AYSO was founded in 1964 in Torrance, California, by a handful of passionate soccer enthusiasts who wanted to create a truly American soccer experience. They wanted to teach soccer to children, but also impart important life lessons. The first AYSO league had only nine teams and was all boys. Today, AYSO is a nationwide, nonprofit organization with over 50,000 teams and 550,000 players, and nearly half of them are girls!

For 50 years, the vision of AYSO has been “to provide world-class youth soccer programs that enrich children’s lives.” AYSO was built on a foundation of Six Philosophies that guide every aspect of the organization. These philosophies include Everyone Plays®, Balanced Teams, Open Registration, Positive Coaching, Good Sportsmanship and Player Development - tenets that are embraced by every AYSO league, team, player, volunteer and parent.

AYSO has not only been an innovator in American soccer but also a pioneer in creating sports opportunities for every child regardless of size, shape, gender, ethnicity or athletic prowess. Its philosophy of Everyone Plays® has guided its innovation. In 1971, the first organized girls’ soccer program in the country was created by AYSO. That same year, an AYSO coach charted new territory as he welcomed the organization's first player with Down syndrome. As a result of this landmark event, AYSO offers its families the Very Important Player (VIP) program for players with disabilities. This milestone also helped introduce soccer into the Special Olympics, further expanding the playing opportunities for children and adults with special needs.

AYSO is a volunteer-run organization with more than 220,000 parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and friends giving their time to enrich children’s lives through the AYSO experience. Volunteers donate their time as coaches, referees, team parents, administrators, sponsors and helpers of every kind. In 1998, AYSO unveiled its National Coaching Program, a training and certification program designed specifically for parent-coaches. That same year, the Safe Haven certification program was introduced. Safe Haven certification is a unique volunteer training program that is required of every volunteer in AYSO, and is designed to strengthen the organization's role in child protection. AYSO understands the importance of providing a safe and healthy environment for children and is continually working to improve the education of its volunteers in the areas of child development, human behavior and sports psychology. A strong emphasis is placed on ethics,sportsmanship and the development of the whole child.

AYSO has been the leader in developing groundbreaking youth soccer programs in the United States. As the authority on teaching parent coaches and referees, te organization is proud to have paved the road for other organizations such as US Soccer and the English Football Association (FA) which have modeled their youth coaching programs after AYSO..

While AYSO’s contribution to soccer has been tremendous, it’s also become a part of the fabric of American life. Terms such as Soccer Mom and concepts such as Positive Coaching were coined to describe the experiences on AYSO fields across America. And with over 8 million alumni, AYSO has touched families at every strata of society. Please honor AYSO with a commemorative U.S. postage stamp, because AYSO has truly been a unique and valuable part of the American culture for the past 50 years.