“
We are the only place in the region that will
offer this opportunity and we think it’s impor-
tant,” said Daly, who noted the idea for TOP-
Soccer was proposed to FC Peoria by a young
couple new to the area that has a child with
special needs. The program’s goal is to “enable
young athletes with disabilities to have fun
through soccer as well as develop their physical
fitness, skills, courage and self-esteem,” the FC
Peoria website states.
TOPSoccer will be free and is for kids ages 5
to 12. It will be an indoor
program, Daly said. For
more information on it
visit fcpeoria.org.
Peoria Notre Dame’s
coach Bare said the skills
and fitness children are
learning through the vari-
ous youth leagues are im-
portant once they reach the
high school level. Fitness
is a mainstay of his own
teams, he said at the end
of a recent practice when
his players jogged with in-
termittent sprints of up to 10 or 15 seconds. That
exercise went on the last 12 minutes of that prac-
tice with the aim and getting players used to the
type of movement in a typical soccer game.
“
We’re very big on fitness here and it really is
a big part of our success. We know that one way
to beat a team that may be better than us is to
run them into the ground. We do that by being
more physically fit than the other team. That
kind of fitness is learned early and it carries
forward,” he said.
PHOTO BY KEN BROOKE
27
THEPEORIAN.COM
