NEEDED: ADULT GAME-LEADERS AND A TABLE MANAGER for 2022 Little Kickers Soccer Program
at M.L. King Park, Nicollet Ave. & 42nd Street
Fun Soccer Games Program for Young Children Ages 4-8
This summer, on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 to 7:30 PM, on the grass of ML King field #1, the Minneapolis Park Board and the Kingfield Neighborhood Association will again host a program for 4- through 8-year old boys and girls, of all nationalities and backgrounds. The program is designed around soccer basics and soccer balls, and lots of action. But the highest priority of the program is that the kids have fun; have fun playing games with soccer balls, and want to come back the next week, enthusiastically, to play the games with soccer balls again. Sessions start Wednesday, June 22rd, and continue through August 17th. Neither the kids, nor the Game Leader/Parent Coaches, need to be there every Wednesdays. But we need adults to commit to attend each Wednesday that you are in town, to help lead the games!
If you can imagine; dads, moms, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, (you!); joining in to play the games with your 6-year-old son, your 4-year-old daughter, and the the other 15-20 kids in their age-group, on the field. The adults are regularly invited to join in games kicking the soccer balls, and pretending with the kids for: “Ouch!”, “Allegators”, “Go Get It”, “Islands”, “Bandits”, and “Mosquito Squahers”. There is the occasional soccer scrimmage for the older groups at the end of session, but mostly it’s about teaching soccer through these other, “silly”, games.
The Little Kickers Program uses these little-kid teaching-games, led by 2 or 3 parent-coaches trained in a bunch of the games, to groups of a dozen to 20, or so, 4-year-olds, 5-6 year-olds, and 7-8 year-olds. The games are about teaching skills and behaviors core to soccer, but the games are generally not soccer games, and we don’t do “drills”, we don’t form organized teams for the summer, and parents don’t commit to being team soccer coaches for the summer. Parent coaches don’t need to be athletes, nor need to have experience playing organized soccer; ten adults have already committed but with 100 kids on the field, we could use a dozen more!
We are also in need of an adult or two to help manage a couple of “administration” tables each Wednesday evening session from 5:30 to7:30. The June 22 and June 29th sessions are the most critical for this (check-ins, T-shirt distribution, name-tapes, registrations, first-aid kit, contact person). You don’t have to know anything about soccer for this.
If you want to be one of the “official” game leaders (some parent-coaches), we will provide training on Sunday, June 19th, from 6-7:30 PM, for the games-learning session. from Colette Montgomery, the Edina Soccer Clubs Training Director who uses these games in working with all levels of youth programs and with her college varsity soccer team. But they are fun, kid games. Not serious soccer drills.
Interested? You can register your children for the Program on-line, through the Minneapolis Park Board’s 2022 summer recreational, youth-program listings. If the registration site says we’re full, sign up for the waiting list, and be assured that if you’re one of our game leaders, your children will be included. Come see us at the registration table once sessions commence.
If you are interested in being one of our 15 parent-coaches, send an email to, or call, Michael Vanderford, at (612/ 296-9647). If we have more coaches, we can open the program to more than 100 kids. So the more coaches the better for the Kingfield Kids.