Homewood Soccer Club

WHILE THE CITY OF HOMEWOOD'S SOCCER SCENE HAS HAD ITS UPS AND DOWNS OVER the decades, the town's current club, Homewood Soccer Club (HSC), is on the cusp of becoming an elite club in Alabama. Under the direction of Executive Director Mason Cook, Homewood Soccer Club is beginning to see the results of a new direction Cook began implementing when he assumed his role in 2014. Cook came on board as a staff coach at HSC a decade ago and has been at the forefront of growing the club from a largely recreational program to one that now competes for championships on every level. “We've slowly become more and more competitive in the state, working our way up from having a couple of Division II teams to now having a few DI teams and even every now and again an SRPL and Region III competitive team,” Cook says. “We have more teams competing at the Division I level than we've ever had. Now they're not always getting a ton of wins, but this slow growth process from Division II and winning state championships and have them graduate to Division I is exciting.” MASON COOK Currently, HSC is home to a little more than 1,000 players, with 350 of them playing on a Executive Director USSF “D” License competitive roster. One of the smaller clubs in the Birmingham area, Cook says the club's plan is based USSF National Youth License “NYL” on retention and providing a quality soccer experience rather than exponential growth. “Obviously if more kids want to join Homewood we would love to grow, but for us, it's about fine-tuning the process TYPES OF PROGRAMS OFFERED that we have now and making sure we're focusing on every aspect of the program.” Recreational | Competitive One of Cook's key decisions was the hire of technical director Rob Dominguez, whose job is “100 ADDRESS percent to coach coaches.” Cook says Dominguez has brought a new philosophy to HSC emphasizing 1632 Oxmoor Road coaching development, parent involvement, and ensuring every kid wearing a Homewood Soccer Club Birmingham, AL 35209 jersey has a great soccer experience. PHONE: 205-874-9182 “For us, our three- to five-year plan is making sure that with every age group and with every team WEBSITE: www.homewoodsoccer.com that we place the kids appropriately, we give them quality coaching, we give our coaches quality support, and we're able to be the best Homewood we can be,” Cook says. “That's really what we're working on and talking about right now. The happier the parents are on the sideline, the happier the kids are when they get in the car, the more successful they'll be and the more likely they will be to keep playing soccer.”