Cal State East Bay has made it an annual summer tradition to conduct soccer camps as part of an initiative from Pioneer Athletics soccer to train young kids to become better soccer players.

For the past two weekends, there have been soccer camps conducted at the CSUEB Hayward campus. Last week the camp was for kids from ages 8-14 and this week the camp will be for kids who play for the under 15 and under 16 age divisions.

“The soccer camps help these children to become well versed in the sport and also being trained by our coaches,” Juan Alfaro, a defender on the CSUEB men’s soccer team said. “They get to learn new skills and strategies to use during their matches.”

Last week the children were less motivated to play and only wanted to have some fun, but this week the kids wanted to improve their soccer skills and that is why they had taken time from their summer vacation to participate in this camp explained Alfaro.

“Last weekend was the most annoying three days of my life,” Steven Morgan, goalkeeper on the CSUEB men’s soccer team said. “Because they showed no passion for the sport that I treasure dearest to my heart. But this week was a more satisfying week as these kids showed a lot of passion for the sport and also corrected their mistakes very swiftly.”

The coaches of CSUEB ask their team members to volunteer for the soccer camps and act as the guide or resident advisor for the kids participating in the camps.

“We train hard to better ourselves,” Under 16 team member Gerardo Cortez said. “There is no point in coming to this camp and just strolling around doing nothing, I could do that sitting at home. I want to train and improve myself so that I could become a professional soccer player one day.”

Many of these kids have the same ambition as Cortez. These kids are ambitious with the hope of playing in the major leagues some day and camps like these can help them reach their goals.