While growing up in the Chicagoland area mid 80’s and into the 90’s there was not a lot of youth soccer programs around. Parks would typically have baseball fields, football fields, basketball and tennis courts. Soccer fields were very rare find during that time. Fast forward to present day and soccer has grown so much it’s hard to find a park without a soccer pitch. It’s amazing to see how much soccer has grown across our country!
During my childhood I decided to join the wrestling team and that’s where I learned the discipline to work hard and achieve my goals. I became a IKWF State Champion and a IHSA all state wrestler winning 137 varsity matches at Leyden High School.
I fell in love with the beautiful game of soccer thanks to my lovely wife Erika. My wife signed my son LT up for soccer at the Bloomingdale park district and told me she also signed me up as a coach as they were seeking volunteer coaches. It was a great experience and for the next several years I continued to volunteer coaching.
Each season my passion for coaching grew and I decided to obtain my coaching license and look for any opportunities to gain more knowledge to become a better coach. Shortly after receiving my license I started a club Barcelona Elite. I knew we only needed seven to play and we ended up getting 10 players to sign up that season in the YSSL. After that season we added another team and within a couple years we grew to 180 players.
I ran Barcelona Elite for the next six years and then decided to rebrand the club to my family’s name Doughty Soccer Academy aka DSA.
In 2019 I reached out to Nick Mulvaney looking for Super Y opportunities and CCSC welcomed us with open arms. During that summer both our teams qualified for the National finals in Tampa! Our 2003 team was one of the top ranked teams in the country and had players who are now currently playing collegiate soccer and one playing in the MLS!
In 2021 DSA merged with CCSC and I’m excited to see what we can do together in our communities!