Brookdale Chevrolet Sales Associate Runs Soccer League

Chris Juarez of Brookdale Chevrolet runs Revolution Youth Soccer, a soccer league in the Minneapolis area. He started it with his dad in 2010 when he was just 18 years old. 

“We had such a big friend group in our community,” said Juarez. “We all wanted to play together and wanted a good, organized league, but there weren’t many options.”

Juarez and his friends started playing at local parks, with his dad serving as a coach for every team. News spread around the Latino community in Northeast Minneapolis, and the number of kids wanting to play grew quickly. 

“We got to the point where we had so many kids, and there weren’t many leagues in the area, so my dad started his own,” said Juarez. “We started scheduling games and coordinating referees and locations.”

Now, they have about 80 different teams, and players can range from age 6 to 99. Every age group is included in the kid’s division, starting with U6 to the high school team. There is an adult division and a veteran’s division that is 40 plus. “It’s cool because you’ll have kids’ games playing, and then the parents will play, and then the grandparents will play,” said Juarez. 

There are about 20 games throughout the year, with a majority held during the summer, almost every weekend. After a break in the fall, they finish out the season indoors playing Futsal, which is a Brazilian style of soccer. 50% of teams are community-based, where most of the team is related. Many teams are put together by families or through finding friends at school to play, and parents are the coaches. The other half of registered teams come from other leagues, like club level or high school level. 

The Juarez family legacy continues in the league, with Chris’ parents still being involved, and now both his kids play in the league, too. The league has expanded to include teams from all over the Twin Cities area.