Support for PYSA summer camp 2016

on August 1st, 2016 in News by The Brewster Trust

KFC PINELANDS YOUTH SOCCER ACADEMY Camp 2016 - supported by The Brewster Trust

Pinelands Youth Soccer Academy’s President Fernando Best and his team asked THE BREWSTER TRUST for some support implementing a summer camp in July 2016.

The charity agreed to donate footballs and to help out with equipment and items for the duration of the programme.

Camp report by PYSA

The Pinelands Youth Soccer Academy held their 2^nd annual football camp from Monday July 11th till Friday 22nd July 2016. We initially started on the first day with just 30 campers of which 5 were girls. However by the second day we jumped to 66 campers.

In the girls’ category, 5 attended the first camp and the new 3 were learning football for the first time. In the boys’ category, we had attending and learning football for the first time 5, 5 year olds.

The camp focused specifically on football drills, rules and small sided games. We began each morning at 9, latest start at 9:30 and finished each at 3, latest finish 3:30. We were on site till at least 4:30 each evening for any late pickups.

For many attending, their first love is soccer, hence their attending the camp. We had 45 returning and 21 attending for the first time. Most returning would have enquired if we holding camp again. The first timers heard about it from friends and decided to take part.

We divided the campers into three groups. The first was the five year olds, the second was the 7-11 year olds and the third was the 12-15 year olds. Our concern was the safety and size of the five year olds. With a warm and drills they would participate, but for games, we would find another activity for them to do by themselves.

Each camper was provided with a POWERade and fruit every day as agreed in the planning stages. Lunch was available for sale as well as snacks. Coaching was done by Zacherie Browne, Tito Jones and Fernando Best. Presentation were done on soccer rules by Edley Malcolm and his team of referees. We also had presentation done on teamwork, drugs and playing soccer by Mr. Holder (Principal of the Parkinson Secondary School) and Mr. Augustin Jacobs (Police Constable and coach from Paradise Football Club).

At the end of the first week, we were invited by a tutor of Coach Zacherie to attend her camp for a day. She wanted us to impart our knowledge of football on her campers. She said they were not familiar with football and wanted to learn.

So in the second week we packed up for a day, with our cones, bibs and balls and headed to Helping Hands camp at Harrison College. We took them through the drills with the cones and after played small sided games at the appropriate age levels. Out of this exercise, we were able to draft in 3 new players who do not belong to a club, but are very interested in playing football with a club.

In summary, the camp was in just about the same as last year. We met new persons and got to teach what we love, football, got to play what we love football. On the last day, each camper received his/her football as agreed on. That gift for them was better than anything else.