Casey M.

I have been doing private training for a few years as of now with a number of soccer players from varying age groups. I've coached beginners as well as varsity soccer athletes. I am currently an assistant coach for 2 Pre ECNLs teams at Southern Indiana FC and am also the Assistant Director at the club. I am in the process of getting my grassroots license and then will get my D License right afterwards.

In high school, I played varsity soccer in my junior and senior years. I had 2 goals and 6 assists in my junior year and earned all conference honorable mention. In my senior year, I had 13 goals and 9 assists and was 1st team all conference, 1st team all state and 1st team all region while helping my high school reach the state championship. I then went to St Olaf College, a D3 school in Minnesota where I was a 3x 1st team all-conference, all-region honoree, and was an academic all-American my junior year. My senior year, we won the D3 National Championship and I earned the Most Outstanding Offensive player award after scoring 3 goals and 2 assists in the national semifinal and final. I finished my St Olaf career with 25 goals and 24 assists in 3 years. I then used my last year of eligibility playing D1 soccer at UNC Charlotte, where we ranked as high as 9th in the country and won the American conference championship. I am now playing professionally with Southern Indiana FC, where we finished the regular season 11-0 and I finished with 4 goals and 6 assists playing winger, wingback and striker.

I am a huge fan of juggling and think it is essential in becoming an elite player. Every session, I have my players juggle a soccer ball or, if they are advanced enough, a tennis ball for the first 10 minutes of training. This will go a long way in improving the player's first touch and control, 2 of the most important elements a player can develop. Then we get into drills that apply to the player and their position. For example, if they are a winger, I would put that player through crossing work. This would entail the specific technique of crossing a ball while moving or standing still, the right places to put the ball where crossing and ways to get seperation from an opponent to get a cross off. Then we would do some dribbling work, giving the player ideas of 1v1 moves they could do to get past their opponent to either get a shot or cross off. Then, we would get into finishing, developing the player's instincts by cutting inside and finishing far post or near post or cutting endline and finishing from a tight angle. Lastly, regardless of position, I like to end with a crossbar challenge, the player against me for some lighthearted and relaxed fun and to also work on the player's distance control.