CRAIK—Local girls have a chance to learn how to play the beautiful game.

Wade ter Heide has put out the call for girls between the ages of 10 and 14 to get together to have fun learning how to play soccer.

ter Heide said he’s starting with this age group because his daughter Aurora is 11.

So far, he’s got about five girls interested, but needs more. Girls from Davidson and other communities are welcome to join in the fun.

The registration fee is low, just enough to cover the cost of a soccer ball.

Each player will have her own ball, one she can take home to practise with.

This will come in handy for the juggling contests. Although it may not be essential in a game, juggling a soccer ball helps players develop ball control. ter Heide said it improves foot-eye co-ordination and it helps players learn how to keep the ball close to their bodies.

“With the ability to juggle, you can do all sorts of crazy things on the ground,” ter Heide said.

The ter Heides moved to Craik from Saskatoon about a year ago. Over the past year, ter Heide, who has his soccer coach certification, drove to Saskatoon three times a week coaching his daughter Aurora’s team.

Rather than continue the soccer commute, he said, “I thought, let’s get some kids around here interested” in playing soccer.

“I want it to be really fun. The focus is on movement and touching the ball a lot,” ter Heide said.

To this end, he’s going to coach them using the Dutch training method.

The Dutch style of soccer is more about finesse than power. The Dutch focus on individual skill and keeping close control of the ball. Short, simple passes are preferred to long-range kicking.

Under the Dutch method, players should be comfortable controlling and kicking the ball with either foot. Rather than lots of games, training matches involve four-on-four games on a small pitch to develop players’ ability to maintain control of the ball.

Such a method is ideal to rural Saskatchewan because it isn’t necessary for every town in the area to field a team. Rather, ter Heide said they’ll practise and develop their skills locally and then enter tournaments to see how they fare.

He expects local kids to pick up the skills quickly.

“The kids around here are in fabulous shape and they are talented,” he said.

He just wants to teach them to be soccer players.

“A lot of kids will discover abilities they have in soccer they didn’t have in other sports,” he said.