SASFC Junior Player Pathway

The New Zealand Football Junior Framework forms the basis of the SASFC Junior Player Pathway, as part of a year-round, age-appropriate, player development programme.

5th Grade to 8th Grade: First Kicks and Fun Football

The SAS football journey starts at the age of five, developing First Kicks fundamentals as 5th Grade and 6th Grade players. Our qualified coaches focus on fundamental movement as they encourage kids to run, play and have fun with a ball at their feet in a safe, controlled environment.

In Fun Football we get more into playful technical training: manoeuvring, striking and passing the ball, as well as teaming up with other 7th and 8th Grade players in more structured play. 

Together, First Kicks and Fun Football form the Discovery Phase of player development. Our Friday afternoon sessions are often all young players need, but we also provide an optional Morningstar programme, built on the First Kicks and Fun Football platform, in which our coaches organise players into teams playing small-sided games on Sunday mornings.

9th Grade to 12th Grade: Junior Football

Junior Football grades 9 to 12 are the ‘golden years’ of player development. SASFC's coaching team is focussed on further developing football-specific skills, working not only on physical qualities like speed and agility, but how to combine effectively with teammates to both score and prevent goals, understand basic playing positions within simple team structures, and develop a tactical understanding of the game.

Players in the more 'social' teams play in less-competitive divisions and follow our Junior Plus pathway, while those selected into teams playing at a higher competitive level follow our Junior Development pathway and ultimately go on to try out for a place on the Youth Football Talent Development Programme with Ōtākaro FC. 

We are fully committed to Girls Football and take a structured and methodical approach to female player development. A dedicated girls player pathway is provided from 5th Grade and offers female Junior Football players the opportunity to play in either 'mixed' teams of boys and girls, or girls-only teams, following Girls-only Junior Plus and Girls-only Junior Development pathways.

Player selection and season structure

Each autumn we assess players by invitation to Open Training sessions: free, pre-season games and drills aimed at grading players and teaming them up with others of similar ability. Sessions are held in February and March, ahead of Winter Season team selection. Teams then play Saturday morning games 'home and away' against other Canterbury teams throughout the season, with the more competitive teams taking part in mid-season and end-of-season regional and national tournament.

SASFC Junior Football runs all-year-round, with a comprehensive Summer Programme and Holiday Programmes for those players motivated to keep up their skills and fitness during the warmer months. Following end-of-season tournament, this provides an extension to both our Junior Plus and Junior Development programmes in the form of mid-week Skill Training sessions for the remaining months of the year.

• To find out more about each phase of our Player Pathway, click through to the pages linked in bold text above.