Pincher Creek Voice: Soccer gets ball rolling on teamwork, leadership and fun

Friday, May 2, 2014

Soccer gets ball rolling on teamwork, leadership and fun

Chase Lepine with his team

Janelle Jorgensen photos

Janelle Jorgensen, Pincher Creek Voice

If being involved in team sports builds leadership, 15 year old Chase Lepine is living proof. Lepine is a volunteer coach for the Pincher Creek Minor Soccer Association which kicked off its season on April 29th at the Canyon School field. The 4 and 5 year olds on Lepine’s team had both smiles and looks of concentration as they tested their newly learned soccer skills. When asked why he wanted to be a coach, Lepine replied, “I just love the sport and it’s always fun to teach lower levels new stuff.”

The first teams to meet on the field were the Mini Mouse teams (under 5 years old) and the Mighty Mouse teams (under 6 years old). Kelly Lepine, association coordinator, explained that “The U8 and down program is based on the building blocks for soccer…so our key is to get a lot of individual skills.” At this level, the younger teams do not play games. Coaching is focused on individual skills such as kicking the ball and working “one on one with the ball”.

When asked about the benefits of soccer for children at this age, both Chase and Kelly mentioned the value of learning teamwork. In addition to building endurance and developing coordination, Chase believes that, “It’s a really big team sport. If you don’t play the team, it never works.” Speaking of the team atmosphere inherent in soccer, Kelly stated, “So even though they may not be playing a game together, they’re a group together. They learn how to behave in a group… it builds leadership skills down the road for these kids.”

The Grey Ghosts

It was obvious the children were enjoying themselves on this first day which turned out to be a beautiful warm day at 17 degrees. The young players were excited to get their team jerseys and were happy to sit and have a mid-practise snack. They were eager to play games such as Red light/Green light and enjoyed learning how to kick the ball with the insides of their feet while “doing the penguin” as coach Christine Gustavison demonstrated. One of their tasks on the first day was to come up with imaginative names for their teams. See results below. When four year old Josie Jorgensen was asked what she liked about soccer, she replied, “We get to kick the ball.”