Soccer academy in Honeydew produces top players
HONEYDEW – Youngsters grow as people and soccer players at local soccer academy.
The 5-a-side soccer pitches at Honeydew Country Club are jam-packed every afternoon with youngsters in blue.
Dribbling, doing tricks and playing soccer, the players of SuperSport United Soccer Schools Randpark are always ready for some footy.
The soccer academy is six years old, and according to head coach Shannon Allan, the reason why it has grown to 180 members is simple.
“We focus more on developing individuals than teams,” he said.”Our motto is ‘good, respectable people make good footballers’, so we work on their confidence, manners, self-esteem as well as all the technical skills for football.”
The academy caters for children aged four to 14 and has produced two national soccer players – Lyle Foster and Keegan Allan play for South Africa’s U20 side.
Besides opportunities to reach the next level, the players have the incentive of proving their skill at regular matches against other soccer academies, and perhaps being selected for Gauteng’s SuperSport United Soccer Schools Academy side which plays in the Easterns Local Football Association League and Gauteng Development League.
Thirteen players from the Honeydew outfit currently play for this team.
“The benefit of playing soccer from the age of four to six is the discipline, fitness, coordination and team environment that is developed and that helps them develop as people.
They already learn basic technical skills so that by the time they are 12 or 13 they know much about technique and playing well becomes instinctive for them.”
Allan said from the age of 14 the players then need to improve their mental and tactical games and learn advanced techniques.
All this is done through the various drills and workouts the children do at the academy, always with smiles on their faces.
ALSO READ: Old Parks soccer player gets selected for SA U17 team
