SOCCER CAMPS AND COACHING
| WELCOME TO ABC ENGLISH SOCCER BRINGING EXPERIENCED QUALIFIED COACHING TO WESTERN WISCONSIN. FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES. |
Soccer is without doubt, the most popular team sport in the world and is now one of
the fastest growing sports in the USA with many youngsters playing the game.
There are thousands of college scholarships currently available and the
professional game (MLS) has started to attract top players from around the world.
Playing soccer is one of the best ways to improve your fitness and coordination, and
is great fun, so turn off your video games, come out and play soccer.
ABOUT US
ABC English Soccer is specifically set up to teach Soccer to kids of all ages in areas
of Wisconsin where organized Soccer activities are not widely available. Many of the
bigger cities in the area do have Soccer programs in schools and clubs but there
are not many opportunities for kids in smaller towns to learn the game properly and
get the necessary instruction to improve their game whilst still having fun. ABC
English Soccer will hold a series of camps over the summer each designed
specifically for a certain age group. We have all the necessary equipment and
training aids as well as portable goalposts so can travel to your area to hold a camp
or camps if you wish, all you need is a suitable sized field. Please contact us if you
wish to schedule camps in your area.
HEAD COACH
Head Coach Nick is a former semi professional Soccer player from England who
now lives in the area. He has over 30 years of experience playing and coaching
soccer and has played with and against many professional players. Nick has many
awards gathered over the years for playing and has played in every position on the
field, including goalkeeper, although he played most games as a center forward. He
currently holds a United States Soccer Federation Coaching License as well as
coaching certification from the English Football Association. He is also a member of
the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and coached the UW Stout
men's soccer team in 2008. Nick has many contacts in the game all over the area
including coaches at professional clubs across the Midwest plus fellow college
coaches and players.
The 2008 UW Stout men's team after one of their wins at Nelson field in 2008.
I was asked to coach the UW Stout Men's team in March 2008 and held a few
training sessions at Stout in the spring to get an idea of the talent they had and what
I had let myself in for. I was quite impressed by the skill level, not so much by the
fitness level and looked forward to the season which was due to start in September.
We started the pre-season conditioning in the last week of August and had about
30-40 players trying out for the team. I was disappointed to learn that some of the
key players I had seen in the Spring, one in particular a strong central defender had
transferred to other Universities, plus we had no forwards return from the previous
year. A few of them had done fitness work in the summer but the majority had not,
so the first week was a struggle for some. After a few days I learned that I had 1
goalkeeper, about 5 defenders, 30 plus who wanted to play in midfield and
absolutely no forwards, which is definitely not an ideal situation. So, the next steps
were to find a back-up goalkeeper, at least one skillful midfield player who could
play as a forward and try to find the best few midfield players out of the many we had.
I failed to find another goalkeeper but did find the better midfield players and
converted one to play as a forward. This looked to be working quite well as he
scored 4 in the first warm up game which was a comfortable victory. Unfortunately
though, my new forward pulled a hamstring in the first regular season game and
despite efforts to get him fit, was lost for the season. This meant we had to play a
defensive counter attacking style and really try to score the first goal in a game to
have any real chance of winning. We managed to do this a few times throughout the
season and then hang on to the lead with some great defensive play. Luckily we
managed to get goals from a lot of different players with the most coming from
another skillful midfield player who was named Stouts MVP for the season.
We finished the season with a 9-4-1 record and finished 4th in the division. The last
2 seasons had seen a combined total of just 4 wins and 8th place finishes so this
was a big improvement. With a little organization, more fitness training, plus the
addition of a couple of freshman and a transfer student the team played well all year
and were unlucky not to win more games. We won every home game, a 100% home
record that no Stout Soccer team, men's or women's had ever achieved before.
Stout also improved to a ranking of 13 out of 40 in the Midwest Alliance Soccer
Conference, rising from the mid 30's the previous 2 years. The only thing that
stopped us from finishing even higher was the unbalanced fixture list which saw us
have to play 4 more road games than the teams who finished 1st and 2nd. Overall it
was a good season because of the commitment and effort of the players.
Nick
ABC ENGLISH SOCCER
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
