This is a great basis and I love what you are trying to build. One thing to think about is does your system have a philosophy, or motto which everyone works towards. A great philosophy which is short but memorable can pull players, coaches and parents in the same direction, as they know what is trying to be achieved. Also have your teams results improved recently or are they still taking big beatings? It sounds a bit negative on the older age groups but if this is happening I would personally focus more on the younger age groups, building from the bottom as you have more chance to develop them into the players you are looking for. Also recruitment in the younger age groups is an important aspect so keep your younger players hungry to come to training and hungry to learn. By no means discard the older groups, but just think about where your resources and efforts are going. Building a strong academy system takes a long time! Keep it up
This is my first year coaching. Yeah, I'm one of those guys who is coaching a U6 team because he signed his kid up and no one else volunteered to coach. Anywho, I figured we'd lose quite a few games as we have a bunch of young, small players on our team. We have 6 four-year-olds and 3 five-year-olds. But so far we have been dominant and are 4-0. We have a range of kids that I find kind of bizarre, with the youngest kid (just turned 4) usually refusing to participate, and when he does he just stands there with his fingers in his mouth and doesn't even pay attention to what's going on/where the ball is. On the other hand, we have 2 very skilled players (for their age) who score many goals (one kid scored 12 in a game, while the opponent only scored 1). We play 5v5, on a 35x25 field. Using 6' Puggs for goals, no GK. Coaches are the refs. Been fun so far but difficult to coach such a wide range of players of various ages & abilities. It's hard to create a practice plan to fit them all; I'm now splitting them up into 2 groups (JV and Varsity haha) to better tailor the training to their respective levels.
Thanks for stepping up for the kids. Focus on teaching skills. Dribbling and shooting mostly at this age. Encourage the weaker ones to participate and be aggressive. Work with the stronger ones to improve their technique. At 6U your goal is to introduce the game and have fun. My priority would be to get the kids to come back again next season.
On "building a youth soccer association," I listened to an episode of the Way of Champions podcast over the weekend. It was episode 103 with John Leutkemeyer on building a model youth sports organization. It was well worth the time. I picked out a few new nuggets, and it reinforced a lot of my existing ideas.