Are you one of the hundreds of families who have been touched by the service of Phil Yanchulis? Maybe he’s coached one of your kids? refereed one of their games? Perhaps, like my family, yours has benefited from the referee teaching and mentoring program he founded and still runs with Alan Liotta? It’s been going strong for 10 years.
Currently they have approximately 160 teens in the program who come for the pizza and cookies and to pick up their paychecks, but they return for the referee instruction from Phil and Alan. This keeps the kids involved, motivated and improving as referees through their high school and college years, perhaps beyond. Phil’s very proud to say that “Some of these young people have been recognized as State and even National referees of the year!”
Do you know what else Phil does for CYA? 
- He coordinates the soccer fields – every week
- He contacts all the certified refs and gets their availability forms so he can assign them games.
- If he doesn’t receive a form from the referee he contacts them again as a gentle and patient reminder to be sure they will be included when he assigns games.
- He shows up to referee personally when there is a spot that hasn’t been filled.
- He attends games to evaluate the referees’ performance and help him/her improve.
- Week after week after week, he assigns referees so the kids at CYA have a full slate of refs for their games.
- He also assigns referees for many local and area tournaments.
- When it rains, he reassigns them all.
But there’s more to Phil than you may know. He became a certified USSF referee in Virginia in 1996, and in 2002 he achieved the rank of State Referee. Since then he has received recognition by being selected for many State Cup games, including the State Cup Semis and Finals several times. He was also selected to represent Virginia at several out of state tournaments, including the ODP Regionals and the National Youth Regionals. He has served as the Referee Head of Delegation for the State Cup Finals weekend many times, and has served as the Head of Delegation of the Virginia Referees at the ODP Regionals.
In his spare time, he referees both soccer and basketball in the Virginia High School league and coaches as he has continuously since 1981.
I have submitted Phil’s name to be considered by the Virginia Youth Soccer Association (VYSA) as Administrator of the Year for the upcoming year. If you’d like to help thank Phil, here are some things you can do:
Write a letter in support of Phil to VYSA. Contact me at Fit2Finish Fit2finish05@gmail.com for more information or email Julie Caramanica @ Julie@vysa.com. (They can include up to 3 letters supporting his nomination.)
- Contact Chantilly Youth Association in support of Phil:
- CYA President, Ralph Wills @ President@ChantillyYouth.org
- CYA Executive Director, Mark Abbot @ExecDirector@ChantillyYouth.org;
- CYA Soccer Chairman, Carlos Orantes @ cyasoccerchair@aol.com.
OR contact Phil himself @ pyanchulis@natcadc.org and tell him how much you appreciate his years of service to the CYA family and our kids.
PS. What Phil does for CYA is all volunteer. I told him I was putting his name in and he said he was completely humbled to be considered for this award. Phil also has a full time job as IT Manager with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.