Many thanks to everyone who attended our ‘Town Hall Meeting’ at the Scheels conference room  - the attendance was exceptional, the support was amazing and I think we were able to transparently provide as much information as possible about the huge changes we’re currently experiencing.  We truly appreciated your respectful honest questions and I believe we were able to address many of our members' questions and concerns.  Also, we’d like to give our sincere thanks to Scheels for kindly providing us with access to their space again - they’re great people and an excellent business! 

For those that were unable to attend, here is a summary of what was discussed along with answers to further questions that have arisen since:

• Why are we leaving the partnership with Future Legends? 

Unfortunately, it just did not work out for several reasons but we still hope the project gets finished because the facility will be incredible once completed.  We want to go in a different direction with our club and prioritize what we feel we do best - a community centric, grassroots, person/player development model and this last year has truly helped us cement this vision.  We are comfortable with having a smaller footprint and making relationships, engagement, value and enjoyment our focus.

• Why the change of the name and rebrand? 

The change from ‘Windsor Warriors AFC’ to ‘NOCO Lightning Academy’ made complete sense regarding the holistic vision of soccer at the Future Legends Complex aligned with their Hailstorm and Rain brands.  Since we are moving in a different direction, it is appropriate that they continue to operate the Lightning brand for their youth soccer programming.

 

• Why not go back to the ‘Windsor Warriors’? 

We see this as a fresh start with a clean identity proudly focused on our Windsor community.  We have simply dropped the ‘Warriors’ from our prior club name since there is a US football team locally with the same name and ‘Athletic’ is a very common club name throughout world soccer.  It also speaks to our commitment of attracting/supporting multi-sport athletes - something many other youth sports clubs frown upon!  We also love the addition of the majestic pelican silhouette to our club badge as a nod of the head to the beautiful pod of pelicans that grace our Windsor lakes every summer!

• Will we be getting a new uniform? 

Yes, we will be changing our uniform this summer and we will be going with a fresh unique color scheme!  We sincerely apologize for this ‘premature’ reset on our kit again (as the last thing we want are further costs for our families) but it is necessary due to the rebrand and our identity change.  In prior communication I mentioned a ‘low cost transitional kit’ option and this appears to have caused some confusion.  To clarify this, whatever you purchase this summer will be a key component of our future kit over the next few years but we are looking at creative ways to reduce cost right now (for example, we will not ‘mandate’ purchase of tracksuits/bags/etc. but these will be optional extras).  We are starting to review our vendor options right now and we will secure a partner that will deliver the quality of product, price point and service we all desire!

 

• Do we have a new website?

We certainly do and we honestly feel like it’s better than ever with more useful information! 

• What about new Social Media?

As part of our rebrand, we will be focusing on new social content and engagement. Please follow us on instagram @ windsorathleticfc, and as always share photos with us, tag us in relevant posts, and help us grow the brand! We want to highlight all of these amazing athletes.

• Will we have a fan store?

We are very excited about the prospect of having a fan store added to our website very soon and we can’t wait to explore some cool gear and merch options with our new branding on it! 

• Will we be seeing changes to our leadership and coaching team?

Our current leadership team will remain the same.  Adam Zayed, our Technical Director, will continue to primarily focus on his role with our club but he also enjoys coaching elite level teams and he is exploring opportunities to do so locally.  The off-season always comes with some inevitable coaching changes but we do not expect massive shifts.  Our projected 2025/26 coaching roster is now published on our website under the ‘Player Placements’ tab and we appear to have most of our anticipated squads covered but we are always looking for excellent people to join our coaching team so please reach out via the link on our website.

• Are our coaches compensated?

We have a blend of paid and volunteer parent coaches (who have their player’s registration fees covered).  This is another key point of difference between our club and most others - overall, we see a greater upside in parent coaches than downside.  Our number one requirement for our coaches is that they must be ‘person first’ oriented towards our kids and their primary duty of care is to help develop them in a holistic fashion.  We believe we have a solid coaching methodology based on core principles that we can use to up-skill our coaches and improve them.  However, it is a far greater challenge to ‘train’ coaches to be kind, loving, committed, encouraging and engaged. Obviously, as the club has grown in size our coaching needs have expanded so, out of necessity, we have begun to compensate some coaches as well but it’s all about finding the right balance here because higher wage bills simply equates to larger registration fee increases that have to be passed down to our families.  We’re seeing playing costs rise enormously in the youth sports realm and we want to be part of the rearguard action that does our best to keep our beautiful game financially accessible.

• With regards to fees, are they increasing for the 2025/26 season?

There will be a reasonable increase in registration fees for the Junior Academy, highest competitive level and single season HS teams (please see our website for more details).  We are committed to keeping our costs as low as possible and remaining an extremely fiscally responsible club but we also need to ensure we charge a fair rate for our services so that we can re-invest into our programming and support the development/improvement of our players and coaches.  Our registration fees/costs have been and will continue to be some of the lowest in the area/state and we remain committed to providing the best value possible. 

We have received questions specifically about the size of the price jump from JA to Competitive play but this is as much a reflection of the low cost of our JA program comparatively as anything else.  Additionally, the cost of running older teams is higher.  Our income from registration fees primarily supports ALL of our operational costs like labor, facilities, league/ref fees, PlayMetrics, insurance, good equipment, providing specialized goalkeeper training and securing additional facilities for Friday ‘Tech Nights’.  We also want to continue to engage in further community outreach along with growing our ‘Play It Forward’ (PIF) fund to assist in the subsidization of registration fees for families that require financial assistance.  Furthermore, we would like to explore ways to invest in our local facilities infrastructure by helping to financially support initiatives that improve pitch quality, flood lighting, etc.   

• Are we keeping our Little Strikers and Sparks programs?

Absolutely!  We are extremely excited by the creation of these programs and, candidly, these little ones are central to the bright future of our club!  In line with our new identity (and the pelican on our crest), ‘Little Strikers’ will be rebranded to ‘Happy Fleet’ (fun fact - a group of pelicans is called a ‘fleet’ or a ‘pod’!) and ‘Sparks’ is changing to ‘Little Peli’s’! 

Mark Sellon has done an amazing job this last year in getting these programs off the ground and he will continue to run them!  As our Community Development Officer, Mark has an unique role within our club and we believe it pivotal to our long term success.  The relationships he is currently building/solidifying with children, teachers and leaders in our local schools, the Windsor Rec Department and other local organizations offer us a tremendous opportunity to connect, engage and support our community through the sport of soccer!

• Will there still be the Lightning Development Program (LDP)? 

Yes and this has already been rebranded to our ‘Junior Academy’ (JA).  It has been an area of significant growth for us (tripled in size) and we can’t wait to see where it goes and the amazing talent it will produce!  We are confident that having this dedicated program for our more committed and ambitious 8-10 year olds will result in huge improvements to the quality of our competitive players down the line.  As a young organization (we just hit our 3 year CSA member club anniversary this Spring!), we are slowly catching up to our more established peers in regards to our quality of play and it appears that our JA will help this development process enormously! 

• What pitches will we train/play on for the remainder of the season and next year?

We are scheduled to continue using the Future Legends North Turf and grass pitches for the rest of the season.  We are utilizing pitches in Windsor and Loveland for several of our remaining games, especially 11v11.  Our ‘Player Placements’ during the last week of May will be held locally (finalizing this currently) and will be using local Windsor pitches (mainly grass) in the summer (i.e. for camps), Fall and beyond.  There are some exciting development projects being lined up for additional facilities (turf and grass) to be built out in the Windsor area in the near future so we are excited and encouraged by that!

• What leagues will we be playing in next season? 

The rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated….. we are certainly not becoming exclusively a ‘travel rec club’ although that is our origin story and we are very proud of it!  We will continue to play in the same CSA Advanced and Front Range leagues as we have done in the past.  Our teams have thrived in this structure and we have already seen a meteoric rise for several of our groups through the State divisions.  We love recreational soccer because of the lower cost/commitment opportunities it offers kids and we intend to always be involved in the facilitation of the game at this level.

• What involvement will WAFC have with ‘elite’ soccer?

WAFC will not be running elite soccer programming in the foreseeable future.  It was never our intent or ambition to offer this level of play but, as a result of the partnership with Future Legends and the creation of the Lightning brand, we were thrust into this realm.  We believe that elite soccer is very important for the ‘right level of players’ and we are happy to play a part in developing talented players who want to compete at the highest level.  However, it appears that there is currently a movement gathering speed to drive as many young players as possible into this very expensive and highly committed ‘elite level’ designation and it has led us to the observation that ‘if everything is elite, then nothing is truly elite’. 

As a smaller club, this means that unlike most of our competitors, we will not be striving for acronym league designations; as it stands, we will leave that space for others to battle within and will embrace our role as a ‘feeder club’ that helps match our players with clubs that we trust and believe will have the best interests of our kids at heart.  We have serious concerns about the state of the game in this country, state and region…..specifically the ceaseless quest to proliferate our landscape with all the national acronym leagues, sky rocketing costs, low retention rates and an overall professionalization of youth sports.  Please know that WAFC’s sleeves are still rolled up and we’re prepared to put in the work to fight for the community grassroots game and we hope to help it grow and flourish!

• Will WAFC continue to participate in tournaments?

We love ‘in-state’ tournament options for the bulk of our teams and encourage them to participate in at least one per season!  These are lower cost enjoyable experiences for our players, coaches and families are great ways to kick off or end a Fall or Spring season!  Additionally, for our higher level and more ambitious groups, we support travel to ‘out of state’ tournaments if there is a consensus desire for this next level of challenge and expense. 

• Do you have a 24 or 48 hour ‘commit after offer’ rule?

Absolutely not and despite most other clubs doing this, we think it is completely unnecessary and makes the already stressful process of ‘trying out’ and new team selection even more difficult for the kids and their families.  ‘Fear of missing out’ (FOMO) is real and it seems that most clubs are leveraging this pressure.  If your player is good enough and the club/team is the right fit for them, they will find their way to opportunities and please remember that the ‘higher team’ is not always the ‘better fit’ for your kid.     

• Why isn’t WAFC doing ‘Player Placements’ for High School boys this month like everyone else?

We believe that it’s silly to make these lads try out and commit to roster spots with our club when their Spring 2026 season is 9 months away!  A lot can change in that time including players improving, regressing, losing interest in the sport, friends going to other clubs, injuries, etc..  As we’ve done previously, we will hold our U16-19 boys ‘Player Placements’ at the end of their Fall High School season and will not take financial commitment from parents before that time.  Again, we feel that this is another policy that other clubs typically adopt to create FOMO and place unnecessary pressure on the kids and parents.