1. It’s a combination of things,
Magic F.C. director Jason Spain
said.
“We’re organized,” said Spain,
also Minot State’s women’s soccer
coach. “This coaching staff is
organized. Our soccer leadership
and board is organized, and they
have one vision. ... It’s a collective
thing, and when your start winning
a little bit, you kids more kids to
come out for soccer.”
Sure, titles are always a good
selling point for prospective ath-
letes.
But even beyond that, the Magic
F.C. coaching staff strives to culti-
vate a love and appreciation for the
game.
That strategy seems to be work-
ing.
When Spain arrived in Minot
six years ago, the Minot Soccer
Association fielded roughly 200
children from ages 4-18, including
participation in both competitive
and non-competitive divisions.
“Currently, we’re pushing up to
1,000 children that are playing,”
said Michelle Weishaur, the soccer
association’s sixth-year president.
“We’re really stretching out and
reaching a lot of families, and I
think over the last couple years,
we’ve really organized ourselves in
makingsurethattheprogram isrun
well and that we’re meeting a need,
that we’re able to help the children
play, learn the game and have fun
doing it.”
Spain and his coaching staff —
including seasoned members of his
own staff at Minot State — work
year-round with Minot’s aspiring
soccer players. Under Spain’s
supervision, each coach is tasked
with training particular teams.
Ages 9-10
Development and training tac-
tics mature as the players do.
So, for Minot State assistant
coach Aaron Daley — who trains
U-9 and U-10 boys teams for Magic
F.C. — the job is to provide guid-
ance and instruction at the most
basic level.
Withkidsstilllearningthefunda-
mentals,thefocusatthoselevelsisn’t
devoted to tactics and team strategy.
“We’re just trying to teach them
to have a touch, basically,” said
Daley, in his sixth year at MSU.
“Playing one-v.-one is what we
want them to be able to do at that
age, be able to take someone on and
be able to defend somebody one-
on-one.
“Plus you have to make it fun for
the kids, too.”
Magic F.C. places an emphasis
on ensuring playing time for all of
its participants, particularly for
their youngest players. That’s why
Daley — along with all Magic F.C.
coaches — split their respective
pools of athletes into multiple
teams when possible, allowing for
more open participation through-
out the entire club.
“You see other teams bring as
many as 12 kids for a U-9 game.
With that many kids, there’s no
way everyone’s going to get in, and
some kids will only get about five
minutes,” said Daley, who fields
multiple teams at both the U-9 and
U-10 levels. “That does nothing for
the development. ... We like to split
our teams so everyone gets as much
playing time as we can give. That’s
our biggest focus at the younger age
groups.”
Minot’s U-9 and U-10 boys
teams won state indoor titles last
weekend, both times winning the
championship over Dickinson
Soccer Club. Minot’s U-10 and U-9
girls teams respectively finished
second and third last weekend
whilecompetinginthesamebrack-
et, falling short to Bismarck’s
Dakota United.
Ages 11-12
With basic skills training
already established, Minot’s pre-
teen players are introduced to a
new kind of training.
At the younger age groups, basic
ball skills are paramount. As devel-
opment continues, team interaction
and passing take a central role in
how players are coached.
“The 11s and 12s are in a real
transition period, because at first
you’re training to train. Now they’re
learning how to train to compete,”
said MSU assistant coach Nate
Gutierrez, who also coaches U-12
boys. “Right now, we’re teaching
them how to use what we learn in
training and apply it in games, and
using the intensity we exert in
Soccer
Continued from Page C1
Sports
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Minot U-12 goalkeeper Josie Brezenski helped her team
to the championship on March 22 at the MSU Dome.
By JOE MELLENBRUCH
Staff Writer
jmellenbruch@minotdailynews.com
Before beginning her col-
lege career at the University
of Great Falls (Mont.) this
fall, Minot High defender
Malena Lennon is making a
European pit stop.
A fourth-year starter for
the Majettes’ back line,
Lennon will travel with
American International
Sports Teams (AIST) — an
organization that has been
taking top-level athletes to
compete in international
tournaments since 2002 —
on June 15 for a 10-day soc-
cer tournament in Austria.
She’ll join the Argos less
than two months later, with
just under two weeks of
international experience
under her belt.
“I’m really looking for-
ward to it, because practice
makes perfect,” said Lennon,
who scored the game-win-
ning goal in a 1-0, fifth-place
victory over Bismarck at the
state tournament last spring.
“I feel like this will help me
better my game so I’m a little
more prepared for college,
being able to go up against
some older girls.”
AIST travels yearly with
various athletic teams —
including baseball, softball
and lacrosse — to as many as
22 different countries
throughout the world.
Currently preparing for
her final season with the
Majettes, Lennon will be
North Dakota’s lone respre-
sentative on the AIST team.
She’s hoping her interna-
tional experience can help
improve her “overall control
of the ball” ahead of colle-
giate competition.
Lennon’s soccer career
took off as a result of Minot
Magic Football Club.
Her family moved to
Minot in 2007, and at the
time, Lennon was far from
committed to the idea of con-
tinuing her soccer career.
That’s when Minot State
coach Jason Spain stepped
in.
“I wasn’t big into soccer,
but a coach reached out to
me and asked if I’d play for
the traveling team,” Lennon
said. “The coach was Jason
Spain, and he put me on
track to really love the game
and want to go somewhere
with it.”
Under Spain’s direction,
Lennon and her U-14 team
took first at the Schwan’s
USA Cup — an international
tournament based in Blaine,
Minn. — in 2010, a team also
containing Minot High
starters Taryn Love and
Teasha Hughes. That cham-
pionship remains the most
significant tournament win
in the history of Minot youth
soccer.
Similar to Lennon’s expe-
rience, Magic F.C. coaches
are adamant with their teams
in cultivating a love for the
game.
That’s the only way to go,
Lennon said.
“You can learn the game
and everything, but you
won’t want to continue play-
ing if you don’t have passion
for it,” Lennon said. “With
the coaches teaching that,
it’ll keep those kids playing
soccer down the line and
help continue to grow the
program.”
Minot’s Lennon preparing for international tournament
Ryan Holmgren/MDN
Minot High defender Malena Lennon will
join the American International Sports
Teams organization this summer for a 10-day
tournament in Austria.
training to try and pick up the
tempo in games.”
Minot fielded two boys teams
in the U12 division last weekend
at the MSU Dome. They finished
1-2 in the same bracket, with
Gutierrez’s sqaud finishing run-
ner-up to Minot coach Chris
Lamb’s “red” team in a 5-2 cham-
pionship result. Youngster Jordin
Lennon scored two goals for
Lamb’s squad in the win, includ-
ing a flicked-on header into the
top corner midway through the
first half.
Minot’s U-12 girls — coached by
MSU assistant Miguel Arriaga —
brought home Magic F.C.’s lone
female title. Minot defeated Fargo’s
Tri City Storm Soccer Club in a 6-1
title-clinching final score.
While team passing is far from
the finished product at the U11 and
U12 levels, players exhibit a clear
desire to interchange with team-
mates, keeping their heads up
while looking for an incisive pass.
Signs of progress.
“Fundamentally, they’re already
pretty well trained,” Gutierrez said.
“Now we’re teaching them how to
play to win.”
Said Spain: “If you look at it,
we’re pretty good at U15s down on
the boys side, and U15s down on
the girls side. You just have to give
those guys a little more time.”
Teenage years and beyond
With all this success for Magic
F.C., where are the titles for Minot
High?
Just wait, Spain said.
“In a couple years, you’ll see it
translate into the high school, and I
think you’re going to start seeing the
high school start completely domi-
nating the state,” he said. “We’re
quite a bit better at these younger
ages.”
Said Daley: “For the U15s on
down, we have a fingerprint on
their development, and every other
age group is fully loaded for the
future.”
After a winless effort at the state
tournament in October, Minot’s
boys team is still nearly a decade
removed from its last state title in
2006, while the Majettes — who
took fifth last season — are still
searching for their first following a
runner-up finish five years ago.
But Magic F.C. coaches are con-
fident. Their influence at the varsi-
ty level isn’t far from being noticed.
“That (U-16 boys) group is one
of our better groups. That’s one of
the first groups we started with
when Jason arrived,” Daley said.
“Everyone older than that was
coached up before we started in
Minot. But I think you’ll start seeing
it this year, for sure on the boys
side.”
As for the girls?
“They could win state this year,”
said Arriaga, who coaches girls
teams from the U-12 to U-18 levels.
“You only need one or two kids to
change a program, and right now,
our game-changers are 15 and 16
years old.”
Minot’s U-16 boys team won the
state indoor title over Dickinson last
weekend, while Minot’s girls fell
short to Tri Cities in the final.
Love the game
Magic F.C. coaches deliberate
over training tactics and club plan-
ning on an almost-daily basis. They
discuss player development and
upcoming tournaments.
Yet despite the age groups they
coach, despite the success their
teams enjoy, one thing is constant.
“At the youth ages, I think we’re
really helping the kids not only
how to play the game, but how to
have fun with the game,” Gutierrez
said. “A lot of people don’t realize
just how important that is to a play-
er’s development.”
It’s a simple concept: If you don’t
enjoy doing something, chances are
you’re likely to stop doing it.
Spain wants to see his youth
players coming back for more, and
his coaches have taken that mes-
sage to heart.
“If the kids love the game, the
parents are going to love the game,
too,” said Daley, a former all-state
midfielder in California. “My par-
ents hardly knew what soccer was
when I was growing up, but my
brothers and I were good at it, and
my parents were all on board.
“It changes like that. When your
kids love something and they’re
good at it, you’re going to want to
support them.”
Said Gutierrez: “If all the kids
are coming together and having a
good time with the sport, they’re
not only doing it in practice, but
they’re doing it on their own, too.
... Having that drive for the sport is
really what we’re trying to instill, a
passion and a love for the game.”
Joe Mellenbruch covers Minot
High sports, the Minot Minotauros
andgeneralassignments.Followhim
on Twitter @Mellenbruch_MDN.