Every week, coaches from the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Soccer Club (CSMHM) gather with players of all ages on the neighborhood fields. Coaches and players alike are having a great time. Their passion is contagious. The proof? Over the past five years, the number of yellow-and-blue players has been steadily growing. The progress has been impressive.
A club open to everyone.
“Our policy is to recruit as many young players as possible. Our goal is to give them access to soccer, share our passion with them, and instill the club’s values in them. We welcome everyone,” says Jonathan Exilie, technical director of CSMHM.
At CSMHM, accessibility is the name of the game. With 1,300 members, the club truly welcomes all neighborhood residents who wish to join. From the 4-year-old group all the way up to the senior divisions, residents of Hochelaga will discover the joy of learning the art of soccer.
It is with this spirit of sharing in mind that 70 qualified coaches, supported by some 30 volunteers, are dedicating their efforts.
The CSMHM offers two distinct programs to meet your children’s needs and interests. Depending on your availability and budget, the club also offers a “training-only” program so that those who cannot or do not wish to participate in
competitions are not left out.
Practices are held as group sessions. A supportive atmosphere prevails.
“Today, all our young players in the same age group train together and are mixed together. They form stronger bonds and are used to playing together. At the end of practice, we gather all the players and do a team cheer. For the older kids, we’ve introduced a foot bump: all the young players give us a foot bump to say goodbye. These little details create a sense of identity and a certain chemistry,” says Mr. Exilie, a former soccer player in National
1 (France).
For young people looking to reach their full potential, the CSMHM is also attentive to individual needs. The coaches devote all their energy to helping them. “We want to train these young people properly so that, eventually, they can move on to national clubs or CF Montréal. Above all, our goal is to instill strong values in them.”
A club that promotes positive values.
As you can see, values are a top priority at CSMHM. In addition to emphasizing effort, hard work, and managing emotions in the face of adversity, we focus on a set of eight values. Enjoyment is the first of these.
“This is very important to us. Fun must come before competition,” insists the club’s technical director. In addition to this core value, the club emphasizes respect, creativity, solidarity, determination,
adaptability, intelligence, and boldness. “We want to develop athletes who are capable of analyzing a situation and making a decision. They need to build their self-confidence,” emphasizes Jonathan Exilie,
At CSMHM, we wear our hearts on our sleeves. You can really feel our commitment to helping local youth grow and develop through soccer. It’s a supportive and caring club. Soccer is simple. All you need to play is a ball and a field. Solidarity is simple, too, and that’s precisely what defines the club. We want to “contribute to the neighborhood’s active life.”
“The impact goes beyond soccer; it’s at home, at school… Soccer is sometimes the only way for these young people to express themselves and learn values. We have a duty to be there for them,” concludes the technical director.
More than just a soccer club, CSMHM is a club that looks forward to welcoming you!
“We won’t force a child who doesn’t want to play, but we’ll try to make them want to play. That’s really important to us. Some kids just won’t want to play. It’s not necessarily because they don’t like soccer. We need to pay attention to their lives and the circumstances around them. It can happen that an athlete hits a slump or is going through a tough time.”
“The idea isn’t to leave the child to fend for himself,” Mr. Exilie tells us.
