This week while the University of Toronto played host to some of Canada’s top female soccer stars. Cheering them on from the stands were 140 grade 6-8 senior girls all selected from 7 schools in Hamilton and GTA. But these students weren’t just there to watch from the stands and before the match they all took part in the IFTA Soccer Skills Challenge where the girls from Fleming, Deer Park, Military trail, Lawfield, Lakeside, Ray Lewis and Bennetto all tried their hand or should we say feet at the 6 events of the “Basic Six” from the increasingly popular Soccer Skills Challenge.
IFTA operations manager Milt Ottey was on site to oversee the event but explained that his ‘soccer man” Junior Wier had headed up this one. Junior admitted that it took a great deal of organisation but the work had finally paid off because it was very enjoyable to see the girls taking part and having fun. All their results have been recorded so that the participants know their achievement levels and can set their own personal targets for improving. Junior noted there were some good performances especially from Lakeside school who brought their whole soccer team. Promotions company the Arnoldi Group provided a pizza lunch to add to the experience and already Diane and Jeff from Lawfield e-mailed say thanks “Hey Guys, as always you provided our students with a fantastic athletic opportunity! We had a great day and everything worked out well.”
An ex soccer player himself Junior reflected “We had some talented kids there today but one of the things I love about this program is that it allows children who may be a little shy to be involved at their own pace and level. These individual skills tests are fun but they provide an excellent skills building platform so if you are good at these tests you will be pretty useful on a soccer team. I know because I used the challenge to coach the Scarborough Azzuri Soccer girls (aged 8-9) to their first final in 2006 and in 2007 we had the most improved players in the league. The president of the league wrote to us congratulating us our achievements and it’s no coincidence that the Soccer Skills Challenge had formed the basis of our training program. If kids get good at these tests they get good at the game and it made my job as a coach much easier!”
The IFTA Soccer Skills Challenge is now in its third year of delivery to Ontario Schools and clubs. Initial support was given in the form of a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Heath Promotion which helped establish the program and allowed over 22,000 children to have an enjoyable introduction to soccer. Now the grant has ended IFTA is continuing to deliver and develop the program which has gained endorsement from the Ontario Soccer Association and the next step will be the new team competition format which not only adds another level of fun, it will soon be possible to compete team against team from different geographical locations. This is new format is not possible in the regular game and it should prove attractive for some of the provinces more remote communities.
For more information on the Soccer Skills Challenge check out the programs page of this web site or email info@teamathletics.net