Set to kick off its second season under the West Ottawa Soccer Club banner, Ontario’s second largest club is continuing its strong commitment to Long-Term Player Development through all ages and levels.
With the merger of the Kanata and Goulbourn associations in 2010, the new club placed an emphasis on following the Canadian Soccer Association’s model for athlete development from the start.
WOSC took another major step in that process with the recent hiring of Gord Macdonald as Multisport Program Manager, an innovative role created to support the principle that younger players should not be focused exclusively on soccer all of the time.
“Not only does Gord’s hiring cement us as one of Canada’s premier clubs for LTPD, but it also allows us to do our part to ensure kids grow up healthy in general regardless of their chosen sport,” highlights WOSC head coach Ray Scobie. “Every sports club needs to bear some of this responsibility in terms of offerings and cooperation.”
Kyle Washington, one of three WOSC lead coaches, says that in an ideal world, they might be the West Ottawa multi-sport club.
“We see value in these players developing through another sport,” emphasizes Washington, whose club is offering a unique soccer and hockey summer camp where participants spend time on the ice and the pitch.
Washington works mostly with players and coaches at the mini levels to ensure that each team allows athletes to grow at their own pace, since development does not occur in a linear fashion.
“It’s not just about what they’re doing with the ball, it’s looking at the emotional – how do they feel while they’re doing it? What is the mechanism used to help them achieve?” explains Washington, a former University of Western Ontario Mustangs soccer captain. “Those answers need to be clear in the mind of the coach.”
Leading the LTPD charge
With an approach that has now been widely accepted across Ontario, the Goulbourn-Lanark under-9 division was the province’s first to not keep track of standings and goal scorers.
“It got really bad press,” Washington acknowledges. “They completely trashed it – for what they perceived it to be, and not what it actually is.
“But if you were going to one of those games, you would see kids putting more value on playing good soccer and trying things that they’ve learned in practice or at home, and not having any fear of failure.”
Another objective for the young club is to build better links throughout WOSC, including from the recreational to the representative level, which includes around 90 teams.
Washington says that some tension and distrust was evident at last year’s tryouts as players from different clubs combined into new teams, but he’s noticed a change in atmosphere in the lead-up to this campaign.
“This year, the kids love each other – they all know each other, they all got to meet each other last year, they know each other’s names,” Washington says. “That alone will boost the spirit of our youth teams, and hopefully their performance as well.
“At the end of the day, as long as they’re enjoying what they’re doing and they come back every single week wanting to be at practice, that is the best thing.”