Freshman Brittany Coffinbargar gives instruction to a child at Saturday's youth clinic in West Monroe

Aug. 25, 2008

RUSTON - The Louisiana Tech soccer team took time out from its preseason workouts to make the short drive to West Monroe on Saturday, putting on a regular practice and youth clinic at West Ouachita Youth Sports Park. More than 100 youth, coaches and parents attended the event.

"It was a great event," Tech head coach Kevin Sherry said. "We did it to provide support and help in promoting soccer in the West Monroe community. The players volunteered to take time out from their busy preseason training, used their own cars to drive to West Monroe and help. I am so immensely proud of them all."

The Techsters went through a full-scale practice for the local youth and parent-coaches to watch. Sherry and his players then followed that up with a free clinic. Children ages 4-14 were invited, along with any parent-coaches from the community.

This event was one of many free youth clinics the Lady Techsters have put on over the past several months with most of the previous events taking place in Ruston.

"They did such a great job coaching the kids," Sherry said. "Everyone had so much fun and many a parent came up to me afterwards to express their thanks and gratitude."

After the coaching clinic, the Techsters held an autograph session where the players autographed schedule posters for the youth in attendance.

"I believe today helped spread the word about Louisiana Tech athletics and showed the public a very positive image of the department and our program," Sherry said. "Many parents came up to me to express their gratitude for putting on such an event, and our players too gained a lot from the day. The new players were introduced to one of the pillars of our soccer culture, `giving of yourself for the betterment of others.' They enjoyed giving back to the community and I have no doubt this giving will continue throughout the year.

"We felt it important to not only help the kids with soccer but the parent-coaches too, hence the chance for them to see a typical practice session at the NCAA Division 1 level. I had done some work with the parent-coaches during the summer with their coaching techniques and philosophies. I believe I can help the local children improve their soccer quicker if I can help the coaches improve. As the Chinese proverb says, `Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.'

"By helping the coaches we help the grassroots training of all the young players. We hope our involvement in such events will lead to an increase in the amount of children playing soccer, receiving good coaching and going on to help the area play soccer at a higher level than has been seen before. I hope this then has an effect on Tech soccer with a bigger influx of soccer recruits coming from our local communities and into our program in the future. Pele described soccer as 'the beautiful game', and after seeing our players interact with so many children and parents in such a positive way, I can now see why."

Tech opens its 2008 season Friday, Aug. 29, as the Techsters travel to Denton, Texas, to face North Texas at 7 p.m. The Techsters' first home game is set for Sept. 5 against Stephen F. Austin.