WHITEFISH – In a typical soccer game involving 9-year-olds, there’s often a disproportionate number of kids either picking dandelions or trying to figure out where the ball is. And while two or three kids are dictating the action, the rest are struggling to understand their roles. Some may even wander off the field, distracted and bored.
Ryan Billiet believes there’s a better way of teaching young kids soccer, one which keeps all of the children involved, even the would-be dandelion pickers. It’s the “academy philosophy” and though it’s relatively new to the United States, and even newer to Montana, it has been utilized in Europe for many years.
Billiet is the director of the inaugural Montana Flathead Rapids 2010 Spring Soccer Academy in Whitefish. The eight-week academy started on April 13 and runs until June 3. More than 50 kids, boys and girls, are participating. A couple of other towns in Montana have instituted similar academies.
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Paxton Fisher, 11, center, juggles a soccer ball off his knee while practicing juggling skills with other members of the Montana Flathead Rapids 2010 Spring Soccer Academy. |
With the academy philosophy, the emphasis is removed from competition and instead placed on skill building. Rather than locking kids into positions and sticking them into a game in which the skill balance may heavily favor one side, kids at Billiet’s academy spend most of their time learning new skills and then playing in scrimmages where the teammates are picked by coaches to promote fairness.
The scrimmages have teams of four, rather than eight or more as is often the case in traditional club soccer. This way, Billiet said, all of the kids are involved in the action. They are able to utilize the skills they have been honing in the academy’s drill sessions. There are no substitutions, so nobody ever sits on the sideline.
Billiet said the academy, which teaches 9- to 12-year-olds, improves the kids’ skills, keeps them interested in the game and is ultimately more fun for them. At that age, putting them into game situations with winners and losers can be discouraging, he said.
“We teach them all of the little components that will actually help them develop,” Billiet said.
Billiet added that, for such young kids, it’s more important to give them the basic tools to see if they even like the sport as individuals instead of emphasizing the concept of winning as a team.
“Team-building isn’t really important at all at their age,” Billiet said.
The academy in Whitefish is a joint effort between the Flathead Rapids, a competitive men’s soccer team, and the Glacier United Soccer Club. Using Rapids players as coaches, along with other experienced soccer coaches, the academy offers a staff of 12 trained instructors. Billiet is the junior varsity boys coach at Whitefish High School.
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A group soccer balls decorated by kids participating in the youth soccer academy are seen during a practice in Whitefish. Each participant got a soccer ball to decorate and keep. |
O’Brien Byrd, the high school’s boys varsity coach, and Erin Morrison, the head girls coach for the Bulldogs, are also on the staff. Other coaches have upper-level playing and coaching experience.
Carrie Sood said she appreciates the quality of coaching for her son, 10-year-old Keelan Gorman. She also likes the player-coach ratio, which promotes one-on-one or small-group interaction.
“They’re real coaches for high school teams,” she said. “They’re not just parents with kids on the teams. And I think they make it really fun for the kids.”
Sood said the coaches are achieving their goal of creating an atmosphere where kids of all abilities can play without feeling intimidated.
“He just needs a lot of skills, which he gets here,” Sood said. “That’s what’s so great about the academy – it’s not just about the competition.”
One other advantage of soccer academies instead of clubs, Billiet said, is the lack of traveling, which can be especially burdensome for families in Montana. The academy is held twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at the same location: Smith Fields.
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Ryan Billiet, Director of the Montana Flathead Rapids 2010 Spring Soccer Academy, wanders through the numerous groups of kids participating in practice in Whitefish. |
“Traveling costs a ton of money when you don’t even know if these kids are into the game,” Billiet said.
Furthermore, Billiet said, the academy has advantages for all of the high school coaches.
“We can future proof the Flathead Valley with soccer players,” Billiet said. “As high school coaches we have a vested interest.”
The Montana Youth Soccer Association, Billiet said, is looking into the merits of expanding academy opportunities statewide. Meanwhile, the Flathead Rapids’ academy is expected to expand each year, which makes Sood happy.
“I’m going to do this every year,” she said.