LAKEWOOD RANCH — The English accents cutting through the heavy morning air at the Lakewood Ranch soccer fields this week are from Leeds and Manchester and belong to Joey Morton and Tom Feighan, respectively.
Youngsters in the morning session of the Red Bull New York camp at Lakewood Ranch not only get to absorb the soccer experience of these two young men who grew up in soccer-fanatic towns, but they get to listen to how English soccer players and fans talk.
“Come on now, level the score,” Morton yelled to 10-year-old Travis Butcher from Imagine Charter school in Lakewood Ranch, who was trying to score against Jade Adams in a one-on-one drill.
Morton and Feighan work for Red Bull New York, which is one of 15 teams that comprise Major League Soccer in the United States.
Based in New Jersey, the men live in the United States for nine months and are basically hired to develop soccer all over the country.
This week Red Bull has partnered with Braden River Soccer Club to offer a one-week camp through Friday for roughly 65 youths at the soccer fields next to Lakewood Ranch High.
Forty students are enrolled in a more competitive camp during the evenings and 25 in a morning recreational camp.
Morton and Feighan conducted drills on the soccer field and took many water breaks with the kids, at which time the talk turned to soccer in the United States.
“A lot of kids don’t care for soccer,” said Andrew Deitz, 9, who attends Tara Elementary and was proudly wearing an L.A. Galaxy jersey with star player David Beckham’s name stitched on the back. “One kid I know gets upset whenever I mention it.”
“That’s because there’s no history of the sport here,” Morton said. “Parents didn’t grow up playing it.”
Beckham, perhaps the most famous soccer name in the United States, has been playing for AC Milan in Italy, but he’s coming back to the Galaxy and returning for a July game against the Red Bulls. These campers will all get a Red Bulls ball and T-shirt and a ticket to a Red Bulls game and the opportunity to play on the Giants Stadium field prior to a game.
Sydney Wicks, 9, a Row-lett Elementary School student who is a member of the Braden River Soccer Club and has been playing soccer since she was 4, was a standout Tuesday.
With her blonde hair flying around her face, Sydney explodes on defense, aggressively challenging for the ball each time during drills. On offense, she’s like a mini-twister.
“She’s fast, and she’s tough,” Dylan Gordon, 8, from Freedom Elementary, said of Sydney.
As for Sydney, she says there are several reasons why soccer is her game.
“It’s different from most sports,” she said. “You just use your feet. And it’s fast. I like it.”
Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 708-7917.
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