Soccer camp a big success

An estimated 47 kids from Douglas took part in the Soccer Camp that was held in Douglas last week.

Michael Wright and George Hunt both from England and David Tuck from Scottland broke the camp particpants up into three groups and worked with them on various skills they will need to improve their game.

Hunt and Tuck both played semipro soccer in England while Wright says he actually played pro soccer playing for the Queens Park Rangers.

Before coming to Douglas these three instructors had been in Tucson for a clinic. They left this pas weekend for Texas where they will put on another camp.

Douglas’ Soccer League President Frank Montoya said early on he thought he was going to have to cancel the camp due to the lack of interest but the community stepped up at the last minute and a good number of kids signed up making the event possible.

“A week prior to the camp there were just 12 kids enrolled on line,” he said. “The Friday before the camp the numbers went up significantly and the night before we had right around 20 kids.”

Montoya said a number of people in the community gave him a verbal commitment that they would show up Monday and sign up which is exactly what happened.

“More than half the kids that showed up were actual walk-ups,” he said.

Montoya said this was a tremendous experience for the kids.

“They really seemed to enjoy themselves,” he said.

Alan Cruz, 11, said he liked the camp.

“They showed me how to do some different things with the soccer ball,” he said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Aileen Larez, 13, said she liked it because it got her out of the house.

“I had fun,” she said. “I learned some neat stuff.”

Hunt taught the middle age group throughout the camp. He said the ability level was a lot higher than what he expected.

“There are some pretty good soccer players down here,” he said. “They did a good job of challenging me as I was them.”

Hunt has taught and played soccer in England. He says the local kids are not that far behind the kids in England as far as their skill levels are concerned.

“I’m not sure if it’s Douglas or what but there is not a lot of difference ability wise,” he said.

Tuck enjoyed his stay in Douglas and hopes the kids had as much fun at the camp as he and his two other instructors did putting it on.

“It was a very enjoyable week for us,” he said. “The kids were great. You could see they were wanting to learn.”

Wright worked with the older age kids and said he was quite pleased by what he saw.

“A lot of these kids already have pretty good soccer skills,” he said. “All I was trying to do was teach them things that will help them in a game.”

All three instructors said the community made them feel right at home.

They said looking up Douglas on the internet didn’t tell them about the people and how nice the weather actually is compared to the larger cities they had been in previously.

“The hospitality was fantastic,” Wright said. “One lady even baked us a cake.”

All three instructors said they would very much like to come back to Douglas again in the future.

Montoya said plans are already in the works to try this camp again next summer only this time increasing it so a number of the high school age kids can take part.

Montoya said he wanted to thank McDonalds and the staff at the Best Western for their contributions in putting this event together.