It’s summer and that means Street Soccer is back at the Waveland State Historic Site in Lexington.
LFC coaches Jimmy Rue and Mike Donnelly bring the goals, the pinnies and the encouragement for your player to play pickup games every Monday-Thursday evening all summer long.
“Kids today don’t have the opportunity to get with other kids like what I did when I grew up,” said Rue, who has been running Street Soccer at Waveland for seven years. “What we did was create a situation where it was kind of like the back yard where i grew up in and place for kids to come and play anytime they want.”
The evenings begin 6-7:15 p.m. for children 10 and under. Rue and Donnelly split the players up into small-sided teams and turn them loose on sets of 4-foot Pug goals.
Then, 7-8:15 p.m., warmup begins for the big kids, ages 11 and up who could play small- or full-sided depending on the numbers.
The play is minimally structured with Rue and Donnelly maintaining order, but largely letting the players figure the game out with lots of encouragement.
“Kids today have to figure things out on their own. They actually have to play and make mistakes,” Rue said. “Some of the coolest things in soccer come from mistakes. The best way to become a dribbler is to take someone on and lose the ball 90 times. Then on the 91st you might beat them and then lose it two more times. Then, all of a sudden, you start beating them two and three times. It’s just a process.”
The idea for Street Soccer is to encourage players to try things they might not in front of their club or rec coach. Rue and Donnelly want players to take chances and have fun.
“We want them to be like mad scientist on the soccer field,” Rue said. “We want them be like this is their laboratory. We want them to experiment. We want them to make mistakes. But then, you’re going to create all this cool stuff for yourself.”
The cost is $10 to walk up, $80 for a month or $160 for the summer.
For more information contact Coach Rue at 502-319-3807.
Or go check it out at 225 Waveland Museum Lane, Lexington, KY 40514.
