Colin Dobson wants to change the way kids enjoy soccer, one of the city's fastest-growing sports.
The Sunset resident joined the youth soccer program Super Soccer Stars shortly after his arrival in San Francisco from England 12 years ago. He stumbled upon an advertisement inside the Mission Bay Library calling for coaches and applied. From there, he worked his way up, being the first coach they hired, to now becoming the program’s regional director and being a part of the Super Soccer Stars team is something Dobson can see himself continuing to do for decades to come.
“I dreamt of being in soccer in some capacity, but I knew that to really do that, you have to really be at a high level,” the 40-year-old said. “I never knew something like this existed. I've been in every single department of Super Soccer Stars and I've kind of seen it all. I've worked with kids for so long now as well, and I have such a passion. That's our number one thing, really, is our passion for working with kids.”
What sets Super Soccer Stars apart is how they conduct classes. Each session is designed to be non-competitive, Dobson said. Instead of focusing on ways to win, they use creative and imaginative gameplay to teach kids the fundamentals of the sport while encouraging them to explore team building and enjoy playing.
Since starting in Mission Bay, the program has expanded to several locations across the Bay Area, including hosting classes at Aptos Middle School and Balboa Park in Ingleside and throughout their development, their core mission has remained the same. Dobson said their goal is to ensure that kids and their caregivers are having the best time possible.
“We are small, local and we are community-focused,” Dobson said. “That is our core aim: to just give back to the kids and make sure that they are having fun in our classes and developing that passion.”
The Ingleside Light caught up with Dobson to learn more about his perspective on youth soccer.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What does a typical day look like for you?
We have a very small team, so again, we're across the whole Bay Area. We've got like 30 coaches, over 40 locations. We have schools during the week, so we're an after-school program during the week and on the weekends. We're year-round. We offer classes to the public as well, so day-to-day, it's very busy because we've got such a small team, and we're divided into all these different areas like customer service, marketing, coaches and then also trying to connect with the community as well. My typical day would be a bit of everything, really, like helping out with customer service, promoting Super Soccer Stars, trying to build those connections within the community as well, and also being with the coaches and trying to help supervise my team as well. I'm kind of pulled in all different directions. Unfortunately, I don't get to coach anymore, but that used to be my big passion: actually coaching the kids. Now I'm trying to manage the program, which is challenging but very rewarding as well at the same time.
What are classes like?
Some kids come to our classes because their parents have just signed them up for a class. It's not the kid saying, “Oh, let me try soccer.” It's like we've signed you up for soccer classes for the season, so when they come, they might not necessarily be that interested, or they might be a bit reserved or scared because they're two years old, they're with 12 other kids, and this adult that they've never seen before, but what we try and do with the children is make it super, super fun. We use imagery as well throughout our classes. Each week is themed for the kids. One week is “OK, we're gonna be playing knights and princesses.” The following week, it's superheroes, so every single part of every activity uses those themes as well to integrate into the class. We're engaging their imagination so they're not just kicking a ball. Their soccer ball might be their spaceship and they're travelling through space and avoiding the meteors, which are the cones, and then they're trying to score past Coach Alien. Even if that kid is not there because they wanted to be there, they develop that passion and love for it because they just want to do those activities each week. They might not necessarily even be conscious that they're learning, but they're learning as a byproduct of changing direction, going through meteors and then trying to score.
How do you stay motivated?
There are different challenges every day, and because I'm across all of the different departments as well, it's always different, interesting, and challenging as well. I think our standards are so high that if we get customer feedback, for example, we want to make sure that's resolved within 24 hours and so I’m on top of that with my team as well. We have to make sure this parent is happy, and it's very rare these days to even be able to speak to someone in the customer service department because everything's through AI or a chatbot. We are so responsive by email; you could reach us by phone. Our phone number's on our website, which is rare these days, so I think that's what keeps me motivated: making sure that the kids are happy and then the parents are happy and then the schools that we work with are happy as well. That's really our driving force: just making sure we are keeping everyone happy — our kids, coaches, our parents, our partners, all the people we work with. That's really what it's about.
