[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nA\u00a0free indoor soccer jamboree\u00a0will kick off later this month.<\/p>\n
It is\u00a0open to any kids or teens under age 14, and is\u00a0guaranteed to be energetic and fast paced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a lot of fun,\u201d Columbia Valley Football Club (CVFC) technical director Tom Smith told the Pioneer.<\/p>\n
The CVFC (also known\u00a0as\u00a0the\u00a0Columbia Valley Youth Soccer\u00a0Association) will host the jamboree at David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) on Saturday, Feb. 28, but participants do not need to be registered with the club to\u00a0play\u00a0in the jamboree.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a community engagement event,\u201d\u00a0said Smith.<\/p>\n
It caters not only to those who already know and love soccer, but also those\u00a0who are\u00a0curious about\u00a0it and may want to consider joining a youth rep team in the\u00a0future, but\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0yet certain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are thinking about it (soccer),\u00a0this is\u00a0a chance to try it,\u201d explained Smith.<\/p>\n
The jamboree will be divided into three age categories \u2014 under age 10 and below (U10), U12 and U14. Kids and teens\u00a0will be\u00a0mixed into teams\u00a0of\u00a0roughly equal\u00a0ability, and then play a full day\u2019s worth\u00a0of games,\u00a0each 15 minutes long.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want them to get as much game time as possible,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n
The club has also set dates \u2014 Saturday, May 23 and Sunday, May 24 \u2014 for the annual Clash of the Titans soccer tournament in Invermere and Windermere, which draws more than 1,500 young soccer players on 70 youth soccer teams\u00a0from across B.C. and Alberta.<\/p>\n
Smith, who is originally from Manchester in the United Kingdom and worked with famed soccer club Manchester United\u2019s youth academies, said the CVFC has been growing in recent years.<\/p>\n
Last year the CVFC had 160 members, and when Smith spoke with the Pioneer last week, the club already had 120 registered for this year (even with\u00a0almost\u00a0a\u00a0month of registration time still left to go).<\/p>\n
Some of the club\u2019s teams\u00a0are turning in impressive results\u00a0too, including the U18\u00a0girls\u00a0team, which made the provincial finals in 2025.<\/p>\n
The club is currently running indoor training sessions at the Columbia Lake Recreation Centre near\u00a0Windermere, and\u00a0will start up its outdoor programs after spring break.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoccer is such an accessible sport. All you need is a ball and a bit of space \u2026 but for such a simple sport, you can get so much joy out of it,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n
The club attempts not only to develop soccer skills, but also to foster leadership, resilience, confidence and other interpersonal skills, explained Smith. \u201cOur aim as a club is to get kids interested in the sport for a lifetime. My coaching philosophy has four points: include; inspire; develop and compete. That means include everyone; inspire young athletes to want to play; develop players\u2019 physical and interpersonal skills; and then go and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
The free soccer jamboree at DTSS runs from\u00a09\u00a0a.m\u00a0to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
Those wanting to take part in the jamboree need to sign up by February 23. Visit\u00a0forms.gle\/aNZwiQptzzzPWdim6\u00a0to sign up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Steve Hubrecht\u00a0 [email\u00a0protected]\u00a0 A\u00a0free indoor soccer jamboree\u00a0will kick off later this month. It is\u00a0open to any kids…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,193850,193851,561,82,19054],"class_list":["post-478300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-invermere","tag-jamboree","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-youth-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}