The Briercrest College athletic department hosted the Caronport Elementary School (CES) Friday, March 24 for a morning of soccer teaching and games with the elementary school students.

Briercrest women’s soccer player Rebecca Soggie enjoyed the experience.

“Hanging out with the CES kids is always such an awesome time,” Soggie explained. “Being college students and all, we tend to get a little boring... Then these crazy kiddos bring their energy to compete with us and laugh, and sometimes they challenge us. I think we are reminded of the little kid that we once were, which a lot of us can agree once we tap into that inner child there's really no going back. These opportunities are really special for us as students and I'm sure for those elementary kids, too!”

CES teacher Miss S. Olson has enjoyed the partnership between the two institutions this year.

“The fourth meeting with our college sports friends was another great morning,” she said. “Seeing all the students working together to learn new skills and make stronger friendships was wonderful. Building community strengthens the bonds our students have. The college students were willing to go the extra mile to make sure that every student felt included and valued.”

A few CES Grade 6/7 students shared about the experience.

-I always felt included.

-Dribbling the soccer ball was hard but the games helped me learn how to do it.

-In the circle game it was fun to be in the middle to try to stop the others from passing the ball.

-The college students were awesome and were always pumped playing soccer with us.

-It was fun.

Briercrest men’s soccer player Caleb Mattatall shared his perspective on the morning.

“The CES soccer day went really well,” he explained. “A vast majority of the kids were involved and relatively on task for the whole morning. The kids who didn't want to play were being looked after by other members of our teams so they were not alone. The event was well organized and flowed together well from start to finish. No one was hurt and it seemed like everyone had a fun and enjoyable morning of learning about soccer.”

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