For The Tribune
Cameron Cox said he enjoys the teamwork involved in the game of soccer, while Luke Reasoner likes to play defense in games.
The two and 29 other boys attended Seymour Owls Soccer Camp last week at the Freeman Field Sports Complex.
Reasoner is in his fourth year attending soccer camp. When he started, he spent a lot of time improving his dribbling.
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“I’ve gotten better at playing defense and with soft touches and passing the ball,” Reasoner said.
He said he looks forward to playing with the Cyclones 12-and-under team this fall.
“You’ve got to have good endurance to play and good touch,” Reasoner said. “I like to play defense, mostly. It’s fun. I like playing with my teammates.”
Matt Dennis, head coach of the Owls varsity boys soccer team, divided the kids into two groups, 10 and under and 11 to 14. Even though they’re divided, the kids work on similar skills.
“(There’s) just a different degree of it,” Dennis said. “We spent a couple days doing individual foot skill, dribbling type things. The difference is, we’re getting the young kids used to all parts of their foot.
“With the older kids we’re trying to get them to do specific moves, inside hook, outside hook, things of that nature. We spent a day doing passing. With the older group we tried to teach them situational passing, how to receive the ball, where to touch it based on the defense, and things of that nature.”
Cox was in his fourth year attending soccer camp and said he got started in soccer through his cousin, Dominik Rogers.
“My cousin did it, and it looked fun, and I always looked up to my cousin,” Cox said. “I like how I get to pass the ball and play with the whole team and not just be by myself. Like everyone else, I like to score, but it’s fun to do everything else, too.”
The incoming seventh-grader has played with the Cyclones in the past and is looking forward to travel soccer again this year.
He said he enjoys running cross-country and soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and track in the spring.
“The younger kids are working with passing form, trying to pass as fast as they can and that kind of stuff, and we spent two days doing shooting,” Dennis said.
Dennis, the camp director, said he had the campers do a lot of scrimmaging with an emphasis on dribbling.
“(Wednesday), when we scrimmaged, after we worked on shooting, then we put in rules that promote shooting so we make sure we work on things that we worked on in the drills.
“I’m a firm believer at the end of the day you have to play in a game situation to practice what you worked on that day. It does no good to just do a bunch of passing drills and not try and see that in a format close to an actual match.”
Dennis said a lot of the campers have been to the soccer camp in previous years.
“We’ve got a lot of young kids,” he said. “That younger group is huge this year. There are a lot of 7- and 8-year-olds that have come out, and a lot of those kids are going to be old enough to travel starting in the fall so we’ve talked to them about registering for that.”
Another camper in the younger age group was Evan Unterseher, who attended the camp for the second time.
“I like making goals,” he said about his favorite part of soccer. “I like assisting on goals.”
He said he plans on playing travel soccer with the Cyclones this fall and said he got started in soccer because of his older brother.
Unterseher said he also enjoys playing football and basketball and sometimes baseball. He also attended the basketball camp last week.