140 kids enjoying youth soccer program

By Rebecca Tolen
Coach

The Rainy River and area youth soccer program is again vastly popular.
There are four different age groups for the program ranging from turning four this year to 14. This is the third year and each year the enrollment has risen. Players are from Rainy River, Bergland, Dawson, Pinewood, Stratton, and Baudette.
There are 140 children taking part in total with the majority in the 9-11 age group (approx.50), in which there are four teams. The other three groups have two teams with an age range from 11-17 players on each team (depending on the age group).
The program runs every Tuesday and Thursday 5-8 p.m. from May1 to June16.
The club has been supported by generous donations from the SAPT program this year and the Legion in the past; helping us buy the nets and balls needed to run the program.
There are several adult volunteers coaching including Julie Tiboni, Lesley Wood, Ken Cunningham, Glen Carradice, Richard Boisvert, Peter Carpenter, Monique Gall, Ken Short, Ken Jasper and Rebecca Tolen, and about 10 high school volunteers that both help coach and ref. They are Alyshia Langlais, Matt Godin, Braydon Bonhomme, Cody Jarvis, Danny Usiski, Nicole Scheuermann, Danielle Abraham, and Nick Ashworth.
It is a recreational program so the first goal is to have fun.
Next is to learn some new skills and get some exercise.
At all levels they are learning to dribble, pass, and shoot the ball. In each group the skills get progressivly harder. Eventually they start to learn trapping, heading and play making skills.
Each group works on skill building for the first half an hour moving on to a scrimmage for the second half.
It is amazing the difference in skill level in the players from the first year Monique and Tolen ran the program until now. “The kids are so much better that we have had to start doing research to come up with new drills to ensure that the players skills continue to develop,” said Tolen.
The Rec. Board is running a canteen on soccer nights so snacks are available for both the kids and parents.
The windup will be on June 14 and then a tournament in Emo on June 16th.