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Soccer camp looks far afield for its coaches

Paul Huckett stood at the edge of a soccer field, urging his players to get ready for their biggest test - a championship game.

Huckett watches Kyle Schoener, 10, of Jenkintown, boot the ball. "Back in England, all they want to do is play in games," Huckett says. "Here, they want to practice more."
Huckett watches Kyle Schoener, 10, of Jenkintown, boot the ball. "Back in England, all they want to do is play in games," Huckett says. "Here, they want to practice more."Read moreED HILLE / Staff Photographer

Paul Huckett stood at the edge of a soccer field, urging his players to get ready for their biggest test - a championship game.

"OK, lads, let's go," Huckett yelled to his campers.

His 20 players, ages 5 to 12, had been preparing for this moment all week, practicing four hours each day. They weren't ready for the stadiums of London just yet, but the green fields of Alverthorpe Park would do just fine.

Niv Swartz, 11, was revved up for last week's match. "It was exciting to see how everybody played after being in camp for the week."

His brother Itai, 8, agreed. The two boys and the friends they had made were getting ready for their championship "World Cup" soccer game after instruction from Huckett, imported from the British Isles this summer to teach them the skills of the game.

Huckett and other British coaches are working for World Cup Soccer Camp, a day camp offered by the United Soccer Academy each summer in Abington. This group and its sister company, the U.S. Sports Institute, work to pair British coaches with children who want to learn soccer - or football, as the game is called in most parts of the world.

"Back in England, all they want to do is play in games," said Huckett, 24, who is from Grimsby, South Humberside. "Here, they want to practice more and kick a ball around."

The USSI offers staffing for the sports camps of numerous American community-based organizations. Abington Township has hosted the camps all summer and, according to the Web site www.ussportsinstitute.com. another World Cup Soccer Camp is planned Aug. 17-21.

The program, like many others across the United States, brings in counselors from different countries who contribute to the overall camp experience.

"I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people to get to know each other," said Jackee Swartz, of Rydal, the grandmother of Niv and Itai.

Swartz said her grandsons came all the way from Ness Ziona, Israel, to participate in the camp this year. Both had attended the camp last summer and loved it so much that they begged their parents to let them sign up again.

Swartz, who set up a chair to watch the big match last week, thinks that the coaching is high quality and that her grandsons are getting an international perspective. The camp teaches them that "people are the same no matter what country they are from."

The camp is among a growing number of youth programs hiring from overseas. According to the American Camp Association, an estimated 26,000 international staff members worked at camps throughout the United States in 2008.

"There are a number of recruiting companies that most camps work with," said Ellen Warren, spokeswoman for the American Camp Association, Keystone Section.

Warren said some of the programs also have assisted U.S. coaches and teachers who wanted to work overseas, offering help with visas and living arrangements.

"It builds a terrific international, diverse community," she said.

This is Huckett's first summer with the program, although he has lived in the United States for about four years. He received a master's degree at Lock Haven University while on a soccer scholarship. He is being housed in Drexel Hill with other coaches from the United Kingdom, including Sean Graves, who helped run the World Cup Soccer Camp.

Graves, 20, worked for and received his coaching qualifications from a professional club in England. He "fancied a change," so he left his home in Rotherham and has been here since March, coaching young American soccer players.

"Kids appreciate it here," Graves said. "It is rare kids get to play."

The Swartz boys are all about playing. They were pumped up for the championship match, and even more so for the events to follow.

Over by the water bottles and empty lunch boxes were plastic guns just waiting to be used. For all of their sweat and hard work, the kids would be rewarded at the end of the day - with a water fight.