jax147

hi, i coach a kids football team here in the uk. Does anyone know anything about junior soccer in ontario, as i'm hoping to go there this year. How long does the season last, do they play on astroturf during winter, is it easy to start a team, is it a up and coming sport over there. ?
cheers

burton bunch

Hi jax

Here is the link for the Canadian Soccer association

http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/index.asp

There is a section on Mini Football - which i presume is like the Junior as we know it over here.

Best of Luck

Gaynor
x

Buck Hunter

Here is a good site for you to check out - www.soccer.on.ca This breaks it down in the player section into club, regional and provincial - just helps give you a feel of the overall structure of the youth game here in Canada.

Also, if you're panning to coach check out the technical clinics in the coach's section, as you may want to work towards your Community Coach Certificate once you're here. If so, I suggest you get some sort of letter from your team/club recognizing the years you have put into coaching, you'll need that to speed up any certification. The game isn't as advanced here, but it is growing at the youth level and more and more qualified coaches are getting involved.

The outdoor season is in the summer and is pretty short in comparison to an English regular season, and at the young level you have all crazy rules like no off-side and kicks-ins, etc. But indoor seasons are popular and are run well with many impressive arenas in Ontario.

Hope any of that helps.

jax147

thanks gaynor. I picked up a lot uf useful info like, they don't play at wekends and they play at 7.00pm in the evening, weird. It will take getting used to but it will help my son with the resettlement experience.
cheers
jeff

burton bunch

Hi Jeff

We are also hoping that joining a soccer club will be good for our 10 year old lad - he cant wait as the boys at the club where we will be living thought he was "awesome" at soccer !!!! Had a big head by the time we came home

Come to think of it the game hubby and son went to see was at 7pm during the week too - never noticed that until you mentioned it

jax147

Thanks Buck, i will take your advice. One thing i have learnt form all these threads is ,it pays to be prepared.
jeff

jax147

Hi Gaynor
if someone said you were awesome, i bet your head would swell a little. i know mine would. The good thing about a night kick off is that we don't have to get up on a saturday morning with a hangover to watch our boys.

iaink

The bad thing is the mosquitos will be out in force

jax147

that's a very good point. See, i didn't even think about that.

Grah

Strange, Thoughts.

We play games weekends (8am - 9pm ko ), & Week days (6pm -9pm ko). We practice outdoors at weekends in summer, School nights (8pm-10pm u14G) currently.
If you are only playing Rec you may get away with 1 practice a week but if you intend playing premier you'll need to schedule in at least 2.

Ontario, BC Alberta and Quebec are the power house provinces but all the other provinces are coming along with their programs and funding now so good time for all.

I also remember provincial practises for u16 where 9:10 to 11:10 Friday nights a couple of years ago. Got to remember people are used to 5:30 am hockey practises so.

Indoors is a mixture of Carpet and Field turf here. Boards are used only for rec level, premier players learn to control the ball quicker. So have to start placing the pass better.