Mexico brought back what the school has been lacking for years.

Mexico Youth Soccer Camp Photo Gallery

Boys soccer head coach Bill Gleeson and girls soccer head coach Sarah Olson hosted a youth soccer camp from June 19-21 at Chris Hotop Field at the high school. Gleeson, Olson and several other coaches and players worked with 25-30 area kids from grades third through eighth.

Gleeson said he is in his sixth year at Mexico while Olson is coming her first year as a head coach for the Lady Bulldogs following time as an assistant. In that time, Mexico hasn’t had a youth soccer camp so they took the necessary steps to correct that.

“Both coach Olson and I have never done a camp before,” Gleeson said. “Years before I started, they used to have the camps. One way to help raise some money for the soccer program and to raise interest in soccer, we decided it’s time.”

Gleeson said the kids were split into three groups — third grade, fourth and fifth grade, and sixth through eighth grade — working on several drills before being allowed to scrimmage.

Olson said the coaches wanted to see each kid get the most out of the drills they planned so grouping with similar ages was important.  

“We worked some basics,” Gleeson said. “Every day, we worked some passing, some dribbling, some basic footwork skills with the ball, and just try to integrate it all and show ‘This is what soccer’s like.’”

Olson said she is pleased with how the camp turned out as she wanted to see kids being outside and having fun with the game. She noticed the kids seem to be pleased as well after receiving their camp T-shirts and popsicles to cool them off after spending time in the sun.

“I could see (the younger kids) progressing a little bit each day, getting a little better at it,” Olson said. “That was the main idea, get kids out here, have fun and support soccer in the community. I think we did all those things.”