It was a fun-filled afternoon for Richmond Girls Soccer as the association officially kicked off the 2015-16 season last Saturday with Ombrelle Active Start Festival and Chevrolet Skills Event at Hugh Boyd Park.
Overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association, the Ombrelle Active Start Festival is an internationally recognized youth development program targeted at children under the age of 12.
The objective is to introduce the sport of soccer to youth through a fun-filled event for both children and their parents.
The term Active Start comes from Canadian Soccer’s long-term player development (LTPD) model, which is the training philosophy that provides the foundation for the Canada Soccer Pathway.
Also in a partnership with the CSA is the Chevrolet Skills program which focuses on five of the beautiful game’s core skills — dribbling, running with the ball, juggling, passing and shooting.
On this day, the RGSA divided its micro program into a couple of afternoon age group sessions with youngsters going from station to station which featured different themes.
“It’s a great way to start our season,” explained RGSA chair Mandhir Punia. “The neat thing is everyone gets involved — our executive, volunteer coaches, parents and even kids from our older teams who want to help out. The emphasis is on fun and that is the number one priority for our young players.”
Punia is beginning his third season on the RGSA executive and second as chair. As a lifetime resident who enjoyed plenty of success as a player coming through Richmond Youth Soccer’s Metro program, he is enthused with the momentum the RGSA is building and what the future holds.
“One of the things we decided as a executive is cut the costs of administration and spend more money on our players and their development,” he explained. “We have done that by providing more professional coaching.
“Now, each and every one of our players is training with a professional coach at least one session per week. “On top of that, our paid coaching staff is also working and educating our volunteer coaches.
“You can already see how our players are reaping from the benefits of this. We are very excited about our future.”
The club is now busy preparing for its long running Thanksgiving Tournament which is co-hosted with Richmond F.C. RGSA will also be hosting its annual Winter Classic — Jan. 2-3.
