VIDEO: Getting a kick

By William Powell

June 22, 2008 June 22, 2008 01:05 am

— Click image for video

You must have Quicktime installed to view this video


Kailynn Noon, a 2008 graduate of Meadville High School, started playing soccer when she was 5.
Since then, she has played on over a dozen youth, indoor, and travel soccer teams. Those experiences have led her to NCAA Division II Edinboro University, where she plans to play in the fall.
“Training year round has helped me focus on the fundamentals of the game,” Noon said. “The opportunities that Meadville has to play soccer year round are a great benefit for the area.”
In addition to learning the skills of the game, it was through her experiences with summer soccer programs that Noon met her future college coach, Gary Kagiavas. Kagiavas coached Noon on an Erie Admirals travel team and at a summer camp at Edinboro.
Kagiavas has been the coach of the Edinboro women’s soccer team for all of its 12 years of existence and is also the coaching director of the Erie Admirals youth and travel soccer program.
According to Kagiavas, the quality of soccer instruction and talent in the area now is some of the best he has seen in his 20 years of coaching youth soccer.
“I’ve been involved with this for a long time, and the type of player that is being developed now locally is at an incredibly high level,” Kagiavas said.
And the growth of youth programs has played an important role in increasing local interest in soccer.
“I think more than anything their involvement in soccer and their identity as a soccer player, they get at that age,” Meadville girls soccer coach Barry Anderson said. “There is almost a graduation from that into travel teams.”
The Crawford County Youth Soccer Association has just under 1,100 children between the ages of 5 and 18 participating in its leagues this summer. According to John McGlinn, a member of the CCYSA board of directors, the popularity of the program soared when it moved to its current location on Townline Road in the late 1990s.
It was through playing on a CCYSA team that Noon was first introduced to soccer.
Saturday was the first day of practice for CCYSA teams. Children playing on teams in the Conneaut Lake Area Youth Soccer program have been practicing for over a week.
Jimmy Tomko founded CLAYS 10 years ago and has seen the program grow from 110 participants in its first year to 620 last year.
“With the growth of it, the youth league is like a feeder program because they have started high school boys and girls teams about four years ago in the Conneaut School District,” Tomko said. “Eighty percent of those players came from our program.”
Lonnie Hunter, an assistant coach for the Saegertown boys soccer team, said that player development at the youth level is an important aspect of a successful high school program.
Hunter is one of the founders of the PENNCREST Area Soccer Club, a group that organizes travel soccer teams as well as youth leagues. Hunter said that players who start at a young age have a significant advantage when they reach the high school level.
“The years of about nine to 12 they call the golden learning years,” Hunter said. “The biggest thing is getting the technical skills down during their learning years. If you’re not playing when you’re younger, then you just can’t catch up.”
Two players who Hunter coached this past season at Saegertown are planning on playing soccer at the college level. Chad Hunter, Lonnie’s son and the 2007 Tribune Soccer Player of the Year, will be playing soccer at Penn State Behrend, and his teammate Tony Tordella is planning to play at Duquesne.
Hunter said he expects that the increase in participation in youth and travel programs will eventually result in a greater number of players having the chance to play in college.
“We are just now starting to get some of the kids that have been playing in our travel soccer program,” Hunter said. “As we come up and make a name for ourselves, maybe make the playoffs a couple of times, then that is when some of the college coaches will really start to take an interest.”
Meadville boys soccer coach Alan Hiel has seen the impact that the instruction provided by the CCYSA has had on his program.
“Obviously a strong youth program is invaluable to any high school sport,” Hiel said. “They stress the fundamentals at a young age and it shows through in our program and allows us to take it to the next level.”
According to Kagiavas, the Erie Admirals program has produced over 200 college players in the past eight years, many of whom have received scholarships.
“Some of them have gone into academic institutions through sports where the coach made a pitch to get the kid in,” Kagiavas said. “Those types of opportunities have come around. Quite a few of them have gotten money.”
Kagiavas agrees with Hunter that learning the fundamentals at a young age is the key to continued soccer success in high school and beyond.
“We will develop kids, and we will play and try to win, but we won’t win at the cost of development,” Kagiavas said. “It’s imperative that you give them the correct information at a young age so they have it when they get older and don’t have to overcome bad habits.”

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.