NKSA Frequently Asked Questions

1 - What league does NKSA play in?

Most NKSA teams play in the Cincinnati United Soccer League (CUSL for short). This is the primary select soccer league in the Greater Cincinnati area. There are clubs from as far north as Dayton, as far east as Milford, and as far west as Lawrenceburg. NKSA and Kings are the two clubs that are the farthest south.

NKSA has also had teams play in the Buckeye Premiere League and in the Midwest Regional League as well. As our club grows and our team's progress and play better soccer, we expect to have teams once again take part in the advanced level leagues.

CUSL's website is www.cuslsoccer.org - you can head over there to take a look at the league itself.

2 - When does training start? How long does it last? What is the level of commitment?

There are two seasons - Fall & Spring - and each last about 3 months. Training starts around 8/1 for the fall season and around 3/1 for the spring season. Training continues for about 12 weeks and things tend to wrap up around the end of October in the fall and the end of May in the spring.

Most NKSA teams train 2x a week. Some of our higher level teams have elected to add a 3rd night of training to get additional work in.

3 - Who does the training for NKSA teams?

Most of our teams have a trainer that attends 1 or 2 sessions each week with the team to train them on technical aspects of the game (dribbling, passing, receiving, defending, finishing, etc). These trainers all operate under the supervision of Jeff Cummings, our Director of Coaching and the head coach of both the Men's and Women's teams at Thomas More College. Most of the trainers are current or former college players, and a few more are current college coaches at Thomas More or NKU.

Teams that elect to have a trainer only one night are then trained by their own coach on their other practice nights. Some coaches utilize this option so they can work on more of the tactical issues that teams need to address (what formation they'll use, how they want to play on free kicks, what is expected of the team in different game situations, etc). All of our coaches are required to have either an E or a D license as the rules of Kentucky Youth Soccer dictate.

A few NKSA teams have a paid coach that serves as the team's trainer - that trainer then attends pretty much all practices and games for the team.

NKSA also offers specialized goalkeeper training on a weekly basis, and we have 3 separate GK coaches on staff to handle the training, along with a JUGS Soccer Ball Shooter to make sure that each keeper gets plenty of shots from a variety of speeds and angles.

4 - Where do NKSA teams train? Where do they play home games?

In the fall, our teams train primarily at either Pioneer Park or Idlewild Park, with a few teams scattered around in more geographically logical lcoations.

In the spring, we expect most of our teams to be able to train on the new turf field at Thomas More College. We were able to use the field for 2 & 1/2 nights last spring, and hope to be able to secure the field for 4 to 4 & 1/2 nights this upcoming spring.

Our home games are played at either Pendery Park or Idlewild Park. We are looking at securing the use of a turf field this spring for some of our 11v11 teams (this will be made available on an opt-in basis at a minimal additional cost)