Seashore Soccer League Juniors Program

The Juniors program at Seashore Soccer League provides young players with an introduction to soccer. Our age-appropriate curriculum ensures players will master new skills every session. Skills include dribbling, passing, goal scoring, teamwork, and more! Each session, our coaches will teach players a new skill, and they will put it to use in fun games as well as scrimmages! All of our coaches have extensive backgrounds in playing and/or coaching soccer, and we hope to instill our love and passion for soccer in our young players!

Week 1: Dribbling

Players learn how to take small kicks to keep the ball close. We dribble the ball to control it, and pass to teammates or score a goal. Players can say “tick tock” or say the alphabet every time they touch the ball. Players learn to stop the ball with the bottom of their foot, use this as a “ready and paying attention” position.  

• Mr. Potato Head Body Parts: All players are a Mr/Mrs Potato Head and must collect their body parts. Each player has a ball and dribbles inside the area. Coach will call out body parts. When a body part is called the player must stop their ball and place that body part on the ball to collect the body part.

Week 2: Fancy Feet

These are fun skills players can practice throughout the season, in all of the games we play. Young players will love to practice at home and show their family. Juggling, toe touches, tick-tocks, rollovers, and pull-back.

• Red Light Green Light: Imagine the field is a big racetrack. Players drive their cars around the track and listen to the lights. Use red light for stop and green light for dribble, then add different colored lights for the new movements.

Week 3: Shooting

Players learn to kick the ball as hard as they can into the goal using their laces.

• Before games, give each player a chance to place the ball in front of the goal and try to use their laces.

• Messy room: Balls are scattered  around the field, have players kick all of the balls into the goals to clean up. 

Week 4: Passing

Players learn that passing means kicking the ball to a teammate to get closer to the goal, and that we have to focus on kicking the ball where we want it to go. 

• Pirate ships: Everybody is a pirate ship, your ball is a cannon ball. Players try to sink the coach’s ship by kicking their ball and hitting their feet. Progress into sinking everybody’s ship. 

• Monsters: Cones are set up around the area and are called “monsters.” Players defeat the monsters by kicking their ball into the cone to knock it down.

Week 5: Teamwork 

Players learn that teamwork means to work together to score a goal. We don't steal the ball from our teammate, we try to pass to them so we can move up the field.

• Go Team!: All players line up on the endline and lay on their bellies. Scatter balls around the field (one for each player). Players must remain on their bellies until coach says “Go team!” When coach says go, players work together to score every ball into the goal.

Week 6: Offense

Players learn that offense means to try to score goals. We play offense when we have the ball and are dribbling, passing, shooting, and scoring.

• Ball Tag: Players dribble in the grid and try to kick their ball and hit other players’ balls. Have them count how many times they hit other balls.

Week 7: Defense

Players learn that defense means to stop the other team from scoring a goal. We play defense by not letting the other team run past us, and blocking them when they kick the ball.

• Sharks and Minnows: Players line up on one side with their ball, one shark in the middle. Minnows try to dribble their ball to the other side without letting the shark (defender) get their ball.

Week 8: Review & Favorite Games

Review of all of the skills we learned: dribbling, scoring, passing, teamwork, offense, defense. Player share their favorite games and activities from the season, and we’ll play them all. We’ll end the season with a final scrimmage.