By Ashley Ferraro
Youth sports present an enormous opportunity to enhance personal development. Springs Soccer Club has built its entire program on four core pillars: connection, competence, character, and confidence, with a mission to develop youth long-term through a supportive, player-centric environment.
SSC is the only recognized travel soccer program in the city of Coral Springs and the fastest-growing soccer club in South Florida. For its inaugural year in 2020, the club formed three teams in its competitive league. Just three short years later, SSC impressively boasts eighteen teams in its current season.
In addition to a widely respective competitive travel program, SSC offers two development leagues: In-House and First Touch. The In-House league focuses on cultivating soccer skills in a fun, player-centric environment. The program consists of training sessions and games and is open to players of all skill levels who obtain support from professional coaches.
The First Touch program is open to children in the U6 age group and designed to introduce children to soccer with a strong foundation in skill and game knowledge. In some cases, First Touch may be the initial step in a player’s development pathway. SSC recognizes the importance of instilling specific values and skill sets at a young age to set players up for a lifetime of achievement.
SSC takes an approach to player development that is both technical and hands-on, looking at each player and mapping out their development pathway to set them up for success in soccer and life. This holistic approach involves parents as it does the players, for example, engaging the adults in parent education meetings.
Supplemental to a professionally licensed coaching staff, SSC enlists Roger Thomas as Director of Methodology. In this role, Roger works alongside the coaches to develop a curriculum and instill age-appropriate training exercises to ensure players are fully supported during every step of their journey–from U6 to college preparation.
By adhering to values like integrity, respect, humility, responsibility, and collaboration, SSC focuses on the “bigger picture,” which is develop
ing young people with traits that help them succeed beyond the field.
Springs Soccer Club is about the community as much as it is about the players. Executive Director Laurie Thomas speaks highly of the Friday evening pickup sessions and games at Cypress Park in Coral Springs. “It’s really become a big community event,” she says. “We have our concessions open, there’s music, and we have three fields full of over 300 kids from our community.”
In addition to ongoing sponsorships with City Furniture and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, SSC recently acquired a partnership with Nike Soccer. As a result of this new partnership, the SSC U10 Girls Team had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk out with Germany at the DRV PNK Stadium in Miami.
Looking ahead, In-House and First Touch leagues will start up again in early June. Tryouts for SSC’s competitive program begin the first week of May, with the season officially starting in August. In the meantime, new and seasoned players alike can look forward to summer training sessions in early June, including a day camp and summer evening clinic.
For more information on registration and tryouts, visit www.springssoccerclub.com
