In February, the Rudyk family visited Nicaragua to volunteer for the SchoolBOX charity.  Almonte Soccer Club donated some soccer balls and t-shirts, which were given to the Rueben Dario School in the city of Leon in Nicaragua.  The school has over 2,000 students who are split over morning and afternoon shifts 7 days a week. This is a community willing to learn, with kids eager to study and parents who understand the value of education.
 
In 2009 SchoolBOX built  6 classrooms,resulting in the first and second grade classes moving from under an exposed palm roof and salvaged scrap metal makeshift into a solid structure.  Volunteer service projects in 2010 will involve adding yet another two new classrooms to this school.  The U$20,000 budget for this effort will enable more students to move from the container classrooms and into safe, comfortable classrooms with white boards, desks, and wall space for teachers and students to put up work.  These two classrooms will be attached to the existing pre-school building and create an open space in the middle of the school allowing children to move around freely and enjoy a small recreation area and improved soccer field. 

The highlight of our classroom build experience with SchoolBox was the lunch hour soccer games.  There were many neighbourhood boys volunteering on the work site.  We challenged them to a game of soccer, with the winner taking the ball.  Although the home town team played with either bare feet or beach slippers the 'away' team, sporting good quality running shoes still lost every game.  We improved as the week went by and managed to lose by less. The balls are a valuable commodity.  In this district of Leon, families work all day to earn enough to eat that day.  Soccer balls are hand made with many layers of plastic shopping bags.  We left the balls with the school to enjoy on their new play area.

The Almonte Soccer Club will be hosting the following Referee certification courses this Spring:



Interested candidates should contact Maurice Boire by email, or call 613-461-0060.

Almonte Soccer and West Ottawa Soccer (WOS) outdoor soccer registration is open for all ages.  Click here to learn more about WOS for players wishing to tryout for competitive teams and born in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and click here to register for the WOS tryouts.  For all other registration click here and visit our registration page here for a comprehensive review of programs, key dates, and registration fees in Almonte Soccer.

In a move that may profoundly change the landscape of soccer in the Ottawa area, four clubs in the west end have started the process of merging their competitive soccer programs.  After more than a year of discussion and a few successful trials these four clubs are ready to enter a new era of cooperation.  The Almonte, Goulbourn, Kanata and West Carleton Soccer Clubs have decided to work together to deliver a more comprehensive program for competitive soccer.

Starting in 2010, for players born in 1998, 1999 and 2000, players will be selected to teams using the entire pool of players available to the four clubs. If successful this effort will pave the way for all age groups in competitive soccer to eventually be consolidated. The final result will be one of the largest and most developmentally advanced soccer programs in Ontario.This means that all levels of competitive play (regional, premier and division 1) will soon be available to every player. Historically, on their own, the four clubs were seldom if ever able to field teams at all levels, forcing some players to go to other clubs to find the right level of competition.  At times it also meant players had to drop out of competitive soccer if their club was not able to offer the appropriate level and other clubs had already completed their tryouts.  This should now be alleviated and if registration permits the total number of teams entered from the west end of Ottawa may actually increase.  This will also mean a change for the players at these age groups, tryouts will no longer be club specific, club officials have been working tirelessly to create a tryout process that is fair and efficient.

The process will be different than what most of the players are used to, but the objective is the same; make sure as many players as possible get to play competitive soccer and that they compete at an appropriate level.  It should be noted that these changes do not have any impact on recreational/house league or adult soccer.

So please visit our new website www.westottawasoccer.ca and get all the details as we make them available.  To make things easy for players and their families there will be one centralized registration process for competitive players in these age groups, you will soon be able to find the link both on the new website and on your home club's website as well.   If you have any questions, check out the FAQ on the website or feel free to call or email the president or technical director of any of the four clubs.

See you on the soccer pitch;
Almonte Soccer Club
Goulbourn Soccer Club
Kanata Soccer Club
West Carleton Soccer Club

Madeleine Tang, Alex Illingworth, Adam Mansfield and Morgan Peters sport their WOS-Up! t-shirts after their weekly soccer development session in the Oz Dome in Stittsville.  The indoor program combines players from the Kanata, Goulborn, West Carleton and Almonte soccer clubs to provide soccer development during the winter months to aspiring players.

Last May, the Kanata Soccer Club (KSC) hosted the first ever Player Development Conference which brought together committed parents, coaches, and community leaders to talk about the early stages of an athlete’s development. It was so successful that we are hosting another conference this year, featuring another outstanding roster of world leading speakers focusing on the Learn to Train Stage of the Long-term Player Development Model. In addition, the KSC has partnered with the Almonte Soccer Club and has also garnered the support of the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association (EODSA) in order to foster and promote the development of quality soccer programs in the west end of Ottawa. Participants will gain valuable professional development that they can use in the short and longer term in the delivery of their soccer programming.

A banquet and keynote address by Canadian soccer icon Stephen Hart is featured on the Saturday evening. Hart, currently the Canadian Soccer Association’s technical director, will be joined by Tony Waiters, former national team coach (1982-86) and President of the National Soccer Coaches Association, and Jacob Daniel, director of the Olympic Development Soccer program for the Georgia State Soccer Association.

The objective of the Conference is simple: to help provide parents and coaches with the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to benefit from new knowledge from some of the greatest minds that Canadian soccer has to offer.

Please join us at the West Ottawa Soccer Development Conference, and support quality programming for athletes and coaches.

Register now
Speakers
Agenda
Silent Auction

2009 WEST OTTAWA SOCCER DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE

Registration is now open for the 2009/2010 indoor soccer season.  Almonte Soccer Club has partnered with Kanata Soccer, Goulbourn Soccer, and West Carleton Soccer Clubs (West Ottawa Soccer) for the indoor program, and all players will follow the Kanata Soccer program curriculum.

Registration is being coordinated through Kanata Soccer's website (see links below).  Space is limited, so please register asap!  Click here to learn more about the program, fees, dates, locations, etc.