south island soccer academy

Coach Adrien

Beginnings

I started playing soccer way back in 1994, the same year the United States hosted the World Cup! Funny thing is, I only asked my mom to sign me up for soccer because all the cool kids in my Grade 2 class kept bringing in their soccer medals for show-and-tell and I wanted in on "the club"! We were living in Airdrie, Alberta at the time and the first team I played for was "Dundee". My mom and I, knowing nothing about soccer, thought the team names in my league were rather odd. Liverpool? Blackburn? Leeds? Who ever thought of such names!?Fast forward six or seven years. I'm a soccer fanatic. I have my favourite teams and soccer cards and a collection of soccer medals won at tournaments across Alberta and Saskatchewan. I played on my high school team, attended soccer summer camps, and always brought a ball with me anytime we went away.

Health Conditions

At the age of 11 I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and that was obviously a big change for me and it has impacted my life ever since. I learned to manage my blood sugars while playing competitively and I'm proud to say that, 25 years on, I'm mostly free from complications. Important here is the fact that I am very knowledgeable and understanding when it comes to managing health conditions while playing sports - especially at a competitive level - and this makes me a great coach for any young person who, like me, has to play with a health condition.

Coaching Philosophy

Soccer has always been there for me, helping me manage my diabetes and de-stress and have fun and bond with others, and I therefore consider soccer to be a very close and lifelong friend. It truly lives up to its name as "the beautiful game" and I hope to help pass this love of the game onto the up-and-coming generations. My coaching style is positive and upbeat. I believe that every player is an individual, first and foremost, with their own personalities and playing styles and I do my best to adapt my approach towards them in order to help them reach their full potential. Success is not a one-size-fits-all thing and success looks different for everyone and I believe that everyone can be successful in their own way.

• Back

Coach Tristan

Beginnings

Soccer has been a part of my life to varying degrees since soon after I could walk. Growing up, I played in a Japanese youth club throughout elementary school in the 90’s, but I was a multisport athlete and didn’t realize how all-consuming soccer would become for me later.At 14, I realized that soccer was, in fact, my true passion. After watching a documentary on Ronaldinho, I started dribbling a tennis ball whenever I walked my dog. Within a year, I went from being an average player to being a starter on a competitive team, leading to traveling around Asia in APAC soccer tournaments and playing against teams comprised of players from all over the world.I played on multiple teams throughout university and would have continued to play competitively were it not for a series of nasty injuries. To this day, though, I play for fun every week, and though I find it hard to believe, my love for the beautiful game continues to grow every single year.

Coaching Philosophy

I firmly believe that at the youth level, learning to control and protect the ball effectively leads to the greatest development of players. I strive to nurture technical proficiency and a love for possession-based soccer while providing a positive learning environment to instill a passion for the sport so dear to my heart.With the awareness that every player has different aptitudes and levels of understanding of the game, my goal is to improve individual skills and overall football intelligence through simple drills that help players improve the basics. My experience is that injury prevention is often neglected in youth soccer, so I try to incorporate healthy warm-up routines into my coaching to build good habits for player safety.

• Back