In issue One of XI David Keyes is writing about the role that AYSO, the American Youth Soccer Organization, played in “Americanizing” soccer. Founded in the 1960s in Los Angeles, AYSO sought to redefine soccer, transforming it from a foreign sport to an American game, and thus grow beyond the ethnic communities where it had long been played.
David Keyes is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on the growth of youth soccer in the United States and relations between immigrant and non-immigrant communities as seen through the sport. He was previously the editor of the website Culture of Soccer and is currently an editor of XI.
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