Dacula Soccer Club offers a “Premier Experience”

In July, Dacula Soccer Club held a four-day training camp like no other in Gwinnett County youth soccer history.  The Premier Experience camp held at Rabbit Hill Park, hosted 130 boys and girls from around the metro area.  Players were trained by English Premier League legends, World Cup soccer greats, and professional sports performance methodologists, who pushed these young athletes and their game to the highest level.

 The four member coaching staff consisted of Shaun Teale and Steve Walsh who have a combined total of well over 1,000 appearances in The English Premier League, considered the world’s most competitive soccer league.  Shaun Teale is a legend of Aston Villa.  The central defender was an integral part of the “Claret and Blue’s” FA Cup win in 1994.  Leiceister City fan favorite Steve Walsh assisted his team to 7 appearances at national Wembley stadium for the first time in club history as central defender, and to great effect, emergency striker scoring an amazing header goal in the 96th minute against Arsenal, earning him man of the match.

 The ladies were coached by two of the women’s game’s most notable players in the US and internationally.  Danielle Fotopoulos is a University of Florida NCAA women’s soccer championship winner and still holds the NCAA all-time goals and points scored record.  The forward was a member of the FIFA World Cup winning team in 1999 and scored over 30 points for the national team.  Kim Maslin-Kammerdeiner was a member of the first women’s FIFA World Cup winning team for the USA in China in 1991.  As goalkeeper, Kim played an incredible 843 minutes without allowing a goal.

 Setting this camp apart from all other typical youth soccer camps was not only the wealth of knowledge the coaching staff brings, but also the emphasis on campers total athletic health and performance. Campers were treated to training sessions led by CES Performance, a Duluth based training company (www.cesperformance.com/dsc), which helps prepare professional and amateur athletes reach the height of their athletic ability. Soccer specific training techniques were introduced that include resistance and over-speed training.  Campers were also treated to instruction in the underemphasized benefits of yoga with Merri Benham, owner of Flip Your Dog Yoga (www.doinyoga.net), who showed the campers stretching and core strengthening poses to aid in injury prevention and athletic optimization.  As if this was not enough, The Premier Experience also hosted all the campers for a special autograph and Q&A session with the premier staff on multiple occasions.  A special thanks to Friends Sports Grill in Dacula and Suwanee for hosting this once in a lifetime event.

 With the well-rounded and intense curriculum, campers came away from The Premier Experience with new skills as well as a new appreciation of their own abilities. “There’s always room to improve”, said Sam A. a sixth grader and midfielder, “You may think you’re the best, then you do something like this, and realize you’re not… It was great!”