- September 7, 2024
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A young girl scores a goal against the opposing team in a soccer scrimmage match. Photo by Sierra Williams
Two boys in the 8-13-year-old group compete for the ball during a match at the FPC youth soccer camp. Photo by Sierra Williams
Two boys in the 8-13-year-old group compete for the ball during a match at the FPC youth soccer camp. Photo by Sierra Williams
The FPC youth soccer camp allowed children to play soccer with students on FPC's soccer teams. Photo by Sierra Williams
The FPC youth soccer camp allowed children to play soccer with students on FPC's soccer teams. Photo by Sierra Williams
The FPC youth soccer camp allowed children to play soccer with students on FPC's soccer teams. Photo by Sierra Williams
FPC soccer players coach the kids at the youth soccer camp through the matches. Photo by Sierra Williams
FPC soccer players coach the kids at the youth soccer camp through the matches. Photo by Sierra Williams
FPC soccer players coach the kids at the youth soccer camp through the matches. Photo by Sierra Williams
The players of one match line up after a goal, waiting for the ball to return to play. Photo by Sierra Williams
A goalie for the 5-7 age group braces to block an incoming ball. Photo by Sierra Williams
The 5-7-year-olds played separately from the older children. Photo by Sierra Williams
FPC soccer coach Ramtin Amiri works with the 5-7-year-old children at the soccer camp. Photo by Sierra Williams
The soccer camp's teams were a mix of boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 13, with a separate group for the 5- to 7-year-olds. Photo by Sierra Williams
An FPC soccer player coaches the kids through the matches. Photo by Sierra Williams
A goalie for the 5-7 age group blocks a goal. Photo by Sierra Williams
An FPC soccer player congratulates his young teammate after scoring a successful goal. Photo by Sierra Williams
An FPC soccer player coaches the kids through the matches. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler Palm Coast High School’s soccer coach Ramtin Amiri said he wanted to host a youth soccer camp to help connect Palm Coast’s younger children to the sport and to the FPC soccer teams.
The four-day camp ran from July 8-11 for 5-13-year-olds. Amiri, a former FPC student and soccer player, said participating in a youth soccer camp wasn't an opportunity available to him while he was at FPC.
“[This] was a chance to introduce [the kids] to our program and just give back to the community a little bit and let them get out there and have fun,” he said. “We're doing this so that the kids actually have somewhere to play soccer, even if they've never played before.”
Over 30 kids enrolled in the camp and ten FPC soccer players volunteered their time to help coach them. Amiri said the camp started out each day with ball drills and then moved to soccer matches.
The kids are split into groups — 5- to 7-year-olds and 8- to 13-year-olds — for the matches. While the youngest group stays amongst its own players, Amiri had the other group divided into four teams of varying ages, which then played against each other in a tournament throughout the camp.
FPC students Noah Daily and Rami Amiri are both on the boys’ soccer team. They said volunteering with the camp was a way for them to help out the future of FPC’s soccer teams.
“These kids are young so we want to [help] them build and get better as they grow older, so maybe they can play on the team when they're older as well,” Rami Amiri said.
Daily, who plays midfield on the team, said he’s been coaching at soccer camps geared toward younger kids for about three years. He said he enjoys experiencing and helping develop the younger soccer programs in the city.
Coach Ramtin Amiri said he hopes to inspire a love of soccer with the younger children in Palm Coast.
“We're just trying to bring back the love of soccer in Palm Coast,” Amiri said. “I feel like we've lost it a little bit.”
At FPC, he said, he’s noticed that the boys’ soccer teams had lower enrollment numbers over the last few years. By engaging younger kids with the sport, he said, he hopes to they can “fall in love with the game early on.”
Even on the first day, he said he saw a difference. One of the children whose mother signed him up for the camp told Amiri that he didn’t like soccer, Amiri said. By the end of the day, Amiri said, the boy was running around and having fun with everyone else.
“We made sure that every kid left having fun,” Amiri said.
