RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley women’s soccer team coached 40 girls ages 9 to 18 during a free youth clinic at Brownsville Sports Park on Saturday.
“It’s great. When I interviewed for this job, our administration talked about the whole Valley being our community. This is my first time in Brownsville and I’m really impressed and excited to see so many young ladies here,” year of first head coach Mark Foster said. “I’ve enjoyed talking to some of the parents and even had some local coaches out, so that’s great. We feel very supported.”
Participants were divided into three groups based on age and rotated through six stations, working for 12 minutes at each. They received tips and advice from Vaqueros players at skill stations where they worked on dribbling and passing. They had the chance to try scoring on the Vaqueros in a shooting station and did other competitive drills like 1v1 and 2v2 and had a live game station as well.
“I always want it to be fun. When we walk off the field today, I want every girl to say she had fun,” Foster said.
After the camp, the Vaqueros spent time signing autographs, taking pictures and chatting with the participants. Foster hopes the young women find people to look up to in his players, and he was proud to see the Vaqueros serving the community.
“Sometimes we can get caught up in seeing them as single players, so it was great to see our girls having so much fun and to see them serve,” Foster said. “We try to emphasize to the players that being a Division I student-athlete comes with responsibilities and these younger girls are looking up to them. We have a lot of girls on the team that are from the Valley and a couple from this. We hope they see him and think, ‘That could be me one day.'”
UTRGV soccer will return to Brownsville next Saturday, Aug. 13, as the men’s team plays an exhibition game against St. Louis.
The Vaqueros women’s team opens its season at home against Texas A&M International on August 19 at 6:30 pm at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex in Edinburg. Admission is free to all UTRGV home football contests.
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