July 29 - August 4, 2012
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The Wings S.C. under the auspices of the American Ukrainian Youth Association of Chicago, branch Mykola Pavlushkov hosted their 20th annual youth soccer camp. The camp was held during the week of July 29th to August 4th at oselia “Beskyd” located 3 hours north of Chicago in Baraboo, WI. The soccer camp was made up of 72 half day and full day campers. The campers trained daily on the two soccer fields of the oselia. This year was tough for the staff and campers, the fields were impacted by the midwest drought. If not for the efforts of volunteers to water the fields and maintain them daily the campers would have been training on dirt.
The campers trained twice each day focusing on passing, dribbling, shooting, trapping, and goaltending. This years trainers were Taras Popowycz for the Half Day and Joe Vidmar for the Full Day campers.
The full day campers day began with a breakfast, followed by a training session, lunch, swimming, afternoon training session, dinner and an evening camp fire by the barracks & tents. By Thursday evening the campers are broken up into teams readying themselves for the mini World Cup competition beginning Friday afternoon and carrying over to the finals on Saturday. The atmosphere on Saturday morning for the soccer players is unbelievable! Parents line up on the parade route for photo opportunities of their children. The campers march onto the soccer fields wearing the countries colors that they have chosen for their team. Each child hand paints each shirt with a name, number and team logo. Before competition begins, a group photo is taken by the camp photographer, of all the campers, trainers and coaches with the flags of each country.
Over the past 20 years the Wings S.C. soccer camp has grown in size and recognition amongst the Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian communities. The AUYA of Chicago would like to extend an invitation to other clubs in the Midwest and East to enroll your soccer campers in next year’s soccer camp. There is room for families to camp at oselia “Beskyd” as well as motel rooms when available.
The AUYA would like to thank this year’s parents, volunteers, trainers and coaches. See you all next season!
photos - Z. Lysyk
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