Local soccer fields have been flooded with players for practices and games as the season kicks off.
This year, the Bonnyville Soccer Association saw roughly 370 kids sign up with age groups ranging from U5 to U19.
”We’re up from other seasons, probably by 20 per cent,” noted president Jose Teixeira, adding the numbers have been growing for a few years and they hope they continue to increase.
Promoting the sport in the area is a top priority for Teixeira, which he hopes will “attract new kids” and keep them playing as they grow up.
There’s been a new aspect added into practices that has seen success for the U5, U7, and U9 age groups.
”We started running them festival-style,” explained director of mini coaches Josh Phillips. “The coaches run stations and the kids rotate through the stations. It’s recommended by Alberta Soccer, and so we gave it a try and found that it works out a lot better for coaches because they only have to run one activity.”
The system also keeps the kids engaged, as each drill is already set up by the time they arrive.
”As coaching director, I give the coaches the activity to do so they don’t have to do any prep work and it’s easier for them. We can have more control over what the coaches are actually doing and making sure the activities are appropriate for the age level of the kids.”
The association will be hosting their Mini Wetlands tournament in June.
”We had a new person run it last year, and it was the biggest I had ever seen it. We’re really looking forward to it again, and hopefully we can pull off the same number of teams coming out this year,” detailed Phillips.
In the future, Teixeira would like to see the organization host events like the Lakeland Cup and provincials.
With the season in full-swing, Phillips and Teixeira wish all the teams good luck.
Phillips said, “My hope as coaching director is for the coaches to get more confident in soccer, running the activities, and coaching, and for the kids to just have fun and want to play next year.”
Teixeira believes it would be great for all the teams to make it to provincials.
”Are we going to be able to see that? We’ll have to see, but that would be a good goal. Obviously, not everybody can make it, but as long as we promote the sport that’s the goal we can help them out with and that would be good.”
