Highly successful Middle Georgia State College Knights and Lady Knights soccer coach Vinny Gill is hosting his annual Summer Knights Soccer Camp Monday through Thursday at Centennial Field.
“It is important that all young soccer players learn the basic moves of the game well,” Gill said before putting his youngsters through their opening camp routine Monday.
At the camp, Gill is teaching the basic soccer skills of passing, receiving, shooting, heading and trapping.
“We worked on passing with both the inside of the foot and the outside of their foot,” Gill said. “In every Bainbridge camp, I try to introduce something that we have not worked on before. This year we worked on the importance of understanding where the defenders are when you pass the ball. You must make sure a defender is not in position to make a steal.”
In the shooting portion of the camp, Gill had the players work on the half volley and the volley. They also worked on trapping the ball with the foot.
Bainbridge High School Lady Cats coach Chip Ariail said coach Gill, who is from Ireland and has had coaching success at both the college and professional levels, always connects very well with the young campers.
Before coming to Middle Georgia, he coached the professional Jacksonville Cyclones.
“Coach Gill has coached eight years at Middle Georgia and during that time his Lady Knights and Knights teams have been very successful,” cAriail said. “His Lady Knights won the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association conference championship in 2009 and his Knights were Georgia Athletic Coaches Association runner ups in 2010.
Coach Ariail and Bainbridge High School Bearcats soccer coach Jamie Ard believe that coach Gill’s camps here the past few years have really inspired local youngster to get excited about the game.
“Our high school teams have been very successful the past few years and a number of our players have been positively influenced by coach Gill,” Ariail said. “This past year my Lady Cats won seven Region 1-AAAA games, which was a new record for Region wins, and coach Ard’s Bearcats won 11 games and went to the state playoffs for the fourth straight season. Both of our teams advanced to the first round of the State Class AAAA playoffs.”
Two of Thursday’s campers, Nathan Healy, who plays midfield for coach Ard’s Bearcats, and Seth Jenkins, who is a right striker for his Bainbridge-Decatur County YMCA soccer team, said the camp drills helped them improve their ball hand passing skills.
“Coach Gill taught us to constantly be aware of the location of the defenders when you are setting up to pass,” Healy said.
“If you handle the ball well you can control the situation,” added Jenkins.