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AYSO Jamboree Soccer for 4-year-old players

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Contributed by: Pam Vetter on 9/30/2008

When you see young soccer players in their tiny colorful uniforms kicking the ball and cheering on teammates, you know you've struck a program of gold.

The AYSO Woodland Hills Region 71 Jamboree One with One Soccer program is in its fifth year of offering pressure free, fun soccer play to 4-year-old boys, girls and their parents.

Boys and girls play on Saturday mornings in the program, while another group of boys participate on Tuesday evenings. There are 80 boys and girls who are playing Jamboree soccer this season.

Master Coach John Darbyshire of AYSO Region 71 believes in the Jamboree program.

"The Jamboree program is a chance to give the very youngest players some great training opportunities in a very interactive, big group environment where they don't get singled out. Each week they have a different set of volunteer coaches and parent coaches. We bring the parents in to work with the kids. And it's a great activity," Darbyshire explained. "We work on one or two items a night and then we have 30 to 40 minutes of game time at the end of the session. It's a great experience for the players and the parents have an active role with this program. They participate at the beginning during the warm-up and during the basic training activities."

Darbyshire notes that the Jamboree program creates a great opportunity to recruit future volunteers with Region 71.

"AYSO National puts so much value on the under five program that the master coaches have to be an advanced training coach or better or preferably a nationally trained coach," Darbyshire said. "All of the coaches in our program have at least 12 years or more of coaching experience. The program builds AYSO and this is the foundation."

Bart Miles, a parent coach, was happy to help in the program.

"My son Matthew is 4 years old and we're excited about the program. He wanted to play soccer and he was excited about getting into it so it's been great," Miles said. "It's fun with all of the kids and moms and dads out here playing. We love it. I can't think of a better thing to do on Tuesday night."

Delphine Ying's 4-year-old son, Matty, is also enjoying the program.

"Matty loves it," Ying said. "He loves being part of the team. He loves the soccer. He's a pretty competitive kid so he actually likes the fact that he gets to chase the ball and play with other kids."

Parent Coach Brian Martin, whose 4-year-old son, Andre, is playing in the Jamboree program, has taken an active role.

"I like the program a lot especially for 4-year-olds. I think it helps them with their fundamental skills and everything," Martin said, watching his players. "The master coach does a really good job. He has a lot of little training techniques that really help them out. They're all having fun and the parents are getting involved. Maybe next year we can coach a team if we felt up to it in the under 5 division. I think it's good to start at this age, as long as we don't press them too hard. It's just for fun right now. They're having a good time and it's really great."

Patty Woo, whose son Tyler loves kicking the ball, was happy they signed up for the Jamboree program.

"It's fabulous, seeing him runnin around. They're so cute," Woo said smiling. "This is our first experience with soccer and he's loving it because it's for fun. The program is also good for exercise and learning teamwork. This is a great first start and if he wants to continue in AYSO, we'll definitely take part next year."

For more information about AYSO Region 71, visit www.region71.org.

For more information about the national AYSO program, visit www.soccer.org.

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