The Portuguese based elite training camp came to Terrace and trained different age groups of kids and young adults at Christy park.
Coaches from Portugal, the U.K. and Toronto trained the youth. João Rosmaninho, the Head Coach for the under 8 youth team shared about their coaching method.
He said, “it’s more thinking with with the brain, not only like go straight to the goal. So usually our methodology is based on decision making. So we like to put a lot of problems inside of each drill. And at the same time we put the tools inside of the drill and they need to solve it by themselves”.
Usually Rosmaninho coaches 100 to 150 kids. And this was his first time coaching more than 200 kids.
Families from all over the province and further came to the Terrace for this summer camp.
Perry Parmar from Prince George came to Terrace to have his daughter be a part of the camp. He loved that his daughter was getting international level coaching in Terrace. He also has family that lives in Terrace.
“That’s crazy. Like, these people came all the way from Portugal to here, to do this. So it’s pretty good for her, for her growing up. She’s up at 6:30 and ready to go. ”Let’s go play soccer. Let’s go play soccer." So, she’s loving it".
Another family, from Edmonton, said that as soon as they saw Benfica coming to Terrace, they decided to bring their two kids to the Summer Camp. They said, “Our youngest one is taking it very seriously. So it was worthwhile coming”.
Another academy coach, Ruben, said “I think the idea of this camp, obviously, is to have an experience and show the quality of what it looks like at the top level, and in Canada, it not all the time that players have the opportunity to have that experience where you’re you’re getting coached with coaches with top UEFA licensing. So I think it’s really important to take this experience across the week as, as like a grain of salt and have that experience to see where do I sit in the standings and see what do I need to do to improve?”
Lastly, the lead organizer, also the station manager of CFTK TV, Steve Pereira shared that a strong Portuguese community has helped bring a high number of kids to the camp. He said, “It’s primarily because we have such a huge Portuguese community here between Prince Rupert, Terrace, and Kitimat. You know, it’s we have high population base of Portuguese that have immigrated here years ago”.