This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Marshall County Soccer Club. I recently spoke with the current president of the league Brian Yoho, to get more information about the league. The league is a co-ed league that supports teams on the U4, U5, U6, U8, U10, U12, and the U15 levels. The goal of the club is to develop young athletes for both the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams at John Marshall High School. And even though that is the goal of the club, they will take athletes from all over the Valley. This year they even have a family traveling from Woodsfield. As we see a lot these days with the growth of “travel” teams, you have families traveling hours for games and even practices. This league is locally based the practices and home games are held at Valley Fork City Park in Moundsville. The other teams on the schedule include Wheeling, St. Clairsville, Brooke, Hancock County, East Richland, and Linsly. This cuts the travel time down for families. The clubs practice and play both in the spring and fall.
Yoho also informed me that the Marshall County Soccer Club has also started a TOP Soccer program. This program is for athletes with special needs. They did not have a season this fall but are looking to start up again this spring. Check out their website https://clubs.bluesombrero.com/marshallcounty or Facebook starting in January to find out more about signups.
The goal with the league is to develop the basic skills at the younger levels. These skills include dribbling, passing, and shooting. Then continue to more advanced skills in the upper levels. Advanced skills can include individual skill moves, striking techniques and team skill moves. If players skills are advanced enough, they are even encouraged to join travel teams. These athletes are still welcome to play in the Marshall County Soccer Club.
Currently the league has 263 kids and like most other youth sports’ leagues, they would like to grow. Their goal is to have over 300 kids participating on the teams. The teams can and have been coached by parents and other volunteers that do not have kids in the league. If you are interested in coaching or have a child in the league, they will pay for a coach’s clinic. The clinic is through the U.S. Youth Soccer Club and will teach you the necessary skills for a beginning coach. The Marshall County Soccer Club also hold coach’s meetings, where knowledge can be gained to become a better coach. If you’re looking to get involved in the league and don’t think coaching is for you, the league is also looking for officials.
As anyone involved in any youth sports know, officials are becoming harder to come by. To help with this in soccer the Marshall County Soccer Club has a plan to get more people involved in officiating. Again, the club will pay for training, and they pay per game officiated. So, you could become involved in the game and make a little money. To pay for these clinics for coaches and officials and other events that the club likes to hold, they need to hold fundraisers.
These events have a cost associated with them, so they are holding a fundraiser this year. The club is having a gift card and cash giveaway, you can find more information about the fundraiser by following them on Facebook and checking out the flyer in this article. The money they raise goes towards an opening kickoff party in the fall and in the spring. For the younger kids, they hold a trunk or treat. For the older athletes, they like to take them to a college soccer game in the past they have gone to WVU games, this year, they will be attending a West Liberty soccer game. Another big event they have for the athletes is a swim party in the spring. As you can see the league is more than about playing soccer, they make it an enjoyable and do other activities to keep kids interested in being part of the league.
Look for more information on their signups and fundraisers on their Facebook page. Spring signups will be starting in January look for them on https://clubs.bluesombrero.com/marshallcounty or here at ovathletics.com.
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