Goalkeeping requires a special mindest along with special skills. Read some of the training tips 60 DC Stoddert rec. players received at our free GK Clinic on May 9!

COACHES TRAINING COURSES

DC Stoddert continuously offers coaching license courses and other coaching workshops for its coaches in both recreational and travel/developmental soccer. For the most up-to-date listing of courses, please click here.  For more information, please E-mail Len Oliver, Director of Coaching.

Goalkeepers are the most vital players on any team, yet incorporating them into practice can be a challenge. On March 28, American University Women’s Soccer Head Coach Dave Bucciero gave Stoddert Soccer’s travel coaches and players some training tips and techniques. Click "continue" for detailed descriptions of his drills and exercises.

Girls diving into DC Stoddert travel soccer for the first time know little about the game’s competitive side. Khaled Hamami, our outstanding 2009 Travel Coach of the Year, quickly gets them up to technical and tactical speed.

To read more about coach Khaled, click "continue" below. Click HERE for a full report on the winners celebrated at the Dec. 9 Annual General Meeting and Awards Ceremony.

With more than 5,000 young players competing and practicing on any given week during the season, DC Stoddert Soccer coaches have a awesome responsibilities. And 2009 tested their mettle. The usual field crunch was exacerbated this spring by record rains that cancelled practices and games, and nearly cut the travel season short. Tragedy struck as well: longtime coach and commissioner Kelly Murray and her daughter, Sloane, lost their lives when a tree toppled during a summer storm and hit their minivan.

This year, to honor their memory, Stoddert Soccer inaugurates a new award: The Kelly and Sloane Murray Girls’ Recreational Coach of the Year. Please join DC Stoddert Coaching Director Len Oliver in congratulating the first winner, Dino Merotto, left, and John Menditto, recipient of the 2009 Len Olicer Coach of the Year. The awards ceremony took place Dec. 9 at the Annual General Meeting at Jelleff club house. To read more about our coaches of the year, please click on "continue." Click HERE for a full account of the Dec 9 award ceremony and winners.

We all know that success in the development of young soccer players can not be measured in wins and losses. So how then do we, as youth coaches, measure success? This Vision Statement from US Youth Soccer outlines an approach.

Want your child to play soccer with passion, creativity and joy? Turn off the stopwatch on your kid’s playing time. Quit keeping score. Count, instead, how many passes the team strings together before getting stripped of the ball, or whether the player with the ball has at least two options for a pass, forming the infamous soccer “triangle.”  These are among the lessons League Administrator Tom Gross, Girls’ Technical Director Karen Kelser and I learned at the third annual Elite Club Development Conference in Raleigh, N.C., in December..

Marta, Brazilian phenon, was WPS's 2009 Player of the Year.