Youth soccer is alive and kicking. Interest in the sport is at its highest level ever, with more than 19 million boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 19 playing the game on everything from city streets to grass and dirt fields across America. To accommodate the growing number of kids in the Lake Norman area who may want to become the next David Beckham or Abby Wambach, the Lake Norman Soccer Club has expanded its programs to make the game available and accessible as it begins a new season.

Competitive youth soccer
According to Mike Couch, president and director of operations of the Lake Norman Soccer Club, the group traces its roots to 1976, when the area’s first select team, the Iredell Rowdies, was established.

“Organized soccer wasn’t popular when I first moved to the area years ago,” he says. “When the South Iredell Soccer Association began an inclusive recreation program, both the popularity of the game and the number of boys and girls who wanted to play at a more competitive level began to grow around Lake Norman. From that recreational league, there was an interest in increasing the competition, and that’s when the first select team was started.”

As the population of Lake Norman continued to grow, so did the interest in the Iredell Rowdies. By the 1980s, the Rowdies had established a formal challenge program – a more competitive level of soccer in which players try out for a limited number of spots on a team – for both boys and girls to augment the recreational leagues. The Iredell Regional Soccer Association became the host of all the competitive teams around the lake and, in 2001, the name of the organization was changed to the Lake Norman Soccer Club .

The 2007 season began with the highest number of registered players to date – more than 330 boys and girls. Teams practice twice a week in Mooresville and Statesville and play weekend games not only in the Piedmont region but across the state and throughout the Southeast, as well. The group is a member of the North Carolina Youth Soccer Association, which has more than 55,000 registered players and more than 8,000 registered coaches.

The club conducts its annual tryouts in late May and early June, and competition begins in September. The club also conducts individual tryouts during the season for families new to the area or those who might be interested in joining for the first time. “When new families move to the area from parts of the country where their kids have played select soccer, we are one of the first calls the parents make when they get here and want to get involved,” Couch says.

Beyond winning and losing
There’s more to the game than winning and losing, Couch says. “My personal philosophy is to create the environment where kids can learn, grow and develop as soccer players and valued contributors to their community by the life skills they learn with us. Soccer is such a wonderful game on so many levels, and the benefits of kids playing on a team are incredible.”

Chip Warner, a former professional player for the Rochester Rhinos and Roanoake Wrath, as well as a former coach at Cornell and Colgate universities, is the club’s new director of soccer. He believes the lessons of soccer translate to excellence in life. “Learning through the game becomes very easy because there are many life lessons soccer presents,” he says. “One lesson is being able to work with others that share the same common goal; another is being able to make split-second decisions while being faced with adversity, and a third would be to place the team’s goals before your own individual goals.”

Warner also believes that soccer teaches the important lesson of discipline and allows a player to develop a balance of athletics, academics and social interaction with others.

Before the 2007 season began, the club added Godwin Iwelumo to the staff as director of training. Iwelumo, who played with the Nigerian National World Cup and Olympic teams between 1975 and 1978, stresses the physical benefits of the game and notes the crucial role physical education plays in developing the player, person and student.

“Research supports the importance of developing both the mind and body,” he says. “Soccer is a game that involves lots of movement and, as a result, contributes to the development of the physical competence and fitness. Playing soccer helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints. It helps control weight, and it builds lean muscles and reduces fat, but most importantly it promotes lifelong health habits.”

By balancing a program of competition, camaraderie, social responsibility and good conduct, the Lake Norman Soccer Club continues to make great strides. “My goal is to get our program to the point where kids don’t have to travel as much to Charlotte or Raleigh to play on a winning program,” Couch says. “By winning, I don’t necessarily mean wins and losses on the field either. While we are now at the point where some of our teams are right on the border of playing at the premier level, winning also means offering a nurturing environment where kids can reach their own potential.”

About the Lake Norman Soccer Club
The Lake Norman Soccer Club is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization whose programs include team formation and team building for competition at the local, state, regional and national level, coaching clinics open to all coaches, licensing courses for coaches, weekly goal keeping sessions open to all players, skills sessions, individual training and team camps, college recruitment information and contacts, health, nutrition, and fitness resources, It includes Special Olympics programs and community programs designed to help underprivileged children, special partnerships and presentations to local schools and the local community. The mission of the Lake Norman Soccer Club is to provide a supportive environment that encourages the development of the skills and character enabling each player to fulfill their potential as an athlete, team player and leader on and off the field through competitive youth soccer.

To learn more about the Lake Norman Soccer Club, visit www.lakenormansoccerclub.com or call (704) 799-0800.

Want to Go?
The 17th annual Lake Norman Soccer Club Fall Classic Soccer Tournament will be Nov. 17-18. It will include more than 160 teams and nearly 2,000 players from across North Carolina, as well as Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

Game locations

Gordon Hurley Soccer Complex
1150 Majolica Road, Salisbury

Lake Norman High School
186 Doolie Road, Mooresville

Lakeshore Middle School
244 Lakeshore School Drive, Mooresville

Mooresville High School
659 E. Center Ave., Mooresville

Mooresville Intermediate School
233 Kistler Farm Road, Mooresville

South Elementary School
839 Magnolia St., Mooresville

Statesville Soccer Complex
2012 Simonton Road, Statesville

Stumpy Creek Park
332 Stumpy Creek Road, Mooresville

For more information, visit www.lakenormansoccerclub.com, call 704-799-0800 or email tournament@lakenormansoccerclub.com.