By Ottawa Sports Pages, for West Ottawa Soccer Club
Summertime is the best time for Izzy Swedlove. That’s when the co-director of West Ottawa Soccer Club’s summer camps gets to come her from university studies and get a fresh reminder of the action-filled summers of her childhood, as well as the pathway she’s followed from camper to high-level player, to coach, to university athlete, and now leader.
“I liked being able to run around. I loved running, that was my favourite thing,” Swedlove recalls again and again. “And just having fun with my friends. There’s so many great memories.”
Among the first Warriors who have spent their entire careers with WOSC since it was was established in 2010, Swedlove now makes use of her explosive pace and relentless work rate she developed on the local pitches as a defender for Acadia University, where she studies community development.
This summer, Swedlove is back in Ottawa to take charge of the Warriors’ Grassroots Development Camp alongside WOSC Women’s Development Lead Chelsea Currie.
The club also offers the WeeWarriors Half Day Summer Soccer Camp for players born from 2021-2019, and full-day camps for players born between 2018 and 2014, which includes a special outing each week to places such as Xtreme Trampoline, Laser Max, Splitsville and the Wave Pool.
Swedlove will oversee an energetic team of counsellor-coaches, many of whom are high-level Warriors players. She’s been coaching young WOSC players herself since she began helping when she was still in elementary school and has led U10, U11 and U12 sides over the last few years.
What also makes summer the best for Swedlove is that she gets to reconnect with her past teammates when they play together in the OCSL.
On top all the running at summer camp, she remembers splashing around in the pool and the beginnings of many enduring friendships stemming from those days.
“A lot of the girls that I started playing with in U8, we stayed with each other all the way up,” Swedlove reflects. “The friendships and the team that was built was just really awesome.
“For me, sport is all about the friendships and the connections you make. And I think camp really exemplifies that, because you’re together for a week, for most of the day, all together, and you can really see the connections being built.”
Now as a camp leader, Swedlove takes pride in creating a welcoming and spirited environment where campers have every freedom to try new things, make mistakes and advance their development. Her main goal is to recreate the environment that gave birth to so many of her happiest memories.
Currie, Swedlove’s co-director, says “it’s really special” to now have leaders who have previously been campers “because they have that first-hand experience.”
“They can relate to the kids,” highlights the past Cape Breton University player and current University of Ottawa Gee-Gees assistant coach. “They just do a really good job of making it fun and making sure that the kids are learning at the same time.”
Just as their camp experiences might prepare them for a life loving the beautiful game, Currie hopes campers will see parallel avenues into leadership positions.
“I think having somebody like Izzy in a role like that probably might mean more to the kids than they even realize,” underlines the Certified Mental Performance Consultant. “They can hopefully see themselves involved in the game in different ways over the course of their entire youth and young adult careers.”
Learn more about West Ottawa Soccer Club Summer Camps and register via WOSC.com/Programs/Camps/.
