Current State Certificate Courses
If a course is no longer listed on the left, registration has closed. Please select another course.
Cost: $45.00 Duration: 6-9 hours
Minimum age requirement: 14 years old. Candidates who take the NJYS State course and are under the age of 18 will not receive a NJYS Coaches Pass until they are 18 years old. They can obtain a Youth Trainers Pass through NJYS.
Recommended for coaching players 6-11 years old. NJYS requirement for all volunteer travel team coaches.
Prerequisite: None; NJYS will no longer accept waivers of any kind. All volunteer coaches regardless of experience or background in the game must complete the entire 6-9 hours of the NJYS "State Certificate" Course as scheduled to receive the NJYS "State Certificate".
The teaching philosophy for this age level is largely devoted to teaching players technique, and keeping tactics simple and minimal. The course focuses on methods used in teaching the techniques of dribbling, shooting, passing and receiving, heading, defending, and goalkeeping. Focus is on fun, repetition, and the use of small-sided games. Contains practical first aid and criteria for running a safe and healthy program.
The course is divided into a classroom theory session and a field practical session. The classroom theory session will be completed in the first three hours followed by a three to six hour practical field session.
Hosts have the option of hosting a traditional two-day, nine-hour course or a six-hour day course. Traditionally, the course has been held on a Friday with the classroom session from 6:30 pm-9:30 pm and the practical portion of the course held the following day, Saturday, starting at 8am to 2:30pm on a grass or turf field surface. The entire course can also be held on a Saturday or Sunday from 9:00am-3:00pm.
Depending on weather conditions, this practical session may be held in a gym or school multipurpose room. Specific dress requirements will be included in the confirming email upon successfully registering for the course.
Attendees may be asked to volunteer to participate in the practical demonstrations, but participation is not a required part of the course. There is no testing requirement for this course. Attendees will be emailed a link to access the course presentation and manual (see Candidate Classroom Slide Deck Presentation and Field Demonstrations at the top of the page).
How can I prepare for the course:
- Each attendee should reflect on and bring to the first day their Coaching Philosophy written out as we will discuss the development of such during the evening. One to two pages max of neatly written/legible Personal Coaching Philosophy that will serve as a tool for your initial Team Parent-Player Meeting (make it fit your age group if you currently coach players 12 and younger or if coaching players 13 and older). Please include: Long Term Player Development Goals; Your Coaching Core Values; Player Expectations and Parent Expectations.
- Each attendee should watch the US Youth Soccer FREE on-line clinics including How to Write a Training Session Plan. Coaches at any level and taking any coaching course will find the information useful. This includes a seven minute video on how to set up the practice environment. Watch
Each attendee is asked to bring a pen or pencil, something to write on. If planning to volunteer and participate in the field demonstrations, we ask you dress appropriately, wear shin guards and bring a properly inflated size #5 ball. You must attend all sessions of the course to receive your "State Certificate". You will receive an email from Stack Sports within 3 days following the course including your "State Certificate" in the body of the email assuming you attended all scheduled sessions.
To the left is a listing of the currently scheduled and available New Jersey Youth Soccer "State Certificate" Courses. New Jersey Youth Soccer schedules "State Certificate" courses at the request of our member clubs to fit their needs. As soon as a course is scheduled and approved, it is listed on this website. We do not have information about upcoming courses other than those scheduled here.
To register for a course:
- Click on the "register now" link for the course you wish to take. You will be taken to a Stack Sports sign-in page for that course. If you already have an account, sign-in and proceed to register. If you do not have a Stack Sports account, you will be given the opportunity to create an account. There is no cost to create an account.
- After you have created your account, you will be able to register for the course. Complete all the fields required.
- The fee for the course must be paid for by credit card as part of the registration process.
- Once you have successfully registered for the course, you will receive an email from Stack Sports confirming your registration and providing you with the dates, times and locations to where the course will be held. The email will be mailed from [email protected]. Please set your email filters to allow email from gotsport.com and we recommend you check your spam folder. This email will also contain additional information that you will need for the course. You must register online, we will not accept "walk up" registrations at the door.
If you are registering yourself and an additional person(s) please use a different email address for each registration.
Note: The online registration program will automatically close when a course is full. You will get an error message if you attempt to register when the course has been automatically closed. The message will say that registration is not available. It may take NJYS a day to update this page with the course status. When the course is full, NJYS can not accept additional registrations and we do not maintain waiting lists for our courses. The number of registrations allowed in each course depends on the facility where the course will be held and the number of candidates we can effectively instruct in one course.
Please be on time for each session. You cannot successfully complete the course if you are more than 15 minutes late for any session. When you sign up and register to take an "State Certificate" Course, you must complete the entire course at the site as scheduled. In order to receive the Certificate, you cannot start the theory portion of the course at one location and complete the field practical session at another location.