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South Park Soccer Association

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Jun, 2020

The New South Park Soccer Association U5 & U6 Academy

In continuing its mission to provide the highest quality training and experience to our members, the South Park Soccer Association will transition to an academy program for our U5 & U6 age groups in the fall 2020 season.  

It was the intention of the SPSA to provide “tests” of the academy format over two separate weekends this spring and a great deal of planning between SPSA board members and South Park High School soccer staff took place in preparation.  Fortunately, all of this hard work will allow us to implement the academy program full time this fall and we are excited to do so.

The academy program is being implemented to provide consistent, quality training for our youngest age-groups.  It is critical to provide the right foundation for player growth and development at this age and the academy will ensure that the training provided is standard and all players have the same opportunity to learn.   A great deal of the focus will be on individual technical training to establish players with good ball control, vision and passing abilities that will enable them to move into the older age groups more successfully. 

The academy will also be extremely helpful in educating future SPSA coaches.  We have been listening closely to the feedback we have received over the years regarding the concern and anxiety many parents who are unfamiliar with soccer have when considering if they will volunteer to coach.  The academy will be led by seasoned coaches from the SPSA as well as South Park High School and other area coaches when possible.  These coaches will provide the lesson plans and structure for all the training sessions and parent volunteers will be there to assist, observe and learn.  The intention is that we will provide great experience with far less pressure to newer coaches who can then use what they have learned to become coaches at the U8 age group and beyond. 

The academy program will take place on Saturday mornings for an hour and a half per age group.  All U5 players will train together and all U6 players will be training together.  Each group will be broken into smaller groups for the training sessions and will rotate through various stations that will focus on a variety of technical skills.  The trainings will be iterative and build upon each other from week to week so that there is a clear path for assessing improvement and mastery.  At the end of each training session, the players will be divided into small teams for free play scrimmages that will allow them to practice and use the new skills they are learning. 

Academy programs are used successfully at many clubs throughout the US, as well as internationally.  We are excited that we have the opportunity and necessary expertise to implement an academy format for our youngest SPSA players and will provide additional information regarding this program as the fall season approaches. 

 



Contact

South Park Soccer Association

2700 Triphammer Rd 
South Park, Pennsylvania 15129

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 412-760-1901

Contact Us

South Park Soccer Association

2700 Triphammer Rd 
South Park, Pennsylvania 15129

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 412-760-1901

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