What is the origin story for Joy Athletic Club? When was it founded; by whom and why?
What if we are doing development wrong? If a ten year old wanted to be the best that ever was, were we really providing the best education possible?

What if you could develop high performance players without the doctrine of selection, extensive travel, competition and coaching? These were the questions we asked ourselves, a group of friends, Victor Kasanezky, Ted Kroeten, Glenn Kroeten, Jason Buxell, Raffi Tanachian and Haris Handijza, long time players and coaches who witnessed first hand the escalation of pressures on kids due to pay to play and vowed to do something about it. We felt kids did not play enough and this left them underprepared for what lay ahead.

In 2009 we founded a Non-Proﬁt 501(c)(3) that promotes the idea of soccer free play as a way to build healthy kids and communities. We named it after Garrincha, a player so loved in Brazil they called him Allegria do povo, Joy of the People. We partnered with the City of St. Paul to take over the running of an underused rec center and filled it with music, play, friends,and joy. We used best practice, We played futsal in the winter, we changed the ball, changed the surfaces and the field sizes; we introduced inflatable fields to create cogent game environments.

We saw skill was not what we thought it was. It was not a singular physical movement as much as a contextual narrative, embodied more as a language and storytelling than 'competitive mentality' and 'grit.' Kids were not ‘competing’ as much as telling stories to each other. It grew as the game and the group grew. Development meant creating close connections. So we threw away the coaching book and set our own path. If the kids were playing as if it were a language why not look into the best way to learn language? We followed second language learning theory, allowing kids time and space to grow.
We welcomed everyone, never held a tryout. When we did enter elite tournaments or leagues. When we did put teams together it would be at a lower level and everyone participated. Mixed ages and genders, lots of fun. Over time, and very slowly, not quickly, we started to see lots of good players. It took more than 10 years!

Seeing how many players we were developing we formed Joy Athletic and joined the NPSL for play in the summer of 2021. An unheard of 70 percent of total playing minutes from the NPSL team are from Joy kids who put in an average of 8 years with the club! If you do a little research on modern academies you will see how rare this is. No elite travel, no high powered coaching, and yet these kids can play at the highest levels. And this says some really important things:

First, play is a vital part of building talent and expertise, much more than most people think--yet it is ignored in almost all curriculums in favor of team objectives, coaching and training.

Second, all kids can develop if given time. I know this is a bold statement--think about what it means. It means that no one is born special, or perhaps better said, we are all born special, it is the flawed system of tryouts, selection, division of levels, and overloaded coaching that often does more harm than good.

"You can grow the lemon or you can squeeze the lemon, you can't do both."
--Gérard Houllier one of the founders of the French Academy, Clairfountaine

And finally true development takes years, often adults lack the patience to apply an inclusive, long term approach. But kids, left to themselves, will pull each other along. Joy is on a Quixotic quest to prove this model. Already we have placed our first pro player (Emmanuel Iwe MNUFC who has played with us since he was eight) and we have many more kids and young adults that are fluent in soccer.

Joy Athletic officially participated in the NPSL for the first time in 2021, but we were 'formed' long before that, so our crest says ‘founded in 2009’ to represent our long term approach to development. So how do they do? Kids from Joy play different because they grew up different. they are fluent and creative in the game. They are top players at their colleges, many hope to go pro. We debuted two 15 year olds last year. The highlight of our first season was the take down undefeated and NPSL #1 team in the country MPLS City 3-2 in our final game.

Our Motto: “Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy.”
— Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira

Tell us about the badge, the name and the branding - do they have a special meaning? Are they connected to your community in any way?
The goat was a play on words. We wanted something to reflect the hopes and dreams of a ten year old who falls in love with soccer and dreams of being the best ever. We were throwing around the idea of the goats when the pandemic hit and G.O.A.T.S. became a call to action: Get Outside And Try Soccer, and the name stuck. We like the independence and variation of the goats, every goat is different, and they all seem nice.

Our badge was influenced by the 2014 World Cup City of Manaus poster. The idea is to not follow the crowd and think outside the box (in this case goal).

Some clubs just operate an adult squad and some organizations work with youth sides - how is Joy AC structured?
The Joy Athletic teams are the adult arm of the non profit Joy of the people. Our team is a seamless move from youth to adult. With each year kids from our club getting many debuts on both the mens (NPSL) and Women's (WPSL) sides. We also have a Men's Futsal Team (NFPL) and that team skews much younger with many High School aged kids. Even so that team finished as finalist in the National Futsal Premier League losing 4-2 in the final to Grand Rapids Ole. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QRG-Te94AOM

Do you have both a men's and a women's squad? How did they finish in 2022 and what are their respective targets for this season?
We do have a women's team, last year was their 1st year and they play in the WPSL. It is an amazing group. One of the cool things is that the men and women often train together. This creates lots of variation and is a great example of inclusiveness.

Our targets are to finish well on the women's side and to make the playoffs on the Men's side. We will always be about development first so our teams will generally skew much younger than the competition.

Many clubs make custom kits or sell scarves to help keep the lights on - do you sell any merch? If so, what can we look forward to and if not, are there ways, aside from buying swag, that our readers can support your club?
Our kits were designed by the players and we use Stimulus athletic to make our uniforms. Both the youth side (Joy of the People) and the adult teams (Joy AC) sell fan gear and the goats have a strong following.
We are probably the world leaders on the understanding and the delivery of free play (aka pick up, street soccer) and its role in development. All coaches understand free play's importance, but we have really led the way in its application, the use of overloading vs underloading, the periodization of that play and how that play delivers superior performance.
This year we introduced “Play365” an initiative to combat Pay to Play. Besides the use of a simply methodology, we wanted to continue to bring costs way down. Anyone can participate, play everyday, at basically no cost. As a non-profit we are always welcoming support and there are a number of ways you can support us including the purchasing of gear, as well as donating to our mission of play.

Do you give back to your community in any way? If not, and money and time were not a problem, what would the club aspire to do?
We are built on community. For each year we give away 1500 hours of free, monitored, safe free play that anyone can attend--all you need to do is sign a waiver. We do a lot of community service at schools in the twin cities, usually revolving around creating time for all kids to play together. We donate inflatable fields at no cost to other clubs and organizations. We even donated an inflatable to Duluth FC of the NPSL who used it in their stadiums where kids could play and still watch the game.

“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
― Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

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