Alex Moreau coached a youth soccer team as part of a senior project. He discussed his experiences coaching, including planning practices, working on skills like dribbling and shooting with drills, dealing with injuries to players, and communicating with parents. Through the project, Alex learned he enjoys coaching soccer and wants to continue coaching youth players in the future to help them improve and excel in the sport.

1. Alex Moreau
Mrs. Corbett
Senior Project
4/2/12
Youth Soccer Coach
For the past twelve years I have played and instructed in the sport of soccer. From
an early age it was always extremely frustrating when I desired to learn a new move or a
technique but none of my coaches or peers could help me do so. One specific time I
recall, I saw a professional player pull a move called a “rainbow”. Because I had no one
to teach this trick to me I spent literally years in pursuit of perfecting this skill. Over time
I would become frustrated with my failure but I always returned to try again. Eventually I
did succeed and was rewarded with my joy and new found capability. Because of these
many memories of frustrating hours with little to no instruction I slowly integrated
myself into a coaching position. Originally I would visit my younger brother’s practices
and show them one or two tricks, but over time I developed into a full fledged coach.
From this comes the topic of my project, what does it take to coach a youth soccer team. I
pursued this topic because of my own frustrating memories and my desire to help
younger players have the guidance they need to reach their full potential. This is a
stepping stone to a future in coaching and instruction of younger players; it is my hope
that from this I will become some sort of soccer coach in the future. To adequately
explain the results of my project I will discuss in detail the work prior to the season, the
training exercises and the success or failure of each, the under workings and politics with

2. the parents and players, and finally I have a video comparing the players skill and
knowledge of the game at the beginning and end of the season.
In order top succeed in my project proper guidance and instruction was needed.
To know how to coach soccer I needed obviously someone whom had done it before, was
successful at it, and had a general good charisma for myself to mold onto. Mr. Sinco
accepted my offer that he be my facilitator. Mr. Sinco coached high school soccer briefly
at Sequoyah as well as several years here at Creekview; in fact he coached me for two of
my years here.
Now with my facilitator found I moved on to the actual project. As with all
projects a schedule and planning was made. Mr.Sinco and I would meet in his class room
during firth period lunches whenever he was available and I had a question for him.
Because he had fifth period lunch with me it became very easy to pop in for ten minutes
or half an hour to ask questions and discuss. Now dealing with the coaching abilities, at
the time I was not 18 and was legally not allowed to be the head coach of a soccer team,
but I worked underneath my father and was given many abilities as well as
responsibilities that the head coach undertakes. The most important day is ironically the
first day. Meeting and greeting with the kids and attempting to learn their names can
become difficult. This is easily avoided through a name based game. Pass the ball in a
circle made of the kids, but have two in the middle trying to get the ball. If you make a
bad pass you are in the middle, and every pass the player must call the name of the
person he is passing to or he will be sent to the middle. Almost more importantly during
the first day the coach must meet all of the parents. He must gather emails and phone
numbers, remember all of the parents names without a game to help him, and “appear”

3. like he is a good coach. After dealing with the parents I went back to the boys and had
them compete in a series of dribbling frills to ascertain their control over the ball. Next
we tested their agility and endurance. I put the players into two lines; then I would throw
the ball about twenty yards away and they would race for the ball. We finished the day
with some shots on goal. My brother Ben is normally a goalie so he was ready for some
shots. After practice I rallied the players and discussed some of the things I saw that I
liked as well as a few things we should aim to improve on. A side note, it is important to
remember to always stay positive with young players and to encourage them. Too much
criticism can break their spirits and their drive for the game. With the first day down all
of the boys have met one another and a general idea of their speed and abilities were
written down for further observation. Another early concern is team mom. From the first
practice we talked with the parents and several moms volunteered to help; we agreed they
would work together and help with emails and snack schedules. Having a team is
extremely helpful when practices and games may be or may not be cancelled and
ensuring that snacks are there for the kids at the end of every game. More drills that were
already planned for the rest of the season include a square passing drill, sprint exercises,
one touch finishing, and give and goes. The square passing drill puts three people on
different corners of a square with one man in the middle chasing the ball. The game
makes the players pass quickly and move to the open corner or else they will become
trapped and forced to be the center chaser. Another sprint, I lined all of the players on a
line and placed a cone ten yards away. On my whistle the players would sprint to the
cone touch the ground and return. The first one back was done, but the rest were required
to keep running until the next winner to complete the go and back race returned. This

4. built up many players over all speed and agility, and also many players endurance in
sprinting scenarios increased. To learn how to finish the ball we would line the players up
into three lines on top of the penalty box. From behind them we would toss a ball up into
the air and tell them to one touch finish it. No goalie was used during this for the player’s
safety. If the boys failed to show aggressiveness towards the all then they were sent on a
lap until they all learned how to attack the ball. Lastly, and possibly the most important
aspect of a good soccer team, are give and goes. The fast pace passing and accurate
through balls are essential for fast play and quick runs. To force the players to make these
kinds of passes we played a defense verse offense game of two defenders with a keeper
verse three offensive players. Any offensive player taking the ball himself is doable but
passing through the two defenders to have the third offensive player run for the ball will
typically earn a good shot. Over the season the boys learned more of the give and go
strategy and eventually used it quite well in games, this provided for many of our goals.
Following the first practice I held a meeting with Mr. Sinco and discussed the
practice. He made suggestions on how to work with certain players and explained a few
drills that would improve some of our problem areas. These problems included weak and
inaccurate shots, sloppy touches on the ball, confusion in defensive situations, and how to
play as a team. All were typical problems, and all were very manageable. To improve our
shooting I would arrive at practice half an hour early every day and offer one on one
shooting instructions. This helped with our shooting form and accuracy. To help with
strength of our kicks we matched each kid with another and had them pass the ball.
Slowly we had them back away from each other until they were hitting the ball as hard as
they could. Each practice we spent five to ten minutes doing this and over time their

5. strength did improve dramatically. To improve sloppy touches on the ball at the very
beginning of practice we warmed up with a dribbling drill. The players would jog and roll
their foot over the ball, while using different parts of their foot each lap they jogged. This
builds a larger touch area for the player and gives them more to work with. Another
problem with our touches included catching the ball and placing it where we desired it to
go. I placed the boys into four lines making a square from the first people in each line.
The players would each dribble towards the center of the square make a sharp turn and
pass the ball to the next line. The next player in line would then catch the ball and have to
place it towards the direction he desired to go. After five minutes of this we rotated the
direction of the ball to ensure all players could work both ways. Another problem
occurred between two of our players. Nothing actually happened between the two players
during soccer, but the parent of one of the boys talked with the coaches and told us that
her son was being bullied at school by one of the other players. We had never seen
anything to verify this, but we spoke with the boy and told him if anything happened that
he could tell us and it would be dealt with. Thankfully nothing ever happened and I
believe sometime through the season the mother told us that the bullying had stopped.
General attendance at some recreational practices is weak, but for the most part on a
regular practice day we always had at least 90% of the players at practice. Although,
attendance was high there were a couple of injuries. One player broke his arm through
some out of soccer incident and another had an eye injury and was unable to play for the
rest of the season. Regrettably the eye injury happened to our best keeper and this did
severely hurt the team for several games. Even though the keepers we had were not as
quick or knowledgeable, through hard work at practice and constant work with them the

6. two volunteers quickly adapted to their new positions. A few key concepts included
where to be in the goal when certain things happen in the field, when to come out and
attack the ball, and how to read where the shooter would place the ball. The first two
simply came from practice and some experience through games, but the later of the three
is a teachable skill. To know where the ball will be placed is a skill all keepers need to
know. Firstly, it is important to know which foot is their dominant foot, because that will
be the one they shoot with. Secondly the angle they come at the goal will determine
where the aim. Lastly a general rule of thumb is that when a striker truly strikes the ball
with power, right footers kick towards the keeper’s right and left footers kick towards the
keeper’s left. When the kicker strikes the ball with power his leg follows its natural
rotation which is always inward. With some experience and knowledge our new keepers
did very well through the season and saved many vital shots.
Because of this project I am certain of my future desires and the road that I wish
to travel. I learned that with something that I truly enjoy doing my work habits are very
good. The time I put into each practice is always more than the minimum time. As far as
organization goes, yes it is appropriate to have ideas before practice and to know how
long to spend on each different drills, but it is difficult to know how long it will take for
everyone to succeed in the drill and finish. My communication skills were tested in this
project mainly though emails and working with the players. Being able to explain to a
twelve year old what to do and to keep his interest can be a challenging task, but through
enthusiasm and sometimes diverse examples I was successful. On the other hand is
communication with parents. Typically a simple email is sent out, but sometimes a game
is changed at the last minute and all of the parents must be called. Some days this meant

7. calling every persons home phone, mom’s cell, and dad’s cell in order to ensure all
players knew what was going on. This was only a tedious task and did stein my patience,
but my composure was kept. I know now that I do not want to coach younger kids
because of their lack of an attention span, and that with older players they can grow more
and actually want to be there, by that point. After high school either professionally of
recreationally I will be involved in a soccer organization to coach young players and help
them inn whatever r they way they may need. Most likely I will not become a
professional coach because of the strain and I truly enjoyed working with the kids. A
great satisfaction was found at the end of each game seeing a young player perform and
excel because of something you taught him. It is a feeling like no other, and I will
definitely continue coaching in the future.