BTAA Soccer Camp

BERLIN TOWNSHIP ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION SOCCER

South Jersey Soccer:
BTAA Soccer Camp
Friday, August 15, 2003

By Jim Law
SJSports Staff Writer

Last week several groups and local teams participated in this annual ritual. There were approximately sixty youth participating. The ages varied from 7 years old to 14 years old. Our local Berlin Township Athletic Association was there with 15 of its players.

Rain, rain and more rain was the topic of conversation at this years Star Soccer camp. Although it hampered some of the activities it did not dampen the excitement of each day. OK, so some of the activities were held in the gym and lets not forget this was an environment lacking air conditioning. It was hot.

Skip Roderick brought his 20th edition of the Star Soccer Camp to the Berlin area this past week. With Skip was Terrible Tim of Deptford, Pete from England and Keith from Ireland. Each coach was assigned a group of players sorted by age, ability and skill level.

One of the lasting impressions of the week was the discipline instilled by each coach with his team. There was no shouting, yelling or loud whistle blowing. The coaches just played a little tune on their whistle and the teams fell silent. Instructions were very simple and led by example. With the example explained, the teams were questioned about what was expected and what was happening. Players were not shouting or screaming either. The whole thing was very pleasant to watch. If only it stayed that way all the time one wonders how effective it would be on the field.

New words were learned. A window is no longer something in a house to look through. A soccer window is the person at the point of the triangle that offers the best view of the potential field activities. We all know what our elbow is but what about in soccer speak? Elbow is a very pleasing word meaning sit down and be quiet.

One of the side highlights was tickets to the Philadelphia Charge game on the Wednesday evening. BTAA coach, Gregg Williams was able to hand out over twenty tickets to this exciting woman’s professional soccer game. Thanks coach, we had a great evening.

Each day the camp concluded with special awards for selected activities. Sometimes these were individual awards and sometimes group awards. The reward was either bubble gum or some sort of candy. For some reason this motivated the kids. A simple reward really works. Needless to say everyone had a great time in spite of the weather.

Photos provided by Jim Law