1. Dylon Hernandez

2. US Youth Soccer states “The Kohl's American Cup provides recreational youth
soccer players an opportunity to experience a consistent and high quality statewide
tournament in a fun, festival-like atmosphere. It fosters stimulation and excitement about
soccer in an effort to increase the recreational players’ interest and love for the game”.
Kohl’s and US Youth Soccer want the recreational player to feel special and have
fun! The Kohl's American Cup can achieve this by providing recreational players with
the opportunity to participate in an original event outside of their normal league play.
The American Cup gives State Associations another benefit to bring even more service
to current members and a tool to use in increasing membership enrollment.
For those who do not know what a recreational player is, US Youth Soccer say
the definition of a recreational player varies from association to association. They do
provide these four guide lines to help people identify the league their child plays in:
1. The use of tryouts, invitations, recruiting or any like process to roster players
selectively to any team on the basis of talent or ability is prohibited.
2. The club administering the league accepts, as league participants, any and all
eligible youth.
3. A system of rostering players is employed for the purpose of creating a fair and
balanced distribution of playing talent among all teams participating.

3. 4. League rules require that each player play at least ½ of each game except for
reasons of injury, illness or discipline.
The Kohl’s American Cup program’s purpose is to enhance the accomplishments of
recreational players. The opportunity exists for the game of soccer to help mold a
positive self-image by encouraging individual and team self-esteem. The development
of all players within US Youth Soccer is advanced when the player meets personal
challenges. The Kohl’s American Cup is designed to encourage and honor the
recreational player by allowing the player to compete for both team and personal goals.
This tournament is structured so that, regardless of ability, all players can realistically
strive for the goal of being a champion.
The Kohl’s US Youth Soccer American Cup provides recreational youth soccer
players an opportunity to experience a consistent, high quality, tournament in a fun,
family-like atmosphere. It fosters stimulation and excitement about soccer in an effort to
increase the recreational players’ interest in and love for the game.
Aside from the fun and light hearted atmosphere provided by partaking in a
Kohl’s American Cup event, the event gives the opportunity to play teams outside of a
team’s regular league. Some other things that a Kohl’s American Cup provides is the
ability to bring people to the US Youth state association that is holding the event. This
brings an increase in enrollment to the association, more membership, and allows
current members to help out in the association they are a part of.
When talking about the KAC event (Kohl’s American Cup) it is important to
identify one of two types of events that is being put on. There are the interactive (truck)
events. These events have a tour manager to manage the interactive area, and a sound

4. system used to play music and make announcements. The inflatables that come with an
interactive event are the Kohl’s American Cup soccer ball, soccer goalie, and kick wall.
Signage at these two types of events consist of Kohl’s American cup “A” frames and
flying banners. Also at these events there are Kohl’s American Cup give aways,
branded tents, and fuel magazines. Then there are the non-interactive (no truck) events.
These type of events have also include Kohl’s American Cup banners, give aways,
branded tents, and fuel magazines. The main difference between interactive and non-
interactive events is the personnel that attend the events. Interactive events have the
added bonus of a representative of the Kohl’s American Cup on locations to interact
with people and answer questions; whereas at the non-interactive events whoever
applied to host the event is the one responsible for running the event. Another
difference between the two types of events is the inflatables. Interactive events have the
benefit of having the inflatables which draw children and their parents in. To give more
of an idea as to the differences between the two events, here is a list of what is at each
event:
The Kohl’s American Cup Soccer Experience Vehicle comes with the following:
•Fully equipped sound system with speakers and microphone that can be used to play
music and make announcements
•Kohl’s American Cup soccer dribble inflatable
•Kohl’s American Cup soccer kick inflatable
•Kohl’s Kick Wall inflatable

5. •Kohl’s American Cup truck skirt
•1 – Kohl’s American Cup Welcome banner (3x10)
•1 – Kohl’s American Cup Information banner (3x10)
•8 - Kohl’s American Cup banners (3x10)
•5 - Kohl’s American Cup tents (10x10)
•10 – Kohl’s American Cup A-Frames
•10 – Volunteer T-shirts
Kohl’s American Cup non-interactive events received the following:
•1 – Kohl’s American Cup Welcome banner
•1 – Kohl’s American Cup Information banner
•8 – Kohl’s American Cup banners
•5 – Kohl’s American Cup tents
•Kohl’s Kick Wall (by request)
The factor that decides if your event is going to be an interactive event or a non-
interactive event is based on first come, first serve basis. The first two people to apply
for an event get interactive events because Kohl’s and US Youth Soccer have two
interactive trucks that they send out for the event. Most of the time there is one or two
events per month which allows for one truck at each event; but when there are more

6. than two interactive events a month and the trucks are already booked, or a non-
interactive event has requested, the items in the non-interactive list above are sent.
In my evaluation of the KAC events, I looked at all events that took place in 2010,
2011, and 2012. From here I made a spread sheet that shows what state associations
participated in each year, what type of events they put on that year (interactive/ non-
interactive), how many people participated each year, what age groups participated
each year, and how each association promoted their event. I used this spread sheet to
aid with the second part of my project, which is a survey, but this will help marketing,
communications, and Kohl’s. These areas can use the spread sheet I made to find out
how associations are promoting events and participation numbers, among other things.
Here is a picture of the spreadsheet I created for this project:

8. After creating this spread sheet, I created two documents stating which state
associations have participated at least one year of the three that I surveyed, and then
created a document of those who didn’t participate at all. These were created so when it
came time to send the survey out to past participants, we would know who to send it to.
The final part of my project was to create a survey that would be sent out to all
current and past participants of the KAC. I created this survey because US Youth
Soccer would like to hear feedback from the people at the state associations about
strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, if their numbers increased or decreased, if they
have held more than one event, and what type of event they enjoyed more. To come up
with questions for the survey I looked at a proof of performance, the spread sheets that I
created, and other questions that have been asked to the KAC participants. The proof of
performance sheet is a sheet sent out after a KAC where the participant gives an
overview of the weekend’s events. After looking at these documents I put together a
rough draft of what I wanted the survey to ask. Here is the survey that I sent to Kohl’s
for approval:
My Survey for Kohl’s American Cup Submission
Proof of Performance
 Was your event interactive (truck) or non-interactive (no truck)?
 What was the most popular inflatable at the non-interactive event?
 How was the overall experience of your Kohl’s American Cup experience?
 Did you receive enough items to make your non-interactive event successful?
My Questions:

9.  Have you held a Kohl’s American Cup more than once?
 Have you experienced an interactive and a non-interactive event? If yes which
one did you prefer and why?
 Which promotional tool worked best for your organization? (example: website
exposure, direct mail, etc.)
 If you have held this event multiple times, has the participation increased,
decreased or stayed the same in recent years? Why do you think is has done
this?
 What do you feel the strengths of this event are?
 What could have been better about this event?
 One a scale of one to ten, one being the worst and ten being the best, how
would you rate the effectiveness of the Kohl’s American Cup in terms of
providing recreational players with a high quality tournament, having a fun family
like atmosphere, providing stimulation and excitement about soccer, increasing
excitement about soccer, and providing a special and fun experience for the
players?
This survey rough draft was sent to Kohl’s, overviewed and formatted by their
people to their liking, and sent back to us at US Youth Soccer to distribute to our list
of associations that have participated in past tournaments. Here is what Kohl’s sent
back to us at US Youth Soccer:

13. This survey is going to help US Youth soccer get a better understanding for how
they can improve all aspects of the Kohl’s American Cup. Unfortunately, I had to leave
the internship before the survey was sent out and the data was collected, but my
supervisor assured me that he will keep send me updates about how the survey is
going. I have learned a great deal form the many tasks and projects I was given
throughout this entire internship. This internship was an eye opening experience that I
am glad is a requirement to graduate. When I found out about the internship I had no
idea what I was going to do, so I spoke with God about it and everything seemed to fall
in to place after that. I feel truly blessed that I was able to have this experience.