What programs do you offer?

We offer coaching opportunities for recreational in-town soccer, travel soccer, supplemental training, and soccer for children with disabilities. We offer programs during the spring, fall and winter seasons. See our Programs page for details.

How do I sign up?

Thank-you for considering becoming a coach.  Check out the Becoming a Coach page on the website and click here to start your registration process. You will need to complete the registration process with HYS and MYSA (Mass Youth Soccer Association) , a background CORI check, safe sport training, and concussion training.  This link will walk you through all the steps needed.

What skills or equipment will I need?

We will provide all the education, tools and equipment you will need.  This would include a coaching bag (age group dependent) with game balls, cones, pinnies and basic first aid, as well as all the resources you need like lesson plans, courses, guidelines and anything else you would need.

Where do we play or practice?

All home games and practices are in Holden; Davies Hill, Dawson field (under construction), the High School, and the HMLD are our most common locations for games and practices. We sometimes rent fields at Anna Maria or Worcester when the weather is bad for pre-season practices.  For travel teams you will play 4 games at home and 4 games away typically.  Keep a look out for the new Multipurpose field complex which is currently under construction, this will add new resources and fields to our program.

How long is the season?

Seasons are typically 8 weeks long. Running in the Fall and Spring.  We do offer futsal in the which is also 8 weeks.

How far do I need to travel?

All practices are on Holden fields and for our in-town programs all games are in Holden also. Our travel teams will typically have 4 game away which range from 10 mins away to 30 mins away depending on what teams are in your division.  Other teams in our league include, Paxton, Rutland, Worcester, Uxbridge, Shrewsbury, Charlton, and Quabbin just to name a few examples.

What is the time commitment?

A typical season includes a 1-hour coaching meeting pre-season to get important information, then 8 weeks of games and practices.  For our Pre-K – 2 coaches its approx. 90 mins on Saturday mornings, for all other Spring and Fall teams it is typically a 1 hour practice mid-week and a game on Saturday or Sundays.

I am not sure I want to head coach.

Don’t worry, for our U10 and above teams we offer both head coach and assistant coach opportunities.  Over time we find that the difference between a head coach and assistant coach is actually very small and often people just need some experience and time to feel confident in that role.  We can adapt your commitment and comfort to the right team and program.

What's the difference in Town vs Travel ?

We encourage players and coaches to participate in both Town and Travel soccer but there are a couple of key differences.  Our in-town league plays against other Holden teams whereas our travel teams play against surrounding towns.  Our travel teams are built by division, division 1 being the highest skill level and division 3 being the lowest.  Our in-town teams are built to be equally balanced across all teams.  Both practice during the week and play at the weekend.

What about weather?

Our board needs to manage the safety of the players and coaches, in some cases fields need to be closed due to inclement weather or if the field condition poses a safety risk.  Our team typically updates our Facebook social media as soon as fields are closed as well as e-mail, you will never need to make a cancellation decision by yourself.  If a travel game is cancelled it will be the responsibility of the coaches to communicate cancellations.

How do I communicate with my team?

There is no set standard for how best to communicate to your players, some coaches find e-mail the best way, some coaches use soccer-based apps (Game Changer, Team Snap, Stack Team App) which have proven to be very helpful tools.  It is important to keep regular communication up with parents and players, we find the more and better the communication the more engaged the parents and players are.

I don't know all the rules?

That’s ok, no one does!  We have modified the soccer rules depending on the age-group, these will all be communicated at the start of the season by your age-group director. Some rules will vary depending on age-group like size of ball, offside, length of game and some will be consistent across all ages and levels. We have created a summary of the main rules here for your benefit.

What do I do If I need help?

First don’t worry, we all need help from time to time.  We have a lot of experience on our team and have faced most of the challenges many times and feel confident we will be able to help.  If you are struggling with time, need help with lesson plans, have behavioral issues, can’t make it to a game, the team is not doing well, we have the people, experience and tools to help.  Just reach out.

If you have any other questions just reach out to Ryan, our Director of Player and Coach Development at [email protected]