(Chelsea Update would like to thank Brent Martin for the information in this story.)
The Chelsea Soccer Club (CSC) and Chelsea Community Education are teaming up to offer a great new recreational soccer program for the youth of Chelsea and surrounding communities.
This new soccer program is designed to deliver age appropriate soccer instruction and competition with a focus on developing soccer skills, agility, fitness, and teamwork while having fun.
The recreational soccer program will utilize a soccer academy format that first became popular for youth soccer in Europe and has since been adopted by many youth soccer organizations throughout America. Rather than being assigned to set teams with a single volunteer coach, players will have the opportunity to learn and play with all of their peers while receiving coaching from a team of professional soccer coaches, Chelsea high school varsity soccer players, and parent volunteers.
The rec soccer program will be held across six Saturdays starting the week after spring break and concluding the Saturday after Memorial Day.
In order to provide age appropriate instruction and competition, there will be three separate sessions each Saturday morning for ages grouped as follows: ages 4 and 5, ages 6 and 7, and ages 8, 9, 10. The youngest age group will have one hour sessions, while the two older age groups will meet for 90 minutes.
For all age groups, the first half of each session will be spent on learning and developing individual soccer skills designed specifically for the age of the players. All players will need to have their own soccer ball so that every child is getting the maximum amount of time with their feet on a ball and nobody gets bored.
During the second half of each session, the players will be split into small teams and they will play on a small field.
The two younger age groups will play with three or four players on a team, small goals, and no goal keepers. The advantage of this format is that with fewer players on the field each child will get many more opportunities to touch the ball and utilize the skills that they learned in the first half of the session.
The oldest group will play a more traditional game of soccer with six or seven players on each side, youth sized goals, and goal keepers.
For all age groups, the teams will be fluid, giving the kids an opportunity to play with and against a variety of players, while also providing the coaches the opportunity to make adjustments if the teams are unbalanced.
All training sessions have been professionally designed by and will be supervised by Tom Greeley, a coach for the CSC and the men’s head coach for Cleary University. Greenley will be assisted by Shawn Hayes, the Director of Coaching for the CSC and head coach for the Chelsea high school boys and girls varsity soccer teams.
They will be presenting a training session prior to the start of the program for any parents who want to volunteer to help lead the rec soccer program. These parents will work with the coaches as well as six to nine Chelsea varsity soccer players each week to help organize and coach the kids, thus providing an excellent coach to player ratio and maximizing the effectiveness of the program.
For more information on this recreational soccer program and to register parents can click here.
The Chelsea Soccer Club currently has over 160 kids ages 7-to 16-years playing on 15 teams. CSC teams play in the Western Suburban Soccer League and travel to and host games against other clubs from surrounding communities such as Dexter, Jackson, Brighton, Livonia, Westland, and Saline.
Any players seeking a higher level of competition and training are invited to click here to learn more.
While the CSC has traditionally focused on the travel soccer program, the club’s mission involves providing the opportunity for all of our community’s youth to learn and enjoy playing the game of soccer.
