| Indoor soccer offers year-round
experience From: Rapid City Journal
By: Lynn Taylor
Rick, Journal staff Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Jim Phillips likes watching his
daughters play indoor soccer for several reasons, one of
which is the climate control.
“It’s nice not to have to
freeze to death,” Phillips said, recalling a late
fall outdoor game that left him cheering in the cold,
pouring rain.
Last weekend, aside from the snowfall outside Rushmore
Plaza Civic Center, Phillips didn’t have to battle
any inclement weather during the Winter Classic Indoor
Tournament.
The annual tournament, sponsored by the Rushmore Soccer
Club, drew between 800 and 1,000 soccer players from the
Black Hills, Pierre, Wyoming, Nebraska and other
surrounding areas. The tournament hosted players, both
boys and girls, in divisions U10 to U19.
Indoor soccer tournaments have become a significant draw
in the past 12 years for local players and parents who
want their children to have year-round soccer experience.
Rushmore Soccer Club, Spearfish Soccer Club and Rapid
City Youth Soccer League all offer indoor soccer leagues.
Aside from the warmth and comfort in the stands, Phillips
likes the pace of indoor soccer. “I like the speed
of the game. … It’s a little more of a skilled
game,” he said.
Indoor soccer is played on a variety of field sizes, with
most being about the size of a basketball court. When
teams play on the fields at the civic center, a special
plastic floor is laid down. At West and South middle
schools, teams play on the basketball court.
Each team puts five players on the field, including the
goalie. Lineups vary depending upon coaches, but often,
players get the chance to sample different positions,
said Mark Vargo, the boys president of Rushmore Soccer
Club and coach of the U12 Rushmore boys team. Because the
playing field is smaller, the game is fast and players
must learn to be proficient in all their
soccer skills, Vargo said.
“It really forces you to be very good with your
dribbling and very accurate with your passing,” he
said. “Kids have to work on different parts of the
game.”
If, in outdoor soccer, a player is especially fast and
accustomed to outrunning other players to score, he will
have to develop his dribbling even more to score in
indoor soccer, Vargo said.
“Indoors, you’re going to have to dribble.
There’s not enough room to outrun people,”
Vargo said. “The indoor season is about learning the
game, learning some different techniques.”
Brian Pitts, director of coaching for the South Dakota
State Soccer Association, said coaches like indoor soccer
for just that reason: It encourages kids to develop all
of their soccer moves.
“It really accentuates the need to be proficient
with your individual skills,” he said. “It puts
many more requirements on the player.”
Phillips is convinced that indoor soccer makes a
difference for players when they return to the outdoor
seasons. He can see it.
“In the spring, you can tell the difference,”
he said. “Their footwork is better. They’re not
scared to make the big passes.”
For now, Phillips plans to continue enjoying the comfort
of the indoor stands as long as his daughters, Abigail
and Emma, want to play indoor soccer. He sees it as a
positive thing; it’s a chance for his daughters to
grow on the soccer field and for him to enjoy a little
soccer without the unpredictable South Dakota weather. .
“It’s been quiet a good learning experience
… and it is fun,” he said.
Contact Lynn Taylor Rick at 394-8414 or lynn.taylorrick@rapidcityjournal.com.
Original Article Webpage: Rapid CIty Journal
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