When City League Park City was founded a little over a year ago, the youth sports organization’s goal was to provide kids in town with the opportunity to compete against each other and receive top-notch coaching.
Cofounders Max Valverde, Mia Pascoe, Danny Aronson and Brad Forth found fellow Park City parents were becoming understandably frustrated with the youth sports landscape requiring their kids to spend money traveling to games and practices.
The league began with a baseball season last spring, with aspirations to add other sports like soccer.
It turned out the cofounders struck a perfect chord with other Park City families, as City League has grown to include soccer and basketball.
In the fall, the organization will partner with the Park City School District to offer middle school sports. There will be soccer, basketball, baseball and softball, with kids in town competing largely against each other.
“The first year absolutely exceeded all of our expectations,” said Valverde, who also commentated the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics’ Skimo competitions for NBC. “Baseball was great with just under 100 kids, and then soccer exploded with 330 kids.”
City League partnered with the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District to offer their basketball league, which had 275 kids participate. Valverde said Basin Recreation shares City League’s belief that every kid, regardless of ability, deserves a pathway in sports.
“We’ve been in close contact with Jamie Sheetz, the high school athletic director, as well as Chris Baer, who is the newly appointed middle school athletic director,” Valverde said. “They shared the same vision that we had: that there is a way to create a pathway for kids all the way through to high school sports.”
With City League running from first through fifth grade, Valverde said parents would often ask “What about middle school?” The middle school soccer league will kick off middle school sports in Park City in mid-August. Valverde said parents can already register their kids through Basin Recreation’s website.
In addition to City League’s rapid growth, Valverde is most proud of the interest in sports in kids that the organization is helping spur. He says he’s seen an increase in pickup basketball and soccer games among kids across Park City. City League held a drop-in basketball clinic, which 60 kids attended.
Valverde believes the program is proof that you don’t need to spend large amounts of money and time traveling for your kid to improve at sports. He believes that the local interest and quality coaching City League offer are powerful enough.
“You don’t need to have $600 uniforms and travel to Mesquite, Nevada, for your kid to fall in love with and be good at a sport,” Valverde said. “(They can succeed) if you keep it local and fun. … Our coaching staff has an amazing pedigree, from Division 1 athletes to ex-varsity coaches. We had Brett Isaacson and Caleb Fine as some of our basketball coaches.”
Aronson is in charge of City League’s practice schedules, and he takes the unique approach of having every coach coach every kid, as opposed to each team getting a coach or two.
Valverde said the City League will continue to look at sports it could add, like volleyball, in the future. He could also see them hosting more casual, intramural high school sports leagues. If the middle school league takes off, City League will likely help other Wasatch Back schools establish similar programming.
For more information on City League, see their website.