Summer fun for most people means sitting poolside, going to the beach, or hanging out.  That is all fun, don’t get us wrong…but let’s not forget that comes after soccer for our players this past season! The summer fun was on the soccer field for our summer league players…

Know How

We hope you all saw the tremendous improvement in all of our players from the start of the season until our last day this past Saturday.  It gives us great pleasure to see so many smiling faces be part of our summer league.  The confidence the kids had was amazing. It was as if these weren’t the same kids as the start of the league.  Part of our program is to develop skillful players at a young age but to also help grow their confidence on as well as off the field.

Friday evening practices at Sherman Oaks park were crucial to having the kids gain the confidence to showcase them on the field.  The teaching happens during the training sessions, we can’t stress that enough.  Weekends are for performance on what they learned during the week.

 

The Tiny Kickers!

 

What an awesome group of boys & girls we had this past summer league.  It is normal that these 3 and recently turned 4-year-olds didn’t want to participate in all games or activities.  The consistency from our parents to help grow their confidence was key.  At times they cried, threw a tantrum or just didn’t want to participate.  Other times they stole the show for the day! As long as you’re exposing them to quality training and coaching they will continue to develop on as well as of the field.

 

We have now been running a league for 3-year-olds for about 2.5 years here at Olé.  Watching the tiny kickers grow in front of our eyes has been amazing.  It’s great to see some of these players now playing with our older teams as well as some graduating and being part of our advanced club teams! It is amazing to see the development of these young players and credit to the parents for believing in our system of success.  We can’t wait to see more players continue to develop and share their experience with us.

 

The Vision

One day we hope that one of our former players here at Olé wins a World Cup! Olé wants to offer such an amazing program that we strive to develop young players from all backgrounds to be the best they can be.  Will some not make it to the professional level, yes…but some will.  It starts at a young age, we are not creating anything new. Academies around the world have a similar philosophy, we are just doing it our way.  Olé wants to be that program that your child will love and want to continue playing for many years to come.  We want to make you and your child fall in love with the sport and give back to our community through soccer.

 

Ready for Fall Season?

So are we! We are excited to see returning faces and meet new faces in our program.  Expect more teams, more fun, and more next level development! The details for the Fall 2017 season will be announced mid-August roughly.  If you have not joined our email list, please do so today on our website. We send email newsletters sharing information about upcoming events and important dates.  All practices and games will be in the San Fernando Valley.  We are based in the East Valley, so we will focus on trying to build our program there for the time being until we expand into other areas.  Let’s build a great program together!

Pre-Register Today!

If you have not sent in your $25 to save your child’s spot…what are you waiting for???  The $25 pre-registration puts your child on the list for the Fall 2017 season. He/she must be between the ages of 3-7 and can’t be born after the birth year 2010.  Our focus at the moment for these young ages is pre-club. Kids born 2009 or older will be evaluated for a possible tryout for our club teams or announce when new tryouts will take place for club teams after our Coast Soccer League season.

 

Please click on the image below to pre-register or you can Venmo $25 payment to @olesoccer to secure the spot today. Please remember that this is pre-registration.  There will be an actual registration and uniform payment as well before the season starts.  Click on image or link below to learn more!

Guess What!

Special event will be taking place very soon for all families who pre-register! All families who have pre-registered will be invited to participate in a special event via email.  Don’t miss out…be part of the movement!

Sign up today!

 

 

 

Thanks again to those who have supported this movement for years and those who recently joined. We look forward to building our club together in the best way possible.

 

#WeAreOlé

 

Great games by Olé & LAFC!

Not many teams and clubs get invited to play against high-quality academy level teams.  How is it that a first-year club is being invited to play against some of the best teams around?  Something is going on here at Olé and we are doing things we feel our community needs! Through elite training offered at a young age, we can develop some of the most elite players around.

Thank you to LAFC for hosting us at their home field and putting the event together.  Olé is building relationships with the biggest teams around to offer the highest level competition possible for our teams.  We have found a system of success and instilling the work ethic our coaches, players, and teams need in order to get to that next level.

Let’s continue to build our players and demonstrate our high level of soccer! We are proud of all of our players, coaches, supporters and families for allowing us to get to this point.  The fun does not stop! This is the journey we are all taking together.

 

What is next?

Building relationships with the big clubs in our area is important for our new club.  Providing a quality service and earning the respect of the new MLS academy to compete is something not many clubs or teams would accept.  We feel like our teams can compete at a very high level and have proved it throughout the past year.

Our vision and our demand for quality can not stop.  Our coaching, training, and development is key to our success.  We feel like we have one of the best training staff around and capable of some great things.  Patience is always needed but the hard work we have all been putting in is definitely showing.  The elite club teams are looking to our club for quality competition and tournaments.  Summer is almost here and tournament season for our teams is in full swing.

 

Thank you all for believing in our vision and let’s make this 2017 even better!

 

 

Olé vs LAFC – 5/20/17
Photos by David Kartch

 

Olé SC has been selected…

We have been selected for the SC Blue Heat home opener on June 4th.  Kickoff is at 5:45pm at Master’s University. SC Blue Heat are the defending 2016 National Champions in the UWS.  It is a great opportunity for our boys & girls to come out and see quality soccer in person locally.

Our Girls 2010 & 2009 team has been selected to walk on the field before the game with both teams. This will be a great opportunity for our young girls to be around elite players and role models.  The role models are great for girls as well as boys.

Our Girls 2008 & 2007 team will scrimmage at half-time of the game to showcase their skills and have fun over 1,000 fans.  It will be a fun scrimmage thanks to Carlos Marroquin from SC Blue Heat.  The 2 teams will be able to show what they can do and get used to playing in front of a big crowd!

June 4th just got a lot better for Olé! Tickets are on sale at Planet Soccer Store and each manager from our team will be distributing to each club team.  Get ready for a great season and we hope to see you there at the SC Blue Heat home opener!

 

 

 

 

Do you know who Deyna Castellanos is? If not, you will get to know her really well! Wanted by the biggest clubs all over the world, the Venezuelan-born player recently turned 18 and is doing some incredible things in the soccer world.  She will be wearing the SC Blue Heat colors this summer and we will have the pleasure of watching her showcase her skills!

Check out some of her highlights in recent years.

 

Satur-Day with Olé was a success thanks to all of you. Our Director of Coaching, Mario Merino, set this day up over a month ago for all teams 2010-2007.  Our goal is to showcase our teams and talent versus some of the biggest clubs in Southern California.  We were fortunate enough to be hosted by Pateadores in Newport Beach.  Pateadores have teams all over in Southern California and have had tremendous success at the club and the United States Academy level.

We knew this was going to be a huge test for our teams, coaches and supporters to not only make the trip but be prepared to face quality competition!

How did we do?

Glad you asked, we did AWESOME!! Olé showed some great quality from all teams. We had an amazing showcase in every age group from the youngest 2010 boys & girls to the 2007 teams.  It was a total of 9 games that were played from 9am-6pm.  Martin, the Pateadores Director of Coaching, oversees over 40 teams himself.  He had nothing but great things to say about our teams, coaches, supporters and talent on the field.  Both teams rarely played “kickball,” looking to build out of the back & not afraid to restart with their goalkeepers.  Modern football on display all day.

“Olé is doing things the right way!”  – Martin (D.O.C.)

There is no secret to quality development, start teaching the right things at the early ages.  Build from the youngest up.  It was a huge compliment from such as prestigious club to have them acknowledge the quality in all of our teams and the vision we have.  They would have never guessed we are a first-year club and just about to go into our second year.

Respect is never given…it is earned! Olé earned the respect from Pateadores all day and hope to continue to build on this momentum! Showcase with Pateadores is just one way we are taking our club to the next level.

Thank you Pateadores for hosting us all day. The showcase was great and hope to do it again soon.

#WeAreOlé

 

 

Please keep in mind, this blog post is an opinion and you can agree to disagree :).

 

You take your child to a new club team, drills are decent and the other players on the team are not bad either.  You are looking for a new team for your child but don’t know what GREAT really is. How do you measure great? What is the “right” fit for my child and who is the right coach?

 

Some youth coaches aren’t that great! Just like some plumbers aren’t that great, some teachers aren’t that great.  You have your youth soccer coaches that just don’t cut it! Especially if you are paying club fees, registration fees, tournament fees, uniforms, warm-ups, fundraising…am I missing something?

 

You get to a level of soccer, where it is no longer recreation and should expect a coach to get the absolute best out of the players each and every time! You not only invest your money but most importantly, YOUR TIME! This is something that you will NEVER, I repeat, NEVER GET BACK!

What makes a great youth coach?

 

Many factors play into the equation, but we will focus on a key factor that separates those amazing coaches.  We can all find resources on some of the best drills that academies around the world use to develop their players but this key ingredient mixed along with the top-notch drills will help an average to novice coach become elite!

 

What is the key ingredient?

The key to improving youth coaches is…are you ready? Are you ready?

Competition! Competition, competition, competition! Soccer is a competitive sport.  Life is competitive.  You compete with others in your business, applying for a position, finding parking at the mall, etc! Instilling competition in young players separates the elite from the butterfly chasers.

 

Get the Best out of them!

Before training begins, you MUST have the kids competing.  Who will be the first one to juggle 10, 20, 100? Who can get 20 bells first?

These little wins and coaches pushing their players to perform at their fastest level is what speeds up development and the level of each session.  Not only do we see the players having fun but trying their absolute best!

“The way you train is the way you play”

Coaches who get the best from their players at training will prepare them for the league games, tournament games, friendly games.  Don’t be afraid to encourage competition and chippy play at training, no one is going to take it easy on anyone when it comes to game time! Competitive youth soccer has no room for mercy.  

If you feel like this isn’t for your child, your team or not looking for this, I understand.  We here at Olé Soccer are talking to those who want to take soccer, football, futbol, in the United States to the next level! We are passionate about competing at the international level.  We want to see the U.S. Men’s National team win their first World Cup. We want to see the U.S. Women’s National team win another World Cup and stay on top!

In order for the United States to compete at the international level, we need better youth level coaches all over the country.  Why aren’t youth coaches that great? They just don’t know better or maybe just don’t care.  Well, we care here at Olé!

 

If you feel like you would like to learn more about our sessions, training, online courses, drills, etc.  Please contact us directly! Don’t be afraid of being a bad coach, we can only get better.  Olé prides itself in personal development on and off the field.  
Let’s do this together and stop being embarrassed about being a supporter of the U.S. National teams. We can create elite players domestically by improving our youth coaches!  Do something about it…TODAY! 

 

Written By:
Walter Merino
@OleSoccer
info@olesoccer.org

What does that mean?

I am already a great coach, player, supporter, etc…why should I listen to anyone?

How do the best players in the world stay at the top? Do you think they wake up one day and win a Balon d’Or?
Don’t think so.  I know if you’re reading this, you want to better yourself and those around you.  If you’re a coach at any level, you measure up the competition and see what the best are doing.  You analyze how they play, recruit, train, etc.

Whether you coach recreational level soccer, toddlers, AYSO, club soccer, high school, college or professional level, you must bring ENERGY! One thing that separates you as a coach is your level of energy and PASSION! Check out this video of Sir Alex Ferguson that briefly explains it.  You need to bring it and the players feed off of that energy!

Now energy, passion, love for the game is one thing.  But knowledge and how to teach is another.  One of #OleSC’s great friends and mentors Julio Castillo (L.A. Mission College Men’s Coach) says, “you must be a better teacher in order to be a better coach.”  If you understand that and educate yourself on not only in soccer but on getting your message across to improve your players, you are already on a different level!

Coaching Education

When we talk about better youth coaching, we mean higher level education overall.  I’m sure you’ve heard this quote before that goes something like, “you must crawl before you walk.”  You must be a follower before becoming a leader.  Egos aside, you must humble yourself and be able to be hungry to learn from not only those around you but invest in higher level coaching education to better youth coaching.  It is up to us to change the norm and hold coaches to a higher standard if we are to seriously compete at the world stage.

How many of us like watching the U.S. Men’s National team play in the World Cup?  Most of you reading will be from the states, so you can relate.  What if you could one day see one of your players that you developed and taught to play at a young age compete against the best one day.  How would that feel?  How amazing would that be!!

Do you think you currently have the coaching education or the coaching skills to develop a player to compete against the best in the world? I know we here at Olé don’t…YET! Doesn’t mean that we won’t get there, but we are hungry to try to develop some of the best players in our area that will have an opportunity and exposure to compete at that level.

Where do I find this Coaching Education?

If you are hungry for more youth coaching courses visit CalSouth.com if you’re in the So Cal area or you can visit NSCAA website to learn more about their coaching courses.  These are some of the best courses around and will get you certified by the

Email: info@olesoccer.org
Follow us @OleSoccer on Social Media!

Thanks for Reading,
Coach Walter