Inaugural camp shows progress of soccer program

GONZALES — The summer heat was not enough to stop Lady Apache head soccer coach Jenna Philips and assistant coach Robert Addington this week as they led a youth girls’ soccer camp from Monday-Wednesday. Even thought it was just a few hours spent with these young athletes, Philips liked what she saw and is more than excited for the future of this upstart soccer program.

“The kids are enthusiastic, they come out here and work hard, even when it’s hot,” Philips said. “They’re putting in a lot of good work ethic and effort and they have a lot of really good skill for their age level.”

The three-day camp was split into two sessions on Monday and Tuesday and combined for the Wednesday finale.

The inaugural camp was made possible after athletic director Kodi Crane announced the addition of a soccer program last year. Philips was named head coach of the girls’ team while Greg Ramirez was named head of boys’ team.

With a varsity team comes the need to build from the youth up, ergo the formation of this youth soccer camp.

“We’re trying to get more youth to come out and try the camp and try soccer and get into it,” Philips explained. “Find a sport that you love and just follow it, go be passionate about it. With this camp it’s really about getting out this summer and actually touch a ball, where a lot of kids don’t get to go play with a bunch of their friends.”

“A lot of the skills that we taught them this week or we’ve been teaching them this week they’ve never done and they were like really excited to learn it because it’s new and exciting and they enjoyed it a lot. So they’re learning more, that’s going to build on their skill that they already know, because a lot of do play in the youth soccer league as well.”

Philips, just like any head coach, wants her camp to grow next year and one of the ideas that was tossed out was figuring out a way to partner with the youth soccer league Gonzales has. By involving that association with her camp, more kids will come out and have this experience and will also be a part of their school or as Philips puts it, “be an Apache soccer player.”

“Because I look to these kids as my future for my program,” she said. “I mean what I see now is looking really good for us as far as Lady Apache soccer and I’m excited for them to grow up and be high schools already.”