Challenger Sports soccer camp comes to Neepawa once again

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By: Lanny Stewart

myWestman.ca

The Flats in Neepawa played host to a well-established soccer camp this past week.

For the fourth year in a row, coaches from the Challenger Sports soccer company, which is known for travelling to different parts of the US and Canada teaching youth the game of soccer, spent five days in Neepawa, helping close to 20 kids strengthen their skills in the game.

The camp, which wrapped up on Friday, was held in conjunction with the Neepawa United Soccer Assocation, and it included two certified coaches who were born and raised overseas.

“What we hear from the kids is that they always learn tons of stuff throughout the week,” said Kim Smith, president of NUSA. “They really connect with the coaches that come. It’s just a neat experience for them.”

The two coaches that came to Neepawa this year were Sarah Wheeler, 22, who is from Cardiff, Wales (part of the United Kingdom), and Alex Verdin, 18, who hails from Runcorn, England (near Liverpool). Wheeler has been coaching for nearly five years and has worked for the Cardiff City FC where she worked with the boys 12 and under squad. She also played for the Cardiff City development team before moving to the U.S. Verdin coached the Runcorn Linnets, a under-10 team in his home country and has also coached the Everton Mini Kickers youth squad as well.

During the camp, the kids learned how to improve their dribble, passing and shooting, as well as how to safely and confidently head the ball. They also learned different tackling and defending techniques.

The camp also included a fun ‘World Cup’ themed event, where the kids were separated into four groups and competed for points.  

The Challenger Sports soccer camp will be heading to other Westman towns in the near future. Killarney, Russell and Minnedosa are all scheduled to host a camp as well.

 

Smith pleased with soccer season in Neepawa

The house league soccer season has come to a close in Neepawa and things are looking up, says NUSA president Kim Smith.

She says the league, which had games scheduled for Tuesday nights, has expanded incredibly over the past few years.

Three of the NUSA board members – Judy Elgert, Melissa Byskal and Smith – joined the board five years ago and at that time, NUSA was considering folding. Since that time however, things have changed.

“Five years ago, we had roughly 60 kids. This season we had 123 kids registered in our house league, split into 18 teams,” said Smith. “We, along with some other board members over the past years, have worked incredibly hard to build the club up and this year we are that much closer to our goal of being able to play soccer in Neepawa at any age.

“We just need to add an under-14 boys team and a mixed under-18 team. We know that building up the sport will also help our high school soccer teams be that much more competitive as well,” she continued.

The league held its games at the Neepawa Area Collegiate soccer fields this year due to the expansion of one of the fields at the Flats during the spring that couldn’t be played on.

“We would like to thank Beautiful Plains School Division and NACI for allowing our youngsters to play soccer on their fields,” Smith added. "The teams were coached by a number of high school and young adult volunteer coaches as well as parents who also volunteered their time. The teams were also managed by volunteer parents.

“We’d also like to thank all the volunteers, managers, coaches and board members for another successful season.  We'd also like to thank our high school referees for our traveling teams,” she concluded. 

 

In photo: The kids, coaches Sarah Wheeler and Alex Verdin pose for a photo at the camp, which was held last week in Neepawa at the Flats.

Photo submitted