enjoyed an impressive inaugural campaign.
Heading into year two with its season kicking off on September 19, the PYSL is primed to build on that success.
“We were almost taken aback and really, really pleased with how season one went,” said Brett Gaudin, a league founder and a member of the PYSL leadership team. “It exceeded our hopes and aspirations. It really hit all of the notes that we were hoping for. It was not just having a league where kids were playing soccer but it was a community-led league. The response from the community was everything we hoped for.”
Another one of the league’s founders and leaders, Darren Gorden, pointed to the balance of fun and competition as a key ingredient in building that community feeling as PYSL league held games on Saturdays, with skill development sessions held beforehand.
“We really focused on doing that balance,” said Gorden of the league, which included a K-1 coed division with 5×5 small-sided games, 2-3 and 4-5 boys divisions which featured 7×7 games with goalie, and the girls 2-5 division. “In the regular season games we keep score but it wasn’t about winning and losing. It was about learning and growing, being a good sport and being a good teammate and that kind of stuff.”
The league got rave reviews for that approach. “It was really great feedback, a lot of what we heard was this has just been such a neat way to fill a void that did not exist,” said Gaudin. “The biggest thing is that we went from kids that didn’t have this option if they were interested in starting into soccer to now having a league that was very accessible. There are not strong barriers to entering and it was local in every way. We had a very in-town kind of feel to it. It was a neighborhood kind of connections that we were forming. It had all of that community flavor.”
The Riverside site proved to be a good venue for creating that flavor.
“Riverside was amazing, the central location was phenomenal,” said Ammar Shallal, who also helped create the league and is on the leadership team. “We did get a lot of support from the Princeton schools field crew. They told us you need to design the fields and spread down the first coat for the lines, and we will keep that going for the rest of the year. The lining the fields was a village. We bought a lot of stuff from Home Depot and went through a lot of paint to get that going.”
A crew of volunteers played a key role in keeping things going well last fall.
“It was a mix, a lot of parents stepped up to coach,” said Gorden.
“We had a real good turnout of high school volunteers, most of them through the high school community service program and they were great. They jumped in wherever they were needed, whether it was setup or coaching.”
Gaudin pointed to the Lansky brothers, Alec and Ian, as exemplifying the contributions made by local high schoolers.
“Ian and Alec Lansky blew us away,” said Gaudin. “They took over the 4-5 boys. One week they had a walk-out song going for the teams. They were exceptional, they were exactly what you would hope for.”
The weekly skill development sessions went better than hoped.
“It worked out great, we were very intentional in deciding to go to just one day a week and combining the skill development with game play,” said Gaudin. “What we tried to do is really simplify that, knowing that we are only talking about one day a week. We just set one focus per week on the skill development that we emphasized. This week we are going to focus on passing or dribbling or shooting or defense. We provided the coaches with a suggested guide for the practice portion, but we really wanted to allow our volunteer coaches to have the autonomy to introduce their own flair or flavor to that as well.”
Benefitting from that focus, the players showed more flair as the fall unfolded.
“The way that a kid can first be introduced to the game and make a lot of progress in one season quickly is certainly what we experienced,” said Gaudin.
The season culminated with a round-robin tournament. “We created the PYSL Cup with the World Cup format of a round of pool play,” said Gorden. “Each team played each other and then based on those records, we had a championship game for the older division. We turned it up a bit for the PYSL Cup and it was a little bit more competitive that day. But even then we were just doing it to have a little friendly competition and at the end, something to play for. The K-1 division had the pool play and round robin and they ended with that.”
With the upcoming season starting in a few weeks, the league is drawing plenty
of interest as registrations are up.
“It is going really, really well,” said Gaudin. “Our registration has already reached our total from last year. We have been meeting on what is our maximum capacity where we need to cut it off.”
The PYSL sponsorship program is also going well. “Last year, we had about eight sponsors,” said Gorden, whose wife, Jen Freedman, is also on the leadership team and has helped with sponsorship. “This year we are already up to 13. We have different sponsorship packages. You can sponsor one team or multiple teams or be a general sponsor where you don’t sponsor a team.”
Being a sponsor has been good for business. “It was fun last year to see kids after the game going to Pizza Den wearing their Pizza Den-sponsored shirt,” added Shallal.
The PYSL leaders also have enjoying seeing league swag on display.
“When we see the magnets or the jerseys around town it doesn’t get old,” said Gaudin.
In the wake of the positive inaugural season, the league is looking to fine-tune things for the fall.
“As successful as last season was, we took it really seriously to think about what we could do to improve for this year,” said Gorden.
“We got surveys from parents and coaches and the high school students. We talked to a lot of parents in the community. We met right after the season to figure out, now that it is over and fresh on our mind, to talk about was good and what can we work on. The main thing from our standpoint was planning more ahead, having another year of knowing a little bit more what to expect with the timeline of events leading up to the season.”
But with its basic formula working so well last year, the PYSL will not be making any drastic changes.
“In terms of the game play, we are really trying to keep it pretty similar to the format of having the practice time leading into a game,” said Gorden. “We want to keep it at once a week, keep it fun, and about learning the game.”
In Gaudin’s view, the PYSL’s focus on fun should help it grow the game.
“Coming off the World Cup there has been lot of discussion about youth soccer and how we improve our national team,” said Gaudin.
“We see it as we are that first introduction to the game. If you want to pursue more competitive forms of youth soccer, that is wonderful. We absolutely think they should have those avenues to pursue that. We like to think that this is a supplement to that.”
While the PYSL may be a supplement to the youth travel club system, it has proven to be a major source of community spirit.
“The overall feel of having a rec soccer league in town and strengthening that connection to the community was really what we hoped for,” said Gaudin. “So it is doubling down on that on every level, where it is the players and families meeting their friends.”