European Players Train Soccer Kids at Back River

Jacques Isabelle shows off his skills at the Back River Soccer Camp
-    by Ben Boehl -
Soccer is the most popular sport on the planet. It is a sport that is loved by everyone in the world, expect one country - the United States. Players from Europe want to change that so they are coming over to our country to train our youth.
Jacques Isabelle and two of his Great Britain college teammates spent last week at the Back River Community Center training kids on better soccer techniques. He is on a three-month tour in the United States and sets up camps at local venues like Back River. The purpose of Isabelle’s trip is to get more American kids to play soccer.
“It is still developing here in the United States,” said the 20-year-old Isabelle. “We are hoping to give back our knowledge of the sport.”
The group starts off the week by having the kids do a light workout and working on basic skills. “We try to get them to develop techniques,” Isabelle said. “We work on areas like passing and dribbling. There is a lot of potential here.”
By the end of the week, the children were divided into teams and played a World Cup style tournament.
“We got the teams to choose a country and put them in that country’s colors. It makes the players more competitive,” Isabelle explained.
While men’s soccer has been lacking in the U.S., Isabelle is impressed with the popularity of female soccer. His only concern is that female soccer players have to deal with high expectations in this country.
“There is a lot of pressure on the young girls here. They are expected to measure up with the rest of the world,” he added.
Isabelle and his teammates boarded for the week with Back River Rec. Council’s Mike Baxter. This is the third year Baxter and Back River have hosted the event. Steve Adams, of the rec. council, said the event was moved from the middle of July to mid-June because the weather was unbearably hot.
“We chose this week because we thought it be cooler, but this week was just as bad,” Adams said laughing, referring to the hot and humid days of last week.
The program only had 42 kids this year, which is a drop in attendance from last year. Adams doesn’t know why the turnout was low. He thinks more families might go away on vacation after school ends but said the program will be back for least two more summers. Adams also wants everyone to know the summer camp isn’t just open for just Back River Soccer. Players from all over the area are invited to participate in the camp.
“You can see the difference in the skill level with these European players,” Adams added. “You can see they bring so much to our kids.”