Kids' Soccer in Fredericton: Every Club, Level, Season and Cost for 2026-27

Who runs kids' soccer in Fredericton

Almost all organized youth soccer inside the city runs through the Fredericton District Soccer Association, better known as the FDSA. Founded in 1986 and one of six clubs Soccer New Brunswick classes as a Super Club, it holds the registrations, schedules the games, trains the parent coaches and fields every team from four-year-olds kicking a ball beside a parent up to U17 Premiership sides that travel the province. Its 2026 annual report lists five program families: Parents and Tots (U4 to U5), Mini (U7 to U11), Youth Recreational (Junior and Senior), Foundations (U13) and Competitive (U14 to U18).

The office moved in February 2026. After years at 230 Hodgson Road on the south side, the FDSA is now at 654 Riverside Drive, Unit 4, on the north side (mail to PO Box 413, Station A). The phone is still (506) 451-1342 and the email is [email protected]. Summer hours are 9 to 4 Monday to Thursday with Friday by appointment; fall and winter hours are 9 to 3 Monday to Thursday and 9 to 1 Friday. One catch: the registration portal at fdsa.powerupsports.com still shows the Hodgson Road address, so trust the website if you are driving over with a cheque.

The FDSA is not the only game in the region, which is the part newcomers miss. Oromocto, New Maryland and Hanwell each run their own grassroots program, cheaper and closer for the families who live there (the full directory is next). The provincial body, Soccer New Brunswick, sits above all of them: it registers every player, runs the leagues and provincials, trains referees and coaches, and operates Team NB. UNB is the fourth player in town, because its BMO Centre dome is where winter soccer happens and its Reds coaches run the joint Reds Academy with the FDSA.

One piece of city paperwork applies to everyone who plays on a Fredericton field. The City requires an annual Rec Card for sports-field users: free if you live inside the Recreation Service Agreement area, $19.55 a year (the fields rate, unchanged since 2018) if you live outside it, and the FDSA needs the number before your kid plays. Apply on the City's Amilia site a few days before you register. Our city recreation guide and the kids' sports registration calendar are good companions to this page.

The club directory: every soccer option in the capital region

Here is the whole map, north side and south side, community clubs and private academies. Fees are the ones posted for 2026; 2027 numbers were not up when we checked in late September 2026.

Fredericton District Soccer Association (FDSA), city-wide, office on the north side. U4 to U18, recreational and competitive, in all four seasons. Summer 2026 rec: Parents and Tots (U4 and U5), Mini boys and Mini girls (U7, U9, U11) at $250, Youth Junior (separate boys and girls) and Youth Senior (co-ed) for players born 2008 to 2014. Competitive: U13 Foundations ($490), Division 1 ($470) and Premiership ($550 plus a $240 academy fee). Skills centres in spring, summer ($175) and fall, and the FDSA/UNB winter programs. Registration at fdsa.powerupsports.com. Games split by side of the river where numbers allow; U4 had a North and a South division in 2026.

Oromocto Area Soccer Association (OASA), Oromocto, Lincoln, Rusagonis, Geary and Burton. A volunteer club run from the brown soccer hut at 127 Winnebago Street, with grass fields and the LeRoy Washburn turf. Summer 2026 grassroots: U5 (born 2021 to 2023, parent-assisted, Monday and Wednesday 5:30 to 6:15) $150; U7 (2019 to 2020) $150; U9 and U11 boys and girls $185; U13 boys and girls $225. Registration opened March 9, 2026, a $30 late fee applied from May 1 and the final deadline was May 24. Non-residents of the Oromocto catchment (Lincoln and Rusagonis are in, Fredericton is not) pay a $44 town fee. Division 1 teams at U13, U15 and U18 play in the South-West Soccer League; a U11 "enhanced" option replaced Division 1 at that age in 2026. The club also runs Soccerfest in August, has hosted an Everton soccer school and a Saturday fall academy, and its senior Trailblazers and Blazers play in the NB Premier Soccer League. Site: oromoctosoccer.ca, email [email protected].

New Maryland Soccer Inc., Village of New Maryland (south). A volunteer club formed in 2007, running Timbits U4 (age 3 by June 1), U5 and U7 (born 2019 to 2020), and recreational U9, U11 and U13 with separate boys' and girls' divisions. Little kids play at the New Maryland Elementary School field; U9 and up play games against FDSA teams at NMES, the Athletic Park, Leo Hayes, Fredericton High and the Willie O'Ree turf, and a New Maryland U13 boys' team played SWSL Division 1 in 2026. Registration closed in the spring and the site now says "see you in 2027"; fees were not posted. Site: nmsoccer.ca, field hotline 506-451-4732.

Hanwell Sports, Rural Community of Hanwell (west). The cheapest organized soccer in the region: $45 for the 2026 season, June 15 to August 20 at the Hanwell Park Academy field (2331 Route 640), one evening a week by age: U5 Monday 6:00, U7 Tuesday 5:45, U9 Wednesday 5:45 and U12 Wednesday 6:45 (U12 sat on a waitlist in 2026 until a volunteer coach was found). Registration opened March 30, 2026 through Trackie and spots were limited. Details at hanwell.nb.ca.

Reds Academy (FDSA and UNB Reds Soccer), winter, UNB campus (south). Not a separate club, but parents hear "Reds Academy" and assume it is the university. It is the joint FDSA and UNB winter program under the BMO Centre dome: Reds Academy Winter Training for roughly U11 to U19, invitation-only Reds Academy Teams, a University Prep Program for U16 to U18 players eyeing varsity, and Goalkeeper Training, all registered through the FDSA portal.

The Football Academy, downtown south side. A private skills academy run by Marcus Lees, a former UNB Reds player, at 527 Dundonald Street, Suite 129, with sessions listed Wednesday 4:30 to 5:30 and Friday 4:30 to 5:30 and 7:30 to 9: small-group technical training, its own teams and the occasional competition. Contact [email protected]; pricing is not published.

Mamba Soccer Academy (NBAA), downtown south side. Launched in 2025 by the New Brunswick African Association at 28 Saunders Street as a youth development hub through soccer. New and small; its Facebook page is the live source for sessions and fees.

Soccer NB, adult clubs and the rest. The province runs regional ID camps, Excel skills camps, the Futsal Challenge Tour at the Nashwaaksis Fieldhouse and referee clinics in Fredericton (details in the sections below); its High Performance Academy is in Moncton. The Fredericton City Old Boys, FC Freddy and Capital Men's Senior Soccer are adult leagues affiliated with the FDSA, and the Picaroons play in the NB Premier Soccer League; none take children, but they are where the coaches and eventually your U18 graduate end up. We found no church or drop-in youth soccer league in the city in 2026.

Francophone families. There is no separate French-language youth soccer club in Fredericton; francophone kids play FDSA, OASA or their village program, and Soccer NB runs bilingually, with its site, referee course and coaching materials in French. École Sainte-Anne fields school soccer teams for its own students, and the Centre communautaire Sainte-Anne lists community activities but not a soccer league, so for a child in the District scolaire francophone Sud the school team is the French-speaking option.

Age groups and the 2027 birth-year table

Canadian youth soccer sorts kids by the year they were born, not by grade and not by their age on a cut-off date. The label is "U" plus a number: U9 in 2027 means the two birth years that turn 8 and 9 during 2027. Every club in the region uses this, and the registration portal reads your child's birthdate and offers only the programs they fit, so you never do the arithmetic. The one exception is New Maryland's Timbits U4, which asks that a child be 3 by June 1.

The FDSA's 2026 table: Parents and Tots U4 (born 2022 and 2023) and U5 (2021); Mini U7 (2019 and 2020), U9 (2017 and 2018), U11 (2015 and 2016); U13 Foundations (2013 and 2014); Division 1 U15 (2011 and 2012) and U18 (2008 to 2010); Premiership U14, U15 and U17; and Youth rec for anyone born 2008 to 2014, split into Junior (separate boys and girls) and Senior (co-ed). Oromocto and New Maryland used the same birth years. Shift everything by one year and you have 2027; the FDSA had not posted its 2027 groupings when we checked, so treat the right-hand column as a projection and confirm on the portal in March.

Why the formats matter. The small-sided ladder is deliberate: a six-year-old in a 4v4 game touches the ball ten times as often as she would on a full pitch, and all three clubs follow Canada Soccer's grassroots standards, which is why Oromocto realigned its brackets in 2026 and started fielding separate boys' and girls' teams from U9. The league rules put numbers on the older ages: the South-West Soccer League plays U11 as two 30-minute halves with a size 4 ball, U13 and U15 as two 35s with a size 5, and U18 as two 40s; the NBSL Premiership plays U15 and U17 at 2 x 40.

Two practical wrinkles. A child born late in the year is always the youngest in the group; there is no "hold them back" option, so a December baby in U7 plays with kids nearly two years older, and it evens out by U11. And a strong player can sometimes be moved up, but nobody plays down. If you think your child is misplaced, email the club before the season, not the coach at the first practice.

The level map, explained plainly

Soccer in New Brunswick has more tiers than any parent needs on day one, so here is the ladder from the bottom rung to the top, with the local name for each. Almost every kid lives on the first two rungs, and that is exactly as it should be.

Grassroots (also called recreational, rec, community or Timbits). The FDSA's Parents and Tots, Mini and Youth rec leagues, Oromocto's grassroots season, New Maryland's divisions and all of Hanwell. Teams are balanced on purpose, coached by parent volunteers, and play inside the club, with the occasional cross-club game at U9 and up. No tryouts, no travel, no standings that matter.

Skills centres and academies (development, still open to everyone). Extra training you buy on top of, or instead of, a team: station-based technique work with trained coaches, run by the FDSA in spring (April 13 to May 22 in 2026), summer (Saturday mornings at Morrell Park, $175) and fall (September 8 to October 31 at the Willie O'Ree turf). They mix rec and competitive kids of the same age, which makes them the sensible first step for a rec player who is suddenly keen. The winter Reds Academy, the private academies and Oromocto's U11 "enhanced" option (train with your rec team, pay extra, get more sessions and up to three jamborees) all belong here.

U13 Foundations (the FDSA's bridge to competitive). Built to lower the cost and travel of competitive soccer at 12 and 13. Tryouts ran April 14 to May 3 in 2026, training started May 4, and the season is two 90-minute practices and one game a week in the South-West Soccer League, with an optional academy add-on, for $490. The FDSA fielded four U13 boys' teams (Galleons, Wanderers, Capitals and Athletics) in the SWSL West division in 2026 alongside Oromocto, Western Valley and New Maryland, plus girls' teams. A kid cut from Foundations is placed in rec and refunded the difference.

Division 1 (AA, the regional tier). Team-based, selected by open tryout, U15 and U18 at the FDSA and U13, U15 and U18 in Oromocto, playing April to August in the South-West Soccer League (SWSL) against Charlotte County, Fundy, Hampton, Oromocto and Saint John, with the West region winners going to the Soccer NB Division 1 provincials in August. FDSA fee $470 in 2026, two practices a week. This is the "District and Regional" level parents hear about: Soccer NB divides the province into regions, and the SWSL is the south and west region's league.

Premiership (AAA, the provincial tier, the NBSL). The top club level. FDSA Premiership teams at U14, U15 and U17, boys and girls, play in the New Brunswick Soccer League (NBSL) against Codiac (Moncton), Dieppe, Edmundston, Fundy and Saint John, which means weekend drives across the province; some age groups split into National and Provincial pools. Two 90-minute practices, a game, a 90-minute academy session and an hour of strength and conditioning each week, for $550 plus a $240 academy fee in 2026, with the FDSA covering referee costs. The NBSL provincial tournament was September 5 to 6, 2026 at Fundy, and the winners represent New Brunswick at Canada Soccer's U15 and U17 Cups in October.

Soccer NB's High Performance Program and Team NB. Above club sits the province. The first door is the regional ID camps every September and October, open to U12 to U16 players from any club (the 2026 series of seven camps started September 18). Coaches who like what they see invite players to Team NB tryouts (in 2025: October 26 and November 2 in Moncton, U14 to U18, October 22 registration deadline), and selected players train through a Fall program in November, a Winter program from January to April and a Spring showcase before the final provincial teams go to the Atlantic Championships each July; registrations carry a $50 non-refundable fee. The High Performance Academy, Soccer NB's REX centre in Moncton, is the top of the pyramid: ten months a year of daily training, by invitation only, at no cost, built to feed the national youth teams and pro academies. A Fredericton kid on that track is commuting or boarding in Moncton.

Canada Games. Soccer is a summer-Games sport, and New Brunswick sends U17 boys' and girls' teams (sixth and seventh at the 2025 Games in St. John's); the 2027 Winter Games in Québec have no soccer. The one that matters is the 2029 Canada Summer Games in Moncton and Saint John, with soccer confirmed on the program and dates still to be announced; if the age rule holds, that is roughly today's 2012 and 2013 birth years, the kids who are U13 and U14 right now. The path there runs through Foundations, Division 1 or Premiership, the ID camps and Team NB, in that order. Play rec first, and let the ambition come from the kid.

The summer season: 2026 dates and fees, and what 2027 will look like

Summer is the main event, and the big lesson is that it is decided in March. FDSA registration for every summer program opened on March 9, 2026, and the deadlines came in a staircase: Division 1 March 30, Premiership March 31, spring skills centre April 6, U13 Foundations April 7, and rec (Parents and Tots, Mini, Youth) May 4, with a $25 late fee and a possible waitlist after that. Competitive tryouts ran mid-April into early May, and the rec season ran June 1 to August 15, eleven weeks. Oromocto opened the same day, added a $30 late fee from May 1 and closed grassroots on May 24 for a June 1 start; Hanwell opened March 30 and closed July 10. The 2027 dates were not posted when we checked, but every club has used the second week of March for years, so set a reminder for the first week of March 2027.

What the 2026 FDSA money looked like, so you can budget for 2027. Mini (U7, U9, U11) was $250, the summer skills centre $175, U13 Foundations $490, Division 1 $470 and Premiership $550 plus $240 for the academy. We could not capture the posted Parents and Tots or Youth rec figures; Tots has always sat below Mini and Youth rec around it, and both live on the portal. The fee includes the uniform (an Adidas kit from 2026), Soccer NB and Canada Soccer registration, insurance, coach training and the club's overhead, and the FDSA board budgeted about 15 percent more registration revenue for 2026 than 2025, which is the polite way of saying fees went up.

How the week runs for a Mini player. Two weekday evenings at 5:30 (one at Willie O'Ree, one at Grant-Harvey in 2026) and a Saturday morning game on the turf, with U9 and U11 occasionally at New Maryland Elementary. Youth rec plays weeknights on the high-school and middle-school grass. The season ends with a jamboree in mid-August, and the FDSA's Friendship Cup (June 19 to 21 in 2026, its tenth year) brings U11 and U13 teams from around the Maritimes to Willie O'Ree and Leo Hayes for a weekend rec families can simply go and watch.

Where they play, by side of the river. South side: the Grant-Harvey Centre turf (600 Knowledge Park Drive), Fredericton High (300 Priestman), Morrell Park (Waterloo Row), Barker, Kimble, Bliss Carman Middle School, UNB's BMO Centre, the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic gym at the Currie Center (competitive fitness sessions), and New Maryland's Athletic Park and elementary school field. North side: the Willie O'Ree Place turf (605 Cliffe Street), Leo Hayes High, Nashwaaksis Middle School (three fields), Devon Middle School and, for away games, Oromocto High. Turf stays open in the rain; grass closes, with the City posting closures by 3 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. on weekends, and the clubs posting their own (New Maryland's hotline is 506-451-4732, Oromocto's 506-357-4433). Micro games rained out on Monday or Tuesday move to Wednesday, same time and place.

Registration, step by step. Get your Rec Card number from the City first. Then create a family account at fdsa.powerupsports.com (or oromoctosoccer.powerupsports.com for OASA), add your child, let the birthdate pick the division, choose the season and pay by card. The FDSA portal asks for an optional donation to its Player Sponsorship Fund at checkout, which has paid more than $12,000 to more than 250 members since 2016. Trying out for a competitive team means registering for that program first; if your kid is cut you get everything back except the tryout and late fees, once rec has started. For everyone else: 75 percent of the FDSA portion back before the program starts, 50 percent up to two weeks in, nothing after, and a full refund with a doctor's note. Oromocto keeps $40 on any cancellation and gives nothing back after the first session.

The indoor season in full: the dome, the fieldhouse and futsal

Fredericton soccer does not stop in November; it moves under a roof, and there are more roofs than most parents realize.

The BMO Centre dome at UNB (south side). Each year from mid-November to mid-April a dome goes up over part of UNB's Chapman Field, the U SPORTS-regulation turf that is home to the Reds. The covered surface is 80 by 50 yards, split into two halves for youth sessions, with the clubhouse and change rooms attached. This is where the FDSA/UNB winter programs live. It is also bookable by anyone, $140 an hour for a half surface and $260 for the whole thing at prime time, $85 and $160 on weekday daytimes, which is how a group of parents runs a Sunday kickabout; call the Currie Center client services desk at 506-453-4579. Bring water; it is warm in there.

The FDSA/UNB winter programs (registration opens mid-November). Registration for the 2025-26 winter opened November 12, 2025 and closed December 1 on the FDSA portal, and the programs ran from early January to late March. The 2026-27 dates and fees were not posted when we checked; expect the same mid-November window and watch for the information session the club held on November 25 last year. The menu in recent winters: Reds Academy Winter Training, weekly sessions with UNB Reds coaches for roughly U11 to U19 birth years; Reds Academy Teams, invitation-only, which play the Soccer NB indoor provincials (a Reds Academy U13 girls' team was there in 2025-26); the University Prep Program, about 15 boys and 15 girls in U16 to U18 who want to be seen by varsity coaches; and Goalkeeper Training for U11 and up. Younger rec kids have had youth leagues and $15 holiday drop-ins at the dome in past winters, and the annual program document spells out which age groups get a slot. Competitive teams add fitness sessions at the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic gym in the Currie Center.

The fall skills centre bridge (September and October). Before the dome goes up, the FDSA runs the U7, U9 and U11 Fall Skills Centre on the Willie O'Ree turf: September 8 to October 31 in 2026, eight weeks of two weeknight practices (5:30 to 6:30) plus Saturday morning game days, sixteen practices and eight game days in all, with a Fall Academy for older players on Saturdays at noon. It is the answer for the kid who cried when the summer season ended.

Futsal at the Nashwaaksis Fieldhouse (north side). Futsal is the five-a-side indoor game with a heavy, low-bounce ball, and Soccer NB's Futsal Challenge Tour uses the Nashwaaksis Fieldhouse at 324 Fulton Avenue as its Fredericton venue: the 2026 season opened December 6 to 7, 2025 (girls in Fredericton, boys in Moncton), with $200 team entries, a November 27 deadline and divisions from U11 to U18. Teams enter, not individuals, so a rec coach or a group of parents organizes it; the FDSA's competitive teams enter too. The Fredericton Futsal Community Facebook group and RACI's community winter futsal (an eight-team tournament, December to February) are where the adult and older-teen game lives, and the Fredericton Reds women's futsal team represented the province at the 2026 Canadian championship in Calgary.

What the arenas are not. The NB Indoor Soccer League runs U13 and U15 through the winter but had no Fredericton entry in 2025-26; the FDSA's winter competitive play is the Reds Academy Teams and the indoor provincials, and Soccer NB's Excel Skills Camps and Goalkeeper Academy (U12 to U16) run winter sessions here with open registration. To clear up a common mix-up: the Grant-Harvey Centre and Willie O'Ree Place are arenas with outdoor turf attached and no indoor field, and the Currie Center is a gym used for conditioning rather than games. The dome and the Nashwaaksis Fieldhouse are the two winter soccer roofs in town.

Girls' soccer, specifically

Soccer is the best-served girls' team sport in Fredericton, and girls never have to play in a boys' league to get a full pathway. The FDSA splits Mini into boys' and girls' divisions from U7 (U7 Mini Girls and U7 Mini Boys were separate in 2026, as were U9 and U11), so a seven-year-old can be on an all-girls team from her first practice, while Parents and Tots stays mixed. Oromocto went the same way in 2026, fielding separate girls' teams at U9, U11 and U13 "to align with Canada Soccer grassroots standards," New Maryland runs girls' divisions at U9, U11 and U13, and Hanwell's small program is co-ed.

The competitive ladder is fully mirrored. The FDSA runs U13 Foundations girls' teams, a Division 1 girls' program (the U15 girls finished mid-table in the SWSL in 2026) and Girls' Premiership at U14, U15 and U17 in the NBSL, where the U15 girls played in the National pool. Oromocto fields Division 1 girls at U13, U15 and U18. Soccer NB's ID camps, Team NB (U16 girls went to the 2026 Atlantic Championships) and the High Performance Academy all run girls' streams, and the Canada Games sends a girls' team. The one gap is the Youth rec Senior division, which is co-ed; girls who want a girls-only rec team at 15 to 18 should ask the FDSA about numbers, because that division only splits when enough girls register.

Girls-only extras worth knowing. UNB's Reds Girls Soccer Camp (ages 6 to 13, $120 for two days at the BMO turf in 2026) is coached by the Reds women's program and deliberately affordable, Soccer NB runs girls' days of the Futsal Challenge Tour in Fredericton, and Christine Sinclair visited the FDSA at the Currie Center on May 5, 2026, which tells you where the club puts its energy. For girls who want to see the top of the local game, the UNB Reds women play AUS soccer at the BMO Centre every fall, the STU Tommies women play in the ACAA and the Picaroons women play NBPSL at the BMO turf all summer.

The honest parent note. Girls' numbers thin out at 13 and 14, here as everywhere, and the FDSA's Foundations program was built partly to hold them by keeping cost and travel down. If your daughter is on the fence at 12, a fall skills centre or a winter Reds Academy block with friends does more than any pep talk. And at 14 the referee course below is the single best way to keep a girl around the sport while paying her for it; two of Soccer NB's Canada Games referees in 2025 were women.

Summer camps: UNB, Royal City, the FDSA and the pros who visit

Camps are where kids get five days of soccer in a row, and Fredericton has more of them than most cities its size. Dates and prices are 2026; the same operators come back every year and post 2027 details in March and April.

UNB Reds camps (BMO Centre, south side). Booked through UNB Recreation Services and coached by Reds staff and players. In 2026: the REDS Soccer Camp, ages 8 to 16, July 13 to 17, full days with a half-day Friday, $275 to $295, ending in a small tournament; the Half Day Camp, ages 6 to 8, the same week, $175; the Girls Soccer Camp, ages 6 to 13, two full days, $120; and the Men's Soccer ID Camp, July 20 to 22, for players born 2009 to 2011 thinking about university soccer, $200, with on-field sessions, mental-performance workshops, testing at UNB's High Performance Centre and a campus tour. Questions to [email protected] or 506-453-4579.

Royal City Soccer Club (Morrell Park, south side). The national day-camp operator runs ten weeks at Morrell Park, 265 Waterloo Row, from June 29 to September 4 in 2026, for ages 5 to 13: full days $299 a week ($215 for the two four-day weeks), mornings $195 ($140), a ball and a medal for every camper, extended care available. It is the option for working parents who need every week of July covered, and Royal City held its fees flat for 2026. Book at royalsoccer.com.

FDSA camps and visiting pros. The FDSA's own summer offering is its skills centres rather than a week-long camp, but it brings in headline coaches: in 2026 it hosted the Paolo Ceccarelli Goalkeeper Summer Camp, August 11 to 13 at the BMO turf, with Canada's men's national team goalkeeper coach fresh from the World Cup. Oromocto partnered with Everton's soccer schools for a week-long camp for ages 7 to 14 in July 2024; watch OASA's news page in the spring for whether a pro-club camp returns.

Soccer NB and general camps. The province's Regional ID camps (U12 to U16, every fall, one in the Fredericton area) double as scouting for Team NB, the Excel Skills Camps and Goalkeeper Academy run through the winter with Fredericton sessions, and the Academy of Excellence Camp is the summer high-performance option, all through soccernb.org. The YMCA of Fredericton's youth camps at the Nashwaaksis Fieldhouse have run a Grade 3 to 6 soccer week, and the City's free day camps and BGC include soccer without specializing. Our summer camps guide covers the whole field, and Jumpstart will fund any camp that runs at least five consecutive days.

Referee and coaching pathways: a soccer job at 14

The best-kept secret in youth soccer is that it is the first real job most Fredericton kids can get. Soccer New Brunswick certifies referees from age 14, the games are on weeknights and Saturday mornings within walking distance of most homes, and a U11 game pays a 14-year-old $30 as the referee or $20 as an assistant, on a schedule a Grade 9 student can actually keep.

How to become a referee. Canada Soccer split the Entry Level Referee Course into two parts in spring 2026. Part one is online: buy the English or French course through Canada Soccer's referee education store, register on its SmarterU platform and work through six to eight hours of material. Part two is an in-person Soccer NB clinic, usually between May and July, with classroom and on-field sessions, registered through soccernb.powerupsports.com; the online part must be done first. Oromocto's West Region clinic in 2026 was Saturday, May 2 at the Hazen Park Centre, 9 to 5, free; the FDSA points its candidates to the Soccer NB referee pages for the Fredericton date. New refs buy their own uniform and whistle. Soccer NB's grades: Youth Referee at 14 to 16, District Referee at 16 and over, then Regional and Provincial with assessment; futsal refereeing has its own course at 16.

What it pays, by the posted 2026 Soccer NB fee table. Premiership games: U11 $30 referee and $20 assistant, U13 $40 and $25, U15 $50 and $30, U17 $60 and $35, with a "lone referee" rate of $45 to $75 when there are no assistants. Division 1: $30 at U11 and U12 rising to $50 at U17 and U18. Club rec games pay a little less but in the same range. Assignments in the West region come through the regional assignor listed on Soccer NB's competitions site, a keen 15-year-old who shows up on time can pull three or four games a week from June to August, and the FDSA pays the assignor directly for its competitive games, so teens are never chasing a coach for cash.

Coaching, for teens and for you. Canada Soccer's grassroots coaching courses are short and free or nearly so: Active Start (U4 to U6, a 90-minute online module and a two-hour workshop), Fundamentals (U6 to U9), Learn to Train (U9 to U12) and Soccer for Life (U13 and up), each an online piece through Canada Soccer plus a Soccer NB workshop, and the introductory GPS session is free. Adults also need an RCMP criminal record check. Teens can start as assistant coaches on Mini teams and as helpers at the skills centres, which the FDSA staffs partly with "current FDSA players participating in coach education courses," and the club advertises coaching credits toward registration fees. A summer of assistant coaching covers a high-school student's volunteer hours with room to spare, and by 17 the FDSA's seasonal staff jobs, UNB's camp counsellor roles and Royal City's coaching positions are all realistic. Details at Soccer NB's grassroots coaching page.

Teams to watch: the Reds, the Tommies and the Picaroons

Kids play better when they have seen the game played well, and Fredericton has three levels of it within a ten-minute drive. None are professional in the paid-a-salary sense, but all are a real step above a Saturday morning at Willie O'Ree.

UNB Reds (U SPORTS, Atlantic University Sport), BMO Centre, south side. The men's and women's Reds play their fall season on Chapman Field at the BMO Centre, most weekends from late August through October (the men hosted Cape Breton on September 13, 2026 and StFX on September 27). UNB charges admission for home games through Ticketpro, kids' prices are modest, and an artificial pitch with a hill of spectators is the best place in the city to let a nine-year-old watch a full 90 minutes. The Reds also run the winter Reds Academy and the summer camps, so the players your kid cheers for in October may be coaching them in January.

STU Tommies (ACAA), south side. St. Thomas fields men's and women's teams in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association. The men are a genuine power: four straight unbeaten regular seasons, the 2024 ACAA championship, a program-best fourth-place national ranking, and STU hosted the 2024 CCAA men's national championship. Games are free or close to it and the ACAA streams them.

Picaroons (NB Premier Soccer League), BMO turf, summer. The NBPSL is the province's top senior league, May to July, and the Fredericton Picaroons men's and women's teams play at the BMO turf against Codiac, Dieppe, Fundy, PEI FC and the Oromocto Trailblazers and Blazers. The Picaroons Reds are historically the league's most decorated club, the champion goes to Canada Soccer's national amateur championships, and the rosters are full of FDSA graduates and Reds and Tommies players, which is the whole point of showing your U13 a game: that is the ladder, standing right there. The FDSA and the Picaroons co-hosted official Canada watch parties for the 2026 World Cup.

High-school soccer, and beyond the city. Fredericton High, Leo Hayes, École Sainte-Anne and the other high schools play junior and senior boys' and girls' soccer through School Sport NB in September and October, free, close and often on the same turf your kid plays on. The closest professional team is the HFX Wanderers of the Canadian Premier League in Halifax, four and a half hours away and a classic soccer-family road trip, and one FDSA alumnus to name-drop on the drive is Misha Lysenko, who won the 2025 U SPORTS national championship with York University.

What it costs in 2026-27, and the help that exists

Soccer is still the cheapest team sport in town by a wide margin, but the FDSA's rec fee has crossed $250 and competitive is now real money, so here is the honest ledger. Figures are what the clubs posted for the 2026 season and the 2025-26 winter; 2027 and 2026-27 numbers were not up when we checked, and the FDSA's 2026 budget shows fees moving up, not down.

• Grassroots, one summer: FDSA Mini (U7 to U11) $250; FDSA Parents and Tots and Youth rec, check the portal; Oromocto $150 (U5, U7), $185 (U9, U11), $225 (U13), plus $44 for non-residents; New Maryland, not posted; Hanwell $45.
• Extras: FDSA summer skills centre $175; spring and fall skills centres, check the portal; Oromocto U11 enhanced option, extra fee on top of $185.
• Competitive, one summer: FDSA U13 Foundations $490; Division 1 $470; Premiership $550 plus $240 academy fee, so $790, plus tournament travel; Oromocto Division 1 "to be determined" for 2026.
• Winter: FDSA/UNB programs priced per program from mid-November; dome rental $85 to $260 an hour; Futsal Challenge Tour $200 per team per weekend; holiday drop-ins $15.
• Camps: $120 (Reds girls' camp) to $299 (Royal City full week).
• Provincial: Team NB registrations carry a $50 non-refundable admin fee plus program fees; the High Performance Academy is free by invitation.
• Add-ons: Rec Card free for residents, $19.55 outside the agreement area; late fees $25 (FDSA) or $30 (Oromocto); $40 cancellation fee in Oromocto; card convenience fees on the portals; cleats and shin pads $40 to $100 new, far less used.

KidSport New Brunswick pays up to $400 per child per calendar year toward registration. Eligibility is assessed mainly from your Canada Child Benefit notice against the cut-off chart on its site, the application is online, and the money goes straight to the club. The 2026 deadlines were January 30, March 1, June 1 and August 1, with decisions inside 30 days, so March 1 is the one to hit for summer and January 30 for winter. Apply at kidsportcanada.ca/new-brunswick.

Canadian Tire Jumpstart pays up to $300 per child per year, and it covers equipment as well as fees. Kids must be 4 to 18, the family must fall under the low-income cut-offs, the program has to run at least five weeks (or five straight days for a camp), and 2026 applications are open at jumpstart.canadiantire.ca. KidSport and Jumpstart stack in the same year, which covers an FDSA Mini season and the cleats with money left over.

The clubs' own help. The FDSA's Player Sponsorship Fund has quietly supported more than 250 kids since 2016; email [email protected] before the deadline and say plainly what you can pay. Oromocto offers a family rate for three or more kids (contact the treasurer before paying) and lets Division 1 families pay in instalments. And coaching a rec team at the FDSA earns registration credits, which for a parent with two kids in Mini is a meaningful discount for eleven Tuesday evenings of herding.

Gear, and what the first session actually looks like

The good news about soccer is how little equipment it demands. Cleats, shin pads, long socks to hold the pads and a water bottle; the club supplies the shirt (it is in the fee), the balls, the bibs and the goals. Oromocto's rule is a fair summary for every club: cleats and shin guards are mandatory from U7 to U18 and strongly recommended at U5. Get moulded soccer cleats, not baseball or football cleats with a toe stud, which referees will send back to the car. Fit matters more than brand, and since little feet grow a size a summer, cleats are the item to buy used: Marketplace and the club parent groups are full of barely worn pairs every May. Buy shin pads new; they are cheap and the slip-in style is easiest for small kids. Sport Chek at Regent Mall carries all of it in kids' sizes, and Canadian Tire stocks the basics from April. Futsal needs flat-soled indoor shoes; the dome takes cleats or turf shoes.

The first session, so nobody arrives nervous. Show up ten minutes early, find the coach (the adult surrounded by small children and a mesh bag of balls) and check in. Parents and Tots sessions are 45 minutes with a parent on the field; Mini practices are an hour; games at the youngest ages are a rolling series of tiny matches on a marked-off corner of the turf. Expect a swarm around the ball, a kid examining a dandelion, and an own goal celebrated with real joy. Your job on the sideline is to cheer, keep your instructions to yourself, and make sure the shin pads are actually under the socks. Fredericton evenings cool off fast even in July, turf holds heat and the dome is warm and humid, so pack a layer, label the water bottle and the cleats, and know the cancellation routine before you need it: grass closes in rain, turf does not.

Keep the stakes low and the snacks reliable. The families who get the most out of soccer treat the early years as a fun weekly outing rather than an audition. Show up, let them run, clap when they do something good, drive home. Do that for a season or two, and the skills centres, the Foundations tryout and the referee course will still be there when, and if, your kid asks for them. For the rest of the year, see our guides to hockey, basketball, volleyball and football, and for kids with disabilities, our adaptive sports guide, which covers Soccer NB's Power Soccer program.