MILDURA Soccer Academy coach Lukas Pedder says wanting to get more kids involved in soccer was the motivation behind launching the academy.
The 2018 S-League (Sunraysia’s soccer competition) Most Valuable Player said he wanted to bring the world game to more young players, which led to him starting the academy.
“The big thing behind the academy is for me soccer has been my life, I’ve really missed it this year,” Pedder said.
“Since I’ve been up here I’ve wanted to get more kids involved.
About 130 players went through Sunday’s free introductory academy session at St Paul’s Primary on Sunday, with Mr Pedder saying from parent feedback there was quite a few newcomers.
“Almost 80 per cent of the kids who turned up on the day were not part of a team or had not played before,” he said.
“It was really good to see new faces getting involved in the sport and also a few parents wanting to get their kids active again.”
Pedder has experience with academies from his career in the sport.
“I started up a soccer academy back in 2006 with a mate in Melbourne, so I’ve been coaching for 15 years,” he said.
“That was inbetween when I was playing professional soccer overseas in Germany, Spain and England — while I was over there I was also doing some coaching with elite level kids through the clubs I was playing at.”
After Sunday’s introduction now Pedder is focussing on the next step forward.
“The free day was sort of an introduction, now we are launching a seven-week program that will run until the end of the year,” he said.
“We’ll be running pretty much every school term from now on extra skills training weekly sessions and eventually bringing in elite training for the people who are playing.
“Just onwards and upwards from here really.”
Pedder said he was looking into grant funding to help cover costs, on the back of the Victorian Government’s announcement of funding to get kids back into sport after the coronavirus lockdown.
More information on Mildura Soccer Academy can be found on the academy’s Facebook page.
