summer soccer workouts

Soccer Team Camp is well underway....Nathan has training at Campton Fields everyday from 8-10am, and Jake has training from 8-11am. Thankfully, Nathan seems to be enjoying his first year with Campton so far--he was very excited to receive his practice and game uniforms on Monday. His team is the U9 Campton United Reteiro Team, and I have been asked to be the Team Coordinator. Nathan's coach's name is Kevin Healy, and he is new to Campton. He seems nice, and nathan likes him. This weekend will be Nathan's first Seeding tournament. The Seeding Tournament games are for seeing which bracket your team fits into for the best competition for the rest of the year. They play teams from all over northern Illinois. If you'd like to check out the schedule and results you can go the NISL website: www.northernillinoissoccerleague.com

Jacob has begun his first year with a new coach--he has had the same coach (Brian Nail) for the last 3 years...so this will be interesting. His new coach is Micheal DesLauriers (the kids call him Michael "D") Here is his bio that appears on the Campton website:

MEET COACH MICHAEL D.
Michael DesLauriers, new to Campton but certainly not new to coaching, has been coaching for 20 years in club soccer, high school soccer, and with the Olympic Development program at the State and Regional level. He carries a USSF National B License, NSCAA License, and USSF National Youth License. He has received the IYSA 1997 Boys Coach of the Year, has won multiple championships at the State, Regional, National, and international level. He has developed and helped place players at the collegiate level, professional level, and Regional and National teams, and the US Men’s National team. We welcome his experience and enthusiasm for the game!

Michael D. has developed quite a reputation on Campton as being a little insane, and TOUGH, TOUGH, TOUGH! Jacob, who of course, is thrilled to have any new soccer opportunity has been very excited to take on the challenge. Today he had a large amount of fitness training....and his first words after practice were "I hate the hill!" Apparently, they have to do sprints, 100x each of 10 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards, and 40 yards up this steep hill they have on the training "pitch" (that means field in soccer language). Then they did the whole thing again--backwards. The "exercise" is appropriately called "SUICIDES". Jacob said they trained with the U14's today and half of his team couldn't make it through the runs. (Jacob did.) :0) But, if you stop....no rest for the weary! You have to do sit-ups for the duration of the time your team is finishing the sprints. I think the kids are amazing for pushing themselves like that.....especially when it is 90 degrees outside, with very little breeze! Who says kids nowadays are out of shape?? Jacob is amazingly fit--I am constantly in awe of his ability to keep running fullspeed as a midfielder the majority of a game....his endurance just kills me. This year the field length gets bigger--it will be 120 yards long....so his runs will be even longer. This training is good for him. And I am glad he sees it that way. He knows he is getting stronger with each insane fitness exercise that Michael D. makes them do.

Ben is at Six Flags Great America today with his friends Aaron, Christian, and Cole. Cole and Christian's dads went with them. I cracked up when Ben said that they were going to be leaving really early....9:00am!! How funny...that just shows a true teenager's sleep habits right there. :0)