The Soccer Association of Columbia was founded in 1971. Throughout the years, we have established ourselves as one of the largest and most respected soccer clubs in the state of Maryland. SAC is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization that is committed to serving the families of Howard County and central Maryland.

SAC is proud to offer programs to all ages and levels of youth soccer in Howard County and central Maryland. SAC’s programs are available to players aged 3 to 23 years old.

“Soccer is fun and exciting. It’s accessible to all, develops a high level of aerobic endurance and muscular ability and requires good strategic thinking. For millions of youth across the country it also provides tremendous social benefits, such as mixing with others, having to work as a team, contributing through individual effort to a collective goal, experiencing the highs and lows, picking each other up, competition, striving to be the best and supporting and helping others are all by products of playing soccer.”

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/Why_Play_Soccer/

The Soccer Association of Columbia provides its members with a wide variety of programs across every level of play on some of the best facilities in the state of Maryland. We are dedicated to providing our players with the best coaches and training available in the area. Starting at the youngest age group (SAC Juniors), your player will be able to advance and grow through the club for the entirety of their youth soccer experience.

There is no experience needed.  SAC Juniors is a great place to start your soccer career! SAC Juniors programs are designed to introduce the youngest players to the beautiful sport of Soccer.

“Soccer is a simple sport to learn and play. Youngsters play soccer naturally, with very little initial instruction. One of the beautiful aspects of the game is that, as the players’ skills rise, so does the strategic level of the game…”

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/Why_Play_Soccer/

The Junior Tots and Junior Technical Training programs offer a class structure for scheduling. Sessions are scheduled in six week intervals, continuously throughout the year. Players can either register for the entire session at a discounted rate or drop into any single class of their choosing at a per class rate. We schedule this way in order to provide families with the option to try out the program before committing to an entire 6-week session.

Junior Academy teams meet on Saturday mornings (before noon) for 8 weeks in the Fall and 8 weeks in the Spring at their designated locations. Players can register for either season individually, or for the full year at a discounted rate.

The Junior Tots and Junior Technical training programs are classes that we encourage friends to sign up for together. Boys and girls will train together in every Junior Tots class.

For the Junior Academy Program, players will be placed on age and gender-specific teams based on their residential district/school location. Other factors in team placement include date of registration and any special request made by parents. If you would like to play with your friends, please register early and note your request in the “Special Request” section of your player’s registration. We do our best to honor such requests if possible.

The Junior Tots program was created to provide the youngest players with an opportunity to develop their basic motor functions within a soccer oriented theme. Lessons are developed to reinforce curriculums from preschool and kindergarten in the spirit of having fun. This includes patterns, colors, shapes, opposites, etc.. Each session has an overriding principle of developing impulse control and compassion for others.

For the Junior Academy and Junior Technical Training programs, the first half of each session/class is devoted to individual skills within a group setting and the second half of each session/class consists of a coach-facilitated scrimmage. These scrimmages are usually 4 vs 4 or 3 vs 3 on a small field, with the coaches serving as referees and also teaching the basic rules of the game. At this age group, we are introducing the concepts of field boundaries, passing, shooting and teamwork.

All Junior Tots and Junior Technical Training sessions are led by a professional licensed coach.

All Junior Academy teams are led by volunteer coaches. Each team of 10 players will have 2 to 3 coaches. SAC provides all coaches with training, mentoring and age-appropriate lesson plans.

All coaches are required to undergo a background check.

We need you!
The Junior Academy Program requires many volunteers to be successful. We strive to have a coach to player ratio of 3 to 10 in an effort to maximize each players individual attention.

We make it easy for you!
Junior Academy coaches are provided with:

-Training
-Lesson Plans
-Coaching Equipment (balls, pennies, cones)
-SAC Coaching Polo (Under Armour)
-Designated Field Space
-Supportive Office Staff

No experience is necessary!

If you are interested in volunteering for the Junior Academy Program, please contact Eric Haupt, VP Juniors Programs, at vp-juniors@sac-hc.org.

Families with three (3) or more children participating in SAC’s Clinic, Recreation and Travel Fall/Spring programs may qualify for a family rate. Please contact Sherri at sherri@sachc.org PRIOR to making payment for your players’ registration to have your fees discounted. Requests submitted AFTER payment has been processed will receive the discount as a credit on account to be used for future SAC program registrations. Requests must be made prior to the first game of the season. Retroactive discounts will not be provided.

SAC will make every available effort to make up any officially cancelled games or sessions within the range of each program’s posted season dates.  In doing so, games or sessions may be required to be played on non-traditional days, including Sundays, weekdays, and doubleheaders, and/or at non-traditional times.  Should the weather or some other unavoidable circumstance limit our ability to make up a game or session within the range of a program’s posted season dates in any way, no refunds or other adjustments will be made.

As pertaining specifically to SAC Juniors Programs:

Registration refund requests must be made in writing either by email to registrar@sac-hc.org or mailed to SAC/HC Registrar, 4560 Centennial Lane, Ellicott City, MD 21042, prior to the first team activity. Telephone requests will not be honored. All refunds are subject to a $25 processing fee. If Juniors Academy players have been issued a uniform, an additional uniform fee will be charged. Players who submit a duplicate registration or who register and SAC is unable to assign to any team will receive a full refund. No refunds are given to players who paid for both seasons (fall/spring registration) and do not play in the spring. Requests for registration refunds are processed within two-three weeks from receipt of the request. If the refund request is approved either a check or an electronic credit is given to the credit card originally charged with email confirmation.

To register for any of our programs, you will need to access our club registration system. SAC is currently partnered with Dick’s Teamsports HQ (formerly Blue Sombrero) for all our program registrations. You can access our registration system at any time by accessing the “Registration” portion of this website and clicking “Register Now” at the bottom of the page. Once you have accessed our registration system, new members will be required to set up a family account and add their players before being able to select a program for which to register . Existing members can simply log in and click “Register Now” within their My Account page.