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SHORTCUTS: ---ODP soccer ---Soccer camps ---Public elementary and high school soccer ---Soccer Q&A ---Soccer links ---MORE |
Soccer Opportunities
In Northwestern Connecticut
This page is about soccer -- specifically about youth soccer in Connecticut's Northwest Corner and the surrounding area. The intent of this page is to provide as much information about soccer alternatives in our area as we can. There are a lot of soccer opportunities here, but, until we created this web page page, no one place provided convenient access to all of them.
We suggest that you bookmark this page if you are involved in youth soccer in our area in any way -- player, parent, coach, official -- because things change constantly and you definitely do need to keep your eyes open. We do attempt to stay abreast of what's happening in the soccer community, but we can't do it by ourselves. We definitely welcome information that will help us keep this page updated.
| We're always looking for information to pass along. If you know something soccer-related that's happening in Northwest Connecticut that isn't here, please let us know about it. Use this link to send us more information! |
Soccer Opportunities:
Berkshire United Soccer Club
Here in the Northwest Corner, Berkshire United is the youth soccer organization providing "travel teams" for the towns that make up public school region #1 -- Salisbury, Sharon, Kent, Cornwall, North Canaan, and Canaan.
The Spring Soccer season for 2009 is getting underway now. BUSC is fielding the following teams:
--U-10 girls: two teams
--U-12 girls
--U-14 girls
--U-10 boys
--U-12 boys
--U-19 boys
E-mail club president Ken Stone (kstone@salisburyschool.org) for more information.
Berkshire United (or BUSC) provides both traditional competitive fall soccer as well as spring soccer, plus soccer clinics and a one week soccer camp each summer, with much of the training conducted by professionals from Challenger Sports, Inc. Others associated with coaching functions at Berkshire United tend to be very knowledgeable -- in fact, varsity coaches at area schools frequently volunteer as BUSC coaches. Berkshire United's summer day camp, conducted by professionals from Challenger Sports, this year will be held June 22 through June 29. Contact the club via their website to sign up.
See their website for more information about the club.
We continue to be impressed with Berkshire United. Talented professional trainers, well-qualified coaches who take a real interest in the kids, supportive parents, and super kids.
Be aware: advance signups are ALWAYS required to play on a Berkshire United team. Furthermore, the signups always occur a very long time before the season starts. For example, for spring soccer, January is the main month for sign-ups, and sign-ups/tryouts for fall soccer come in early June. This is necessary in order to permit equitable scheduling to take place before the first games of the season.
Ability is needed, too (particularly for fall soccer). Try-outs are always a requirement for fall soccer, regardless of any prior participation on BUSC teams. Sometimes (depending on the number of applicants as well as previous experience playing for BUSC) tryouts may also be required for spring soccer.
Finally, there is a cost associated with playing for Berkshire United. See our Soccer Q&A page for more on that.
("Travel" for BUSC means, basically, outside the Region I school district, but largely within the remainder of Litchfield County and northern Fairfield and part of New Haven County. Since BUSC covers all of Region I, there can also be a distance to travel to team practices, particularly if you live on the outskirts of Region I. On the occasions when BUSC decides, based on particular talent and depth in a particular age group, to field a Premier team, "travel" means throughout all of Connecticut. And, under some circumstances, BUSC also fields a team or two in the Berkshire League in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, in which case all games would be "away" games.)
FC SARUM SOCCER CAMP
is a first-rate day camp that holds forth during July each summer using the beautiful facilities of Indian Mountain School in Lakeville, including four regulation fields. It's definitely a popular place for area kids and summer visitors to polish their skills and the instruction is of uniformly high quality.
We hear many favorable comments about the program, which was founded in 1990 by Steve Griggs, who was, from 1979 to 1995 the head coach of men's soccer at Yale and Joe Cleary, who was the coach at Salisbury School. It's now usual for 100 or more kids to attend this well-respected program each session.
This program does not have a website, so for complete information about the program you'll need to call them (the number is below) -- or e-mail them.
For the 2009 season, the program runs for three weeks. The first week, the so-called "Mini-camp", July 6 - 9, will be for 5 - 8 year olds. This program runs from 9 AM to noon daily. The subsequent two weeks, July 13 - 17 and July 20 - 24, are for 7 - 15 year olds. They offer a full day program (9 AM - 4 PM), with a half-day option available to 7, 8 and 9 year olds only.
Contact information for FC Sarum is as follows:
Until June 25
After June 25
FC Sarum Soccer Camp
c/o Steve Griggs
39 Calais Road
Randolph, NJ 07869
P.O. Box 49
Salisbury, CT 06068
Phone (973)895-4322
E-mail: fcsarum@yahoo.com
RUMSEY HALL SUMMER SOCCER SCHOOL
is a bit of a drive for people in the northern townships of our area (Salisbury, particularly), but it's well within range, and well worth a trip, and is convenient for those in Kent and Cornwall. It's located on the campus of the Rumsey Hall School in Washington Depot, CT, and offers a pair of one week summer programs for ages from four to fourteen. 2008 was the 16th year for this program, and the principals are very well-known and respected in the area (and regional) soccer community.
The two sessions in 2008 were July 7 - 11 and July 18 - 22. Here's a link to the 2008 brochure. We'll post 2009 information when we receive it.
Also, you can contact Program Director Bruce Adams directly.
TOWN RECREATIONAL SOCCER PROGRAMS
During the fall soccer season, there are abundant soccer opportunities for youthful residents of the towns that make up our area. Each of our towns provides "rec soccer" programs beginning as early as second grade and continuing through age 11. (It's assumed that a 12 year old who really wants to play soccer will play both school and Berkshire United soccer, so no rec soccer is available for that age group.)
A few towns even offer opportunities for children as young as five. Some programs are stronger than others, some are better funded than others, and, since population of our townships varies considerably, some programs are better populated than others.
Because we're a rural area, there are occasional peaks and valleys in populations of soccer kids in each individual town. This can lead to U10s from one town playing on the U12 team for that town, simply because the town doesn't have enough kids to field both a U10 and a U12 team -- so it fields one at the higher level, and the younger kids in that town "play up" -- as much as three years up in occasional cases. (There's both good news and bad news in that. On one hand, it can lead to 9-0 blowouts -- not very challenging for the winners and somewhat discouraging for the losers -- but it does tend to virtually guarantee an abundance of playing time for all the kids who participate in this kind of arrangement, and it certainly gives the younger kids some good mileage!)
Mainly the rec soccer teams play the other rec soccer teams in our immediate area, although some go a bit farther afield. A few of the rec programs make use of the Berkshire United professionals for instructional purposes, while others elect to go it alone or use other coaching resources, whether home-grown or affiliated with an area boarding school. Be aware: advance registration is normally required to play "rec soccer" and sign-ups are usually held in early summer. Charges to play are usually minimal, but you must provide your own cleats and shinguards. Your town recreation director can provide specifics on this and should always be your first contact if you have an interested young person.
Some of the Town programs also provide soccer programs during the summer months. This varies greatly by town, so be sure to contact your Town Recreation Director for specifics. The Lakeville Journal is another good source about these programs/
Town of Salisbury website. Follow the link on that site for the Recreation program and for contact information.
PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SOCCER PROGRAMS
The Region 1 championships seem to move around in tandem. Two years ago it was North Canaan Elementary School that had both boys' and girls' teams go undefeated and take home both trophies. Last year, it was Cornwall Consolidated School! Their boys' team and their girls' team BOTH went undefeated during the Fall 2007 season and, not surprisingly, in view of their won/lost records, also won their respective leagues. Do we have the makings of a major rivalry here? Cornwall beat North Canaan in the final games of the season for the title. Let's see what 2008 brings!
The area public elementary/middle schools generally begin their school soccer teams with sixth graders, although the teams are usually populated mainly with seventh and eighth graders. These teams play mostly each other (each of the townships in our area has its own elementary/middle school through grade eight) but some also play area private middle schools. Advance signups for school soccer are not normally required -- the teams are usually formed at the beginning of each school year -- but, depending on the year and the population of interested kids, you should expect tryouts in all but the smallest schools.
Most of the public schools coaches assume that youngsters entering sixth grade will come to them either with rec soccer (with their town team) or travel soccer (with Berkshire United) experience, although some of the coaches report that in occasional years, especially in the smaller schools, they are thankful to be able to field a team with any formal soccer experience at all. "It changes year by year" one coach told us. "Some years I could field three super teams, and other years I'm hard pressed to get one full team on the field."
In most towns, seventh and eighth graders can pretty much be assured of a spot on the team, while sixth graders may be excluded entirely or will have to compete -- and demonstrate talent, drive, and maturity -- to even get a spot on the team. Once on the team, however, coaches will generally play their better players, regardless of grade, more than their weaker players.
Some of the elementary schools do provide limited gym class and/or intramural opportunities, but it's safe to say that the schools themselves do not generally provide much meaningful soccer experience below sixth grade within the school physical education program.
PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER (Housatonic Valley Regional HS)
Housatonic Valley Regional High School soccer is an area where soccer in our area has improved markedly in recent years. Largely due to the efforts of Berkshire United in developing a population of young people who have experience as competitive soccer players, the Housatonic Valley Regional High School soccer teams -- both the boys and the girls -- have risen from the basement of their league to positions near or at the top end -- although depth continues to be a problem on occasion. Even though there has been soccer at Housy for decades, as recently as just a few years ago, Housy soccer was strictly a "walk on" sport -- but no more! We believe that there's every reason for Housy Soccer -- for both boys and girls -- to continue to improve.
Visit the Housy website. Take the tab for the "Sports Zone" and click on the schedules for all sports line on that page to see who and where the boys varsity team and the girls varsity and JV teams are playing. We're very encouraged that there are sufficient players this year to fill a girls JV as well as a varsity -- in a season where field hockey is another alternative for the Housy girls. And we wish that the Housy website gave the soccer teams more coverage! (A few pictures would be nice, for example).
One interesting factoid about the Housy girls: on October 27, 2006 the girls played their 500th interscholastic game (they won). Few people realize that interscholastic girls' soccer at Housy has been around ever since its introduction as a club sport in 1971, and that it became a varsity sport the following year. According to the Lakeville Journal, the team won its very first game, against Simon's Rock, 1 - 0 on a penalty kick by an exchange student. For its first few years Housy's opponents were confined to prep school teams, because few public schools at that time had girls' soccer teams -- in fact, way back then in the dark ages, public schools, at least in this area, had very few athletic opportunities of any kind for girls. Here's a page about Housy Soccer back in 1973.
OLYMPIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SOCCER
One of the more frequent questions we get from people who do not live here year-round, or who are contemplating moving to the area is "Is there an available ODP program?"
We're happy to say that while this is a pretty rural area, there definitely is Premier and ODP soccer available, at least in a relative sense. While Berkshire United represents entry-level "travel" soccer, not surprisingly, if you want to go on in soccer, you'll have to travel a good bit farther. Presently, one girl from our area is playing U-16 girls premier soccer for Yankee United, which is located in the New Haven area (and is the current CJSA state champion at her age level, by the way).
Another question we are often asked is "Just what is ODP soccer anyway?"
The answer to this question is that ODP soccer was established in 1977 nationally by US Youth Soccer to develop a pool of youth soccer players in each age range from which a national team can be drawn. Not just a system of licensed competitions, ODP soccer includes quite intensive and structured training, both of players and coaches.
The third most frequent question we (unfortunately) receive on this topic is "Who do you have to know for your kid to be considered for ODP soccer here?"
Since ODP players are selected on the basis of open tryouts at a state level, we can say that the official position is that personal contacts do not help, and if you are pushing your kid on the basis of who you know, you (and your young player) are likely to be disappointed. Having said that, it's important to say that there is absolutely no substitute for being well informed about the ODP program if your young person has aspirations in that direction. The best way to begin the process of becoming informed is to participate (players) and volunteer (parents) with the local youth soccer travel team -- Berkshire United in our case -- and start at an early an age as possible getting the all-important mileage. Participation in summer soccer camps, programs, and clinics is also essential for young people with an eye on moving up.
A bit more information about the OPD (stands for Olympic Development Program) soccer program in our area: ODP soccer, for those to whom the term is unfamiliar, is run in Connecticut by the CJSA (Connecticut Junior Soccer Association), and is part of Region 1, which extends from Maine to Virginia.
Scott McCarty, the Athletic Director of the Forman School in Litchfield (located only slightly outside the geographic boundaries this page covers) also directs the ODP program at the present time in addition to his duties at Forman. We suggest that inquiries about ODP soccer in our area be directed to him at Forman.
PRIVATE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL SOCCER
The only soccer programs we're currently aware of in this category in our area are those of Indian Mountain School in Lakeville, and Berkshire County Day School, just over the state line in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. BCD in particular has several offerings of interest. We understand that the Rudolph Steiner School in Great Barrington also has a soccer program for intermediate school students but we could not locate any information about it on their website. We would particularly welcome more information about soccer at Rudolph Steiner -- and from IMS or BCD as well. Again, slightly outside our area, the Rumsey Hall School, in Washington Depot, CT, also has a soccer program.
PREP SOCCER
This category refers to private school soccer for grades 9 - 12 (and post-graduate). Because the Northwest Corner is home to several well-known boarding schools that draw their student bodies from across the nation and around the world, there definitely are serious soccer programs available in this spectrum as well. Some of the programs consistently field teams that contend for the New England prep championships and even tour in Europe.
Generally you can find more information about the school's soccer program on the athletics pages of the school website.
Soccer in NW Connecticut by age group
We realize that it can be a complex matter
just to figure
out which alternatives are available for a young person in a particular age
group.
We offer a table of soccer opportunities by age group in Northwest Connecticut.
Soccer in NW Connecticut by season
Many people think of soccer just as an autumn sport, but it isn't one anymore! Here are the various programs arrayed by the season of the year they operate in....
| Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter |
| --Berkshire United --Berkshire United one-day clinic |
--Berkshire United --Some town rec. department programs |
--Berkshire United --Town rec soccer --ODP soccer --School soccer |
NONE (in our area, at least none we know of -- be sure to let us know of any you hear of!) |
Soccer in NW Connecticut: Questions and Answers
While there are always a lot of questions about Soccer in Northwest Connecticut, we sometimes, at least, can provide some answers. Check our page of soccer questions and answers.
Other useful soccer links in Connecticut and beyond
| In Connecticut | Outside Connecticut |
|
visit Northwest District, Connecticut Junior Soccer Assn |
visit Berkshire County (MA) Youth Soccer League
-- we hope to be adding more information about soccer in Berkshire
County to this website soon. They have a strong program and we
have seen evidence of increased interest in crossing the state line for
soccer purposes. |
|
visit Connecticut Junior Soccer Association |
visit US Youth Soccer |
|
visit Berkshire
United Soccer Club |
visit FIFA |
|
for adult soccer in Connecticut, the
Connecticut Soccer League |
for over-30+ soccer in Connecticut, the
Shoreline
Adult Soccer League |
|
the US
Soccer Foundation, the charitable arm of soccer in the US |