Washington Premier League Is Democratizing Soccer Opportunity

In youth soccer across America, volunteer coaches often outnumber experienced ones. The cost of elite development can exceed college tuition. A player's zip code often determines their future more than their ability.

Erik Oman, the Washington Premier League's technical director and academy director, sees these challenges every day. Many of the grassroots coaches he works with have never played soccer themselves.

"You get some grassroots coaches here who have never played the game, never really watched the game, but their kids wanted to play," Oman explains. "And okay, if nobody volunteers, we don't have a team, so I'll volunteer. What do I do?"

This is American youth soccer in 2025. A sport still finding its cultural footing, where the barriers to opportunity remain significant. The Washington Premier League is working to change that equation.

A Supplemental Model for 35,000 Players

The Washington Premier League operates at a scale that's hard to comprehend. With approximately 35,000 players across the state, it serves communities from Seattle's suburbs to agricultural towns in eastern Washington.

Within that massive network, the Academy program represents something different. It's a supplemental model designed to provide elite-level training and exposure without requiring families to leave their local clubs or spend thousands of dollars on travel teams.

"About 1,000 players try out for the Academy program each year," Oman explains. "We've got about 565 players in the academy now. That's a supplemental program for their clubs. They come to us once a month for supplemental training, play around the state in their clubs, and then get that higher level training and exposure through the academy program."

This model directly challenges the dominant paradigm in American youth soccer, where advancement typically requires joining expensive leagues that charge upwards of $12,000 annually and demand extensive travel commitments.

"There's so much pressure on kids right now to play in the big ECNL leagues that are extremely expensive, and it's cost-prohibitive for a lot of families," Oman notes. "Our academy program is designed to still allow kids to play in their small hometown clubs close to home and come to us for that supplemental opportunity and get good video and have access to being seen by college coaches."

Video as the Great Equalizer

The Washington Premier League began using Veo cameras five years ago, starting with just two units. The decision came after extensive research into available technology, driven by a specific need.

"One of the things that was really appealing about Veo for us originally was the quality of the camera and the quality of the video, but also that we could use it with multiple people," Oman explains. "I could use it in an academy environment, a coaching education environment, college ID environment. The ways to manage the libraries made it easy to use for multiple people. It wasn't tied specifically to a player account."

That flexibility has proven transformative. The cameras now serve multiple purposes across the organization: academy tryouts, monthly training sessions, college ID camps, and coaching education courses. Each use case addresses a specific barrier in the American soccer development pathway.

For academy tryouts and training sessions, video provides objective evaluation tools and player development resources. Every player in the academy gets access to footage from their sessions, creating a video library they can use for recruitment purposes.

The annual college ID camp demonstrates the technology's recruitment power. The league flies college coaches to Washington, where they watch academy players compete while knowing they'll have access to complete video footage afterward.

"They can take some notes, but they know they have access to the video, so they can always go back and look at players they're interested in," Oman says. "All the players that attend camp get all that video that they can compile and send out wherever they want."

This approach removes a fundamental inequity in college recruitment. Smaller colleges without large recruiting budgets can evaluate players remotely. Athletes from rural areas can showcase their abilities to coaches who would never otherwise see them play.

Stories from the Margins

The impact shows up in individual stories. Oman recalls a young woman from a small Washington town who went through the academy's college prep process.

"She used that video and sent it out to schools that fit the things she was looking for and found this great fit for herself at a small school in San Francisco that I'd never heard of," he explains. "A small school that doesn't have a big recruiting budget couldn't come and travel to see her, but was able to see her through the video that we were collecting."

Another player, from Wenatchee, Washington, exemplifies the program's potential. His mother was an immigrant agricultural worker, and the family had limited resources. Through the academy program and the video it provided, he connected with college coaches at the ID camp.

"He's had a good college career now, and is playing USL, and is about to get his degree, the first kid out of his family to get a college degree," Oman shares. The young man now plays for Oman's USL team, West Seattle Junction, while completing his senior year of college.

"We have a lot of stories like that with our academy program of kids getting that opportunity that they wouldn't have otherwise."

The technology helps players from small towns, players whose families can't afford the expensive travel league system, players whose local clubs lack resources, and players who simply need quality footage to share with recruiters across the country and internationally.

Transforming Coaching Education

Perhaps the most innovative use of Veo technology in the Washington Premier League comes in coaching education. In a sport where many volunteer coaches lack playing experience, traditional coaching courses often miss the mark.

"Coaches don't really know what they're doing. They're really worried about sitting and writing a lot of notes and drawing diagrams, and they miss out on the classroom management of how do you manage a big group of young kids," Oman observes.

His solution transforms the learning experience. During grassroots coaching courses, he positions the camera at midfield on a small-sided field and places the attending coaches directly beneath it. Then he coaches a live session while facing them.

"I go out and coach facing them, so I'm looking at the camera, I'm looking at the coaches, and they're getting the audio right there," he explains. "When I stop the kids or keep them playing and come address the coaches right in front of the camera, they get to see that setup."

The coaches don't need to frantically scribble notes or miss key moments trying to draw diagrams. They can focus on watching how Oman manages the group, communicates with players, and structures the session. Afterward, they have a complete video library to reference.

"I tell them, you don't need to sit and take a bunch of notes and draw diagrams. I'm going to give you this video so you can watch, and we'll go through a series of sessions," Oman says. "Watch, take it in, see how I manage the players. That being able to go back and watch those sessions over again and have a template of a few good model sessions has made all the difference in the world for some of these grassroots coaches who are just learning the basics of the game themselves."

Coaching the Coaches

The technology also provides Oman with a powerful tool for developing his academy coaching staff. All academy coaches position cameras underneath their benches during matches, capturing not just the game but their own coaching interactions.

"I get to see, even if as the director, if I'm not on the field for those games, I'll go back and watch their games and listen to their communication with their players," Oman explains. "I've been able to have some really good conversations with the coaches about their coaching interactions and some of the feedback they're giving."

The camera's panning ability proves particularly valuable for this purpose. Oman can review a moment from multiple angles, seeing both the tactical situation on the field and how the coach responded to it.

"I love the ability to pan down and look at the bench and see an interaction with a coach and a player," he says. "I can pan across the field and look at what they're talking about, so I can put those pieces together. It's a great tool for me to really get a good sense of what was going on on the field at that time."

The Player and Parent Perspective

The response from players and families has been universally positive. Players love having video of themselves, and parents consistently ask about upload schedules and access.

"The kids love to have video, and they love to see themselves on video," Oman confirms. "We always get the parents asking, when will the video be uploaded? When can we see it?"

For academy coaches, the video provides valuable analysis opportunities, though Oman acknowledges room for growth in how extensively it's used for match analysis within the supplemental program structure.

"I think we have room to grow in our use of the technology within the academy and how we use it for feedback and analysis," he admits. "But it's just been so invaluable for the college highlight videos and the education side of things."

Beyond American Borders

The democratizing effect of video technology extends beyond domestic college recruitment. Players in the Washington Premier League Academy have used their footage to pursue opportunities internationally.

"The great thing is it's not just the local colleges that get to see them play," Oman notes. "They can send that video anywhere they want to go. We've had kids go to Europe and play. We've had kids go all over the country."

In a sport with global reach, this matters profoundly. A talented player in a small Washington town can now build a portfolio that reaches clubs and universities anywhere in the world.

A Different Path Forward

The Washington Premier League's model represents a fundamental challenge to the pay-to-play system that dominates American youth soccer. By keeping players in their local clubs while providing supplemental elite training and comprehensive video coverage, it offers a viable alternative to expensive travel leagues.

This philosophy, enabled by video technology, creates pathways for players who would otherwise be excluded from elite development. Geographic isolation no longer means athletic isolation. Financial constraints no longer mean invisibility to college coaches. Small-town clubs no longer mean small opportunities.

The camera doesn't care about your family's income, your club's budget, or your town's population. It captures performance, preserves potential, and creates possibility.

For 565 players in the Washington Premier League Academy, and for the thousands more in grassroots programs learning from volunteer coaches who now have professional development tools, that possibility is becoming reality.

In American soccer, where opportunity has traditionally followed privilege, the Washington Premier League is proving that technology can help write a different story.

‍