Published: July 24, 2007 10:01 am      

English soccer coaches conduct camp in Berea

BEREA — Challenger Sports has been making it possible for North American soccer athletes to experience and train with soccer coaches from the United Kingdom for the past decade.

It is the largest provider of soccer camps bringing approximately 600 coaches to America and Canada every summer. And the ‘British Invasion’ came to Berea on Monday by way of Gary Funnell and Francis Davin.

Berea Community’s boys’ soccer coach Casey Poynter was looking to bond his team and get some outside prospective for his players after graduating 10 from this past year’s district championship team.

He felt that some type of camp work would be good to build a new team nucleus. Challenger’s program seemed to offer that and more.

“It’s a good bonding experience to get somebody like that to come in for six hours a day,” Poynter said. “Challenger Sports also made it very affordable for a lot of kids, especially for a whole week of training.”

Arrangements were made and Funnell and Davin began a five-day camp with two three-hour sessions each day for Berea Community High School boys’ and girls’ soccer teams.

“For me it was the right time in my life,” Funnell said of taking the opportunity to run camps for Challenger this summer. “I get to experience a different culture and learn how the Americans play their soccer. And for me to give them some of my ideas and hopefully try to get a few ideas off them as well for coaching.”

During Funnell’s time in the states he said he has watched some of the Major League Soccer teams play. One strategical move he was fascinated by was the Charleston Battery cornerkick defense.

“Charleston played like a zone defense on the corner bringing all 11 men into the box. That was just bizarre to watch,” Funnell said. “It was kind of like watching a basketball defensive situation, but the offense didn’t attack it properly.”

It is those type of tactical errors Funnell hopes to help Berea’s athletes avoid this coming season. He said he plans on drilling the basic skills with the main focus being to learn to create space and move without the ball.

“I’m glad he said that about off-the-ball movement,” Poynter said. “I preach that all the time. ... Anytime you get an outside prospective coming in maybe they are preaching the same thing you are preaching. And the kids say, ‘Oh, coach may be right on to something here.’”

Funnell used his first morning session to lay some groundwork and improve the athletes on-the-ball skills. They were working on dribbling and learning one player cannot dribble through an entire team.

And after just more than an hour around the team, Funnell was already impressed with several players ball control and skill level.

Berea’s first day does not get any lighter as Funnell hopes to work on passing and shooting with a scrimmage in the evening.

“Scrimmage is when you really get to see how they play in all of their positions,” he said. “You get to see if they are doing the right things in their positions on the field.”