Developmental soccer opportunities for all players

Amherst Soccer Club supports soccer players

Ages U3-U10 from throughout Southern New Hampshire.

U9-U19 players ready for competetive travel soccer move up to Hampshire United Soccer Club

WHY CHOOSE AMHERST SOCCER CLUB?

Founded in 1982, the Amherst Soccer Club/Hampshire United SC, a pioneer of innovative youth soccer programs, remains committed to player development and player/parent education. As a Club, we feel soccer is unique compared to many traditional sports in the United States, and with education and knowledge, we can make your child’s soccer experience more fulfilling and rewarding. For parents, we strive to provide information for you to increase your knowledge of the game and better understand how our coaches approach the development process with our players.
Amherst Soccer Club is a soccer program in New Hampshire offering soccer players ages 3-9 a chance to learn, train, and compete with similar-skilled peers under the guidance of highly qualified, licensed coaches. Players from any town are welcome to participate in our developmental program. The Club offers two levels in our developmental program – Tots and Early Development Program (EDP-Non-Travel).

Programs

  • Our Tots Program, is a popular introduction for youngsters 2 to 5 years old, emphasizing playful training techniques. Using fun games, this program allows your Tot the chance to learn soccer in a safe, welcoming environment while giving them the skills to necessary for our next level Early Development Program (EDP Non-Travel).
  • Our Early Development Program (EDP Non-travel), the next step Amherst Soccer Club’s developmental series, has become an effective model for player development. Designed for 5 to 9 years old, this program emphasizes our philosophy that teaching the correct skills will develop a better, more confident player. Players have the opportunity to utilize skills learned during our weekly training sessions in a weekly Jamboree on Saturday mornings.
  • Once players graduate out of our EDP non-travel program, they move on to our upper club, Hampshire United SC. Hampshire United SC is for players U9-U19 from any town who are interested in playing on a travel team. Travel teams train under the guidance of professional, licensed coaches and participate in league play, while emphasizing the correct skills as players develop. Go to Hampshire United SC for more information.

DEDICATED FOR SUCCESS

Amherst Soccer Club is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and appreciating the game of soccer.

  • High coach to player ratio

  • Professional, licensed coaches

  • Age-appropriate training and jamboree format

  • Fun and energized atmosphere

  • Personalized attention for the developing soccer player

OUR VALUES

To provide an environment for every player interested in enhancing their skills and developing a LOVE for the beautiful game. We believe that every player with determination and effort can become a skillful player and coached appropriately can develop into a lifelong player. To meet that goal, the club endeavors to provide age-appropriate programs to develop the mind and the body of our players. The program focuses on attitude and the core values of effort, discipline and respect as well as foundational soccer skills to enable success at any level.

We strive to give all players the best experience and build player pools to keep kids playing. At the youngest ages we focus on individual skills and small- sided tactics over position-based play and team-centric training. We also aim to stay local. As players progress in development, we have teams that play at higher levels, with higher expectations on training, tournaments, and commitment.

For our players we aim to provide:

Age-appropriate training
Personalized attention for the developing soccer player
High coach to player ratio for better skill development
Qualified youth soccer coaches

We place tremendous emphasis on basic skill acquisition and ball mastery. These technical skills are the building blocks every player needs in order to have long term success and enjoyment in soccer. During the “golden learning years” (ages 6-12), we believe it is critical to emphasize foundation skills and playing style over results – technical skills are the foundation of ALL great players and the building blocks of positive self-esteem. Amherst Soccer Club/Hampshire United SC seeks to develop players who demonstrate:

ABILITY: The technical foundation and skills to creatively solve problems and achieve at the next levels.

DESIRE: A love of learning and the passion to work hard and improve themselves every day — in every training session and in every game.

GRIT: Character to deal with adversity and overcome setbacks, losses and failure because they understand this is the path to real success in anything.

Our curriculum is based on the United States Soccer Curriculum (the governing body of soccer in the USA) with additional ideas, input and concepts to meet the specific needs of Amherst Soccer Club/Hampshire United SC. Combined, this shapes our community soccer culture and coaching philosophy and helps to formulate the Club’s style of play.

• We place skills acquisition before competition, development ahead of winning, and believe training sessions are more important than games. We are a player focused program and tailor our training sessions and our approach to games to maximize development. Our long-term focus is on the growth of the player, and players pools before team results. We develop our programs on the sequential stages of development and realize that skipping stages is detrimental. We do not rush our players into team tactics and positions before providing a solid foundation of technical skills.

• We value and respect our families. We respect the commitment sports take for players and families and recognize that other aspects of life are also important (academics, religion, etc.). We work hard to keep our players and families energized and avoid burnout. We are a volunteer-based organization with paid professional coaches. We are a club, not a service, and recognize that our families are the basis of our soccer community.

• We want kids to play soccer today and for the rest of their lives. We focus on player development because we believe all players can develop into soccer players and it is impossible to predict later success at an early age. Our program gives all players of different experience levels the tools to succeed on the field.

Co-President- Molly Dix
Co-President -Adam Grill
Vice President – Peter Camello
Treasurer – Dave Dix
Secretary – Chrystal Fontas

Members at Large:
Christine Estabrook
Eric Facey
Betsy Hansen
Matthew Rosenfield
John Linton
Viet Pham
Demitri Elias
Brian Barb
Sarah Barrett
Elisabeth Larson
Jillian D’Anna

Club Administrator
Lisa Davidson