Bryant Soccer Association focuses on fun and fundamentals

Michael Legate (Photo by Kirk Stewart)By Kirk Stewart

The Bryant Soccer Club provides not only a safe, fun environment for kids to learn the game, but it also focuses on player improvement. That’s why they have enlisted the help of certified trainers Ryan Spears, Michael Legate and Alonso Arias.

Spears is from Texas, attended Ouachita Baptist University and is currently a graduate student at University of Arkansas at Little Rock in communications and secondary education. He’s a nationally licensed coach after playing soccer at OBU. He’s worked with the Arkansas director of coaching and has amassed over 25 years of soccer experience and 14 years of coaching.

The training is considered “Academy Training”. It is age-group based. Nationally recognized by the US Soccer Federation as the better way to train young soccer enthusiasts, it’s unique because it uses a large-group approach to teach fundamentals, but then breaks apart into smaller groups. Spears, Legate and Arias have customized the Academy Training to uniquely fit the youth soccer program of Bryant.[more]

“Young soccer athletes play better with someone closer to their ability level,” Spears said.

And, that’s just the approach they take in the Tuesday training for boys and Thursday training for girls.

Alonso Arias (Photo by Kirk Stewart)

“The Academy approach allows for more flexibility,” added Spears as he joined the other trainers in dribbling exercises.

Legate grew up in Bryant and played for the Hornets in 1997 and the conference champions of 1998. In fact, Legate organizes and participates in the annual alumni game where players that graduated back through 1996 participate. He attended Williams Baptist College where he played left midfielder for the Eagles. Overall he’s been playing soccer for about 14 years and plans on working toward his soccer “D” license this summer.

Legate likes the Academy style training because, “it allows the kids to compete against someone different every week.”

He added while gesturing to me, “if I played you in basketball every week, I’d get to where I could figure you out, but then in a game, someone I hadn’t seen would school me.”

So, allowing the kids to see different faces builds their skill set.

While visiting with Legate, several children came up to him wanting to show him their latest move or technique. He always stooped down to look them in the eye and encourage them to keep playing.

Ryan Spears (Photo by Kirk Stewart)

Arias was born in Costa Rica. He played in the minor league soccer system there for several years. In 1989, he enrolled in the exchange student program that brought him to the Bryant area. During that time, he attended J.A. Fair High School in Little Rock and played soccer there. He liked the area so much that he moved his family here in 1997. His credentials include coaching a U14 team (which included his own son) to the state championship in 2004. He’s also coached a Classic team to a tournament championship at the Super Club Regional tournament in Memphis.

Arias says that rather than just scrimmaging each week, “the Academy system allows you to teach footwork techniques and work on the fundamentals.”

Spears added, all of the coaches are “good coaches volunteering time with their teams, but many without much or any experience. The Academy can relieve the load for those coaches just starting out, and help them get some ideas for when they practice with their team.”

Bryant Soccer is building a solid foundation of young athletes that are being trained properly by soccer experts. As the program continues to mature, more and more Bryant kids will have the experience of not only playing a fun sport, but understanding how to play it right.

Arias added that Bryant citizens are well versed in baseball and football, so understanding those games and their fundamentals aren’t as difficult as building the foundation of soccer. It takes time and effort — time and effort that people like Ryan Spears, Michael Legate and Alonso Arias are willing to give.

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