Growing the Game: Saratoga Wilton Soccer Club

WILTON — The Saratoga Wilton Soccer Club’s (SWSC) U15 boys team recently qualified for nationals in Colorado. Forty years ago, when the club was founded, it served a local rec team. Now director of coaching Brad Campion says, “we have outgrown where we are at.”

There are pathways for everyone in the community from kids looking to get active to kids looking to continue their career in college. More importantly, Campion says is “how are we raising good human beings?” 

Campion was hired as the director of coaching after the 2020 pandemic where the club saw a boost in players. At the time a lot of clubs of all sports around the community stopped competing. However, the players, coaches and parents of SWSC collectively decided to continue to play by wearing masks based on safety information at the time. SWSC gave kids an outlet during the isolating times of the pandemic.

Recently SWSC has enlisted in new national youth soccer leagues for their boys and girl teams. The boys will compete in the Eliete Academy League; the girls will compete in the National One League, affiliated with U.S. soccer. Both leagues allow for players interested in college soccer a pathway.

In accordance with SWSC’ wholistic approach, rec teams and multiple club teams at each age group give kids of all levels an opportunity to get involved with youth soccer. “We are trying to be a place for everyone, and we can be a place for everyone,” said president of SWSC, Richie Snyder. 

“We want families to know they have a good soccer product in a five to ten minuet drive,” said Campion. “We don’t want to handcuff players and parents to the car.”

Tryouts for the rec teams and travel teams are coming up from June 15 through June 23. Visit saratogawiltonsoccerclub.com for specific age group dates and times.