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Triangle youth soccer program giving kids a competitive EDGE

Soccer lifer Mark Girard founded EDGE Soccer Programs and has worked out a system to train kids of all ages and skill levels.

Posted Updated

By
Kevin Kuzminski
, WRAL multiplatform producer
MORRISVILLE, N.C. — What a great sight it is to see kids back on the field being able to play soccer again, especially when most of the past year was spent socially distanced.

Soccer lifer Mark Girard founded EDGE Soccer Programs and has worked out a system to train kids of all ages and skill levels.

“We have a placement for them at the beginning of the year, we figure out where they go, then we put them into groups. And if we see a child that needs to be pushed harder and challenged more, we move them up into a different group,” he said.

Girard has put together a staff of college and professional players to provide each child with the attention they deserve.

“They’re all very experienced. They all have a passion for the sport, but they also have a passion for the kids and making the next respectful generation of young adult,” Girard said.

One of those coaches is DJ Taylor, who’s currently playing for Minnesota United in the MLS.

“From a soccer standpoint, you’re not going to get any better coaching in the area, for sure,” Taylor said.

And the coaches aren’t just qualified, they’re abundant. And that’s the ultimate key to how they can really give the players – an edge.

“In outdoor soccer, the kids get together, you might have 13 kids and one coach, but you come into EDGE, you have four coaches to possibly 8-12 kids, so the ratio is much better,” said Laura Berra, the parent to an EDGE student.

“I think a lot of kids nowadays, with the ratio being the other way, where there’s a ton of kids and one coach, it’s not good, because kids aren’t learning as much with specifically what they need to do,” Taylor added.

But what’s funny is, the more WRAL asked these coaches about soccer, the more they wanted to talk about the bigger picture.

“Soccer is just our tool to teach life skills,” Girard said.

How do they do it? As a family.

“Everybody there is one big family. We all work together to help their kids grow and achieve, whether that’s soccer, whether that’s off the field, whatever it is,” Taylor said.

And just like any family, they support each other. Like sending Taylor a care package after he got drafted in February.

“It was great, I was really surprised,” Taylor said with a smile. “The kids wrote me a whole bunch of cards. It was honestly very bittersweet because I had gotten really close with a lot of kids there.”

But also like any family, there’s tough times. None tougher than the pandemic.

"It was a complete shutdown. It hurt us,” Girard said. “We were impacted probably over 50% loss of revenue.”

The training took on a different look

“When COVID first hit, we ran sessions with just the coaches, and we put them on videos and sent them to all the kids, made them available through our Youtube channel,” Girard said.

That method has continued even as some players return to the pitch.

“Once COVID happened, they could only have a certain number [of students] in, they had to come in at a certain time, the thermometer check, the hand sanitizer, [but] wearing the mask has been the biggest difficulty, because it’s hard to do things athletically, physically when you’re wearing that mask,” Girard said.

As the COVID curve dips, the training persists. As does the growth.

“Whoever comes to EDGE, your kid is going to grow. Whether that’s on the field or off the field,” Taylor said. “Obviously, we have kids who want to be professionals one day, but we also who just want to be there to play soccer and get better.”

The kids target the coaches as their favorite part of EDGE.

“The coaches, first of all, are very fun and funny and just a ton of fun to be around and I’ve learned so much from them, and they’re all incredible soccer players, which helps us learn a lot,” EDGE student Elena Berra said. “I’ve met some new people who are really nice, and I’ve made some friends.”

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