Academy Affiliate Fall Webinar #1 Recap

On Friday, October 2, Academy Affiliate Coaches and Directors had the opportunity to attend a webinar featuring guest speaker Betsy Maxfield, Sporting KC’s Director of Player Care. Attendees were able to learn about Betsy’s path leading up to joining the Kansas City Wizards over 11 years ago as well as the many different roles she has served since. Betsy also fielded a variety of questions with answers that created some highly entertaining stories from her career up until now.

A little background, Betsy Maxfield has had a variety of experience such as played at the University of Kansas, worked in coach education with the United States Soccer Federation in Chicago and went on to help manage the David Beckham Academy in Los Angeles all before joining the Kansas City Wizards, now known as Sporting Kansas City.

Betsy has worked in both the front office side as well as the technical side of the organization. In her early years, she was the Team Administrator for the SKC Academy before joining the Youth Soccer Department as a Director and then Vice President of Youth Soccer. Betsy spent five years in the front office helping to create and build the Sporting Club Network as well as the Academy Affiliate Network among many other youth program initiatives. In 2018, Betsy moved back to the technical side where she now helps all SKC players, from Academy through Sporting KC II up to Sporting KC first team, manage their off-field personal affairs. Manager & Sporting Director Peter Vermes was adamant and instrumental in supporting the creation of this role and Betsy was the perfect fit.

These responsibilities could include anything from helping SKC Academy players manage their school and playing schedules to helping professional players become acclimated with Kansas City. Betsy helps our pro players with securing residences, purchasing vehicles, pathways to citizenship, and being a liaison to all player families. She is also responsible for overseeing the Residential Program for SKC Academy players who have been recruited outside the Kanas City market and require a host family. Current first team players Gianluca Busio, Daniel Salloi, Jaylin Lindsay are among the players who have benefited from this program.

Our next upcoming Academy Affiliate webinar will include a panel of women and men with experience working in soccer at the collegiate level. Coaches, directors, and administrators will have the opportunity to learn more about how we can all support our high school aged players to continue on their pathway in playing at the next level.

For more information on Academy Affiliates and the benefits of becoming a member, please visit sportingkcyouth.com/academyaffiliates.