The sounds of soccer could be heard on the Pojoaque Valley High School turf field on a recent Saturday: cheers and laughter and thuds as little feet knocked a bevy of balls around.
But this was not a day that the Elks were playing an opponent.
No, this was a time for the area’s youth to learn about the game from those playing at the high school level.
It’s something that used to be a regular feature for the Elks as a way to give back to the community and raise some needed funds to help out the program. But, like so many other things, it went away during COVID and is just now making its return.
“We were discussing ways to get the kids more involved in the community and ways to kind of raise money and so we kind of just organized it,” head coach Juan Ortiz said. “And since I work at the elementary, I was able to get a bunch of kids out there from elementary school. So we ended up having about 45 campers.”
Sophomore captain Joshua Gomez said he has fond recollections of attending similar camps when he was a youngster, and he made a case for resuming the camp with the coaching staff.
“I remember as a little kid, that I had done it from when high schoolers were teaching me,” he said. “So that’s kind of how the idea was also brought up. I remember the camps so I pitched it.”
It was something that stuck with him and helped foster a love of the sport that has not wavered in the years since. And now he hopes to help make similar memories for the community’s younger players.
“It was really fun,” he said of attending the camps. “It was a really memorable experience for me. Now, it was very cool mentoring and being on the high school side. There were a lot of kids this year, too, so it’s pretty cool teaching them and seeing a lot of them happy and just learning.”
The camp was free, although Ortiz said the program accepted donations, which will be used to help the Elks players have a post-season banquet and get some new gear.
During the three-hour camp, the youngsters were coached by the players in many of the same drills they use.
“We just worked on the fundamentals we do,” Ortiz said. “The high school kids were working on all the basics with them. At the end, we had a little scrimmage with them.”
For 10-year-old Davina Gomez, Joshua’s younger sister, it was the first time she’s been to a soccer camp.
“I don’t think I have ever been to something like this before, but I did have a really great experience doing it,” she said.
Her favorite part, however, was not working with her brother, but instead doing the goalkeeper station with senior captain Raudel “Rowdy” Rivera, the Elk’s goalkeeper.
“I really enjoyed the whole thing, but my favorite part of it was probably when I was with the goalie Rowdy,” Davina Gomez said. “I really enjoyed how he kind of went step-by-step through everything and showed us different ways how to kick it out of the goal.”
And Rivera enjoyed giving pointers about being a goalkeeper.
“I was just very happy to be able to teach the young goalie kids, because just finding kids who really have some guts and really want to play goalie is tough,” he said. “There’s this one kid. I think he might have been, like, 8- or 9-years-old. He was really, really good. He knew how to dive already, so I didn’t have to teach him that.”
Rivera, who never got to go a camp like this when he was younger, enjoyed being with the youngsters, especially since his 6-year-old brother was among the attendees.
“That’s why I was so thankful that as a high schooler, I was able to teach a bunch of kids, because I never had anything like this and I just feel like we spread a lot of positivity about soccer that day,” he said. “I just love being around kids and helping them just was a special thing for my heart also, because my little brother came to the camp.”
And it was a fulfilling time for all involved.
“I was teaching dribbling and shooting,” Joshua Gomez said. “I felt really accomplished, and I felt really happy that I could spread positivity through the community and really give back to the kids. They all left with smiles on their faces, and they were really happy. And they were really excited that they got to learn new stuff.”
By Glen Rosales
Special to the SUN
The sounds of soccer could be heard on the Pojoaque Valley High School turf field on a recent Saturday: cheers and laughter and thuds as little feet knocked a bevy of balls around.
But this was not a day that the Elks were playing an opponent.
No, this was a time for the area’s youth to learn about the game from those playing at the high school level.
It’s something that used to be a regular feature for the Elks as a way to give back to the community and raise some needed funds to help out the program. But, like so many other things, it went away during COVID and is just now making its return.
“We were discussing ways to get the kids more involved in the community and ways to kind of raise money and so we kind of just organized it,” head coach Juan Ortiz said. “And since I work at the elementary, I was able to get a bunch of kids out there from elementary school. So we ended up having about 45 campers.”
Sophomore captain Joshua Gomez said he has fond recollections of attending similar camps when he was a youngster, and he made a case for resuming the camp with the coaching staff.
“I remember as a little kid, that I had done it from when high schoolers were teaching me,” he said. “So that’s kind of how the idea was also brought up. I remember the camps so I pitched it.”
It was something that stuck with him and helped foster a love of the sport that has not wavered in the years since. And now he hopes to help make similar memories for the community’s younger players.
“It was really fun,” he said of attending the camps. “It was a really memorable experience for me. Now, it was very cool mentoring and being on the high school side. There were a lot of kids this year, too, so it’s pretty cool teaching them and seeing a lot of them happy and just learning.”
The camp was free, although Ortiz said the program accepted donations, which will be used to help the Elks players have a post-season banquet and get some new gear.
During the three-hour camp, the youngsters were coached by the players in many of the same drills they use.
“We just worked on the fundamentals we do,” Ortiz said. “The high school kids were working on all the basics with them. At the end, we had a little scrimmage with them.”
For 10-year-old Davina Gomez, Joshua’s younger sister, it was the first time she’s been to a soccer camp.
“I don’t think I have ever been to something like this before, but I did have a really great experience doing it,” she said.
Her favorite part, however, was not working with her brother, but instead doing the goalkeeper station with senior captain Raudel “Rowdy” Rivera, the Elk’s goalkeeper.
“I really enjoyed the whole thing, but my favorite part of it was probably when I was with the goalie Rowdy,” Davina Gomez said. “I really enjoyed how he kind of went step-by-step through everything and showed us different ways how to kick it out of the goal.”
And Rivera enjoyed giving pointers about being a goalkeeper.
“I was just very happy to be able to teach the young goalie kids, because just finding kids who really have some guts and really want to play goalie is tough,” he said. “There’s this one kid. I think he might have been, like, 8- or 9-years-old. He was really, really good. He knew how to dive already, so I didn’t have to teach him that.”
Rivera, who never got to go a camp like this when he was younger, enjoyed being with the youngsters, especially since his 6-year-old brother was among the attendees.
“That’s why I was so thankful that as a high schooler, I was able to teach a bunch of kids, because I never had anything like this and I just feel like we spread a lot of positivity about soccer that day,” he said. “I just love being around kids and helping them just was a special thing for my heart also, because my little brother came to the camp.”
And it was a fulfilling time for all involved.
“I was teaching dribbling and shooting,” Joshua Gomez said. “I felt really accomplished, and I felt really happy that I could spread positivity through the community and really give back to the kids. They all left with smiles on their faces, and they were really happy. And they were really excited that they got to learn new stuff.”