The prospect of a child playing soccer is largely determined by the success of his or her relationship with the first coach. However, how to select a children's coach from the multitude of applicants is not stated in the literature. There are many criteria. Our children's sports school "Starkids" (Ekaterinburg) was losing trainees for a long time until we developed a test. The aim of the study is to create an algorithm for selecting soccer coaches for a private children's and youth sports school. Research objectives: To conduct a theoretical analysis of the literature on the problem of research, to select the criteria for the selection of coaches by questionnaire survey method, to form a method for the selection of coaches in private children's and youth sports school for soccer based on parental requests and economically justify the expediency of the created methodology. The methodology involved summarizing the parents' comments, finding out their priorities by questioning, determining on this basis the weight of the stated criteria, drawing up a test, selecting questions so that the personal evaluation of the coach coincided with his estimate in the created test. Data from 70 parents and 20 coaches were used. Results of the study. Over 85% of all evaluations by parents were given to the ability of the coach to organize the activities (interesting exercises, etc.), the contact with children and the success of the team. The test consisted of 12 questions and according to the weighting 5 of them were given to organization, 4 to the contact with children and 3 to the success of the performance. The questions were chosen so that the evaluation of specific coaches from the test and from the parent survey coincided. Comparing the coaches' evaluation with the departure of a part of the students from the coach, we found out that 15% of the children would leave if the coach was competent at the highest level. Each additional correct answer of the coach gave our small private sport school extra 400 thousand rubles per year for the account of the saved contingent. Based on the results of the work, we can conclude that when selecting a children's soccer coach, it is objective to focus not on formal indicators (game experience, license), but on the actual results of the test.