By Sport Nova Scotia Communications
For the past two years, the Mahone Bay United (MBU) Soccer Association has offered Soccability play sessions, which are all-inclusive, all-ability soccer sessions designed for kids with neurodivergence and physical impairments.
And with coaches being a large part of this program, and all sports programs, MBU wanted to provide coaches with an opportunity to further their understanding and competencies to better support the needs of their athletes and community members.
Late last year, with support from Sport Nova Scotia’s community-based EDIA Funding and in partnership with Autism Nova Scotia Southshore, they held an adapted soccer plus neurodiversity coaches workshop for their coaches and others in the community. This training session was facilitated by the co-founder of Soccability Canada, John Clubb.
“It’s really interesting because there’s no magic sauce to it. The main thing is creating a place of belonging and a safe place for players and their families,” says MBU’s Soccability lead Brian Limoyo. “I think the biggest thing I learned is that as a coach you have to create the atmosphere that offers that opportunity for the players to be engaged or disengaged in a safe place.”
In practice this can look like letting athletes participate when they want to and allowing them to step back if they are feeling overwhelmed or overloaded. Sometimes it might mean they lie down somewhere safe and are brought back into the game when they are ready.
“Some of the players, in terms of development, it’s incredible. They’ve started in a place of complete disengagement and now they’re dribbling, they’re shooting and they have the things that they love doing in soccer,” says Brian.
One player who has benefited from Soccability and its coaches is 10-year-old Louis Kenny. At first Louis was playing soccer with another group, but when his family heard about MBU’s Soccability play program, they were interested in its inclusiveness, as Louis has some difficulties around keeping his attention and staying engaged.
“We decided to pop into one of their sessions and it was just a really positive experience,” says Louis’ father Neil Kenny. “You know, they were really engaging with Louis, they gave him a lot of attention, and he was quite engaged with the whole thing. What really drew us back was Louis was excited.”
Louis recently finished his second round of the Soccability play program and with the confidence he gained he has now joined the teen group. The teen group focuses more on skills and small-sided games, which are games with fewer players and a smaller playing area compared to a traditional game.
And throughout Louis’ time with MBU, Neil says the coaches have been great.
“It is their empathy and their engagement with the kids and giving them that attention and positivity. They are just really putting forth a positive message and trying to keep the kids engaged and excited about playing soccer.”
Wes Johnston, who first joined MBU’s Sunday adult co-ed soccer drop ins, was recruited by Brian to coach with the youth programming. He took the adapted soccer plus neurodiversity coaches workshop in October, making it his second training session with John Clubb for the Soccability program.
“I would say I took away a fresh confidence in creating strategies to meet people where they are, regardless of what barriers they’re facing and you don’t really know what any individual may be coming up against that is preventing them from accessing sport,” says Wes.
When he was younger Wes says he had negative experiences in both hockey and soccer in that they were competitive in ways that he felt didn’t necessarily foster excellence or engagement. That is why he believes so strongly in the type of environment MBU provides.
“Keeping sport fun is absolutely important. It’s both important to young people engaging with it to begin with and then sticking with it. And it’s also important twofold in the development of professional athletes, because the more fun it is, the more likely you are to stay with it,” says Wes.
On top of MBU’s winter programming being all-ability programming, participants are under no obligation to pay. Plus, MBU’s year-round adult co-ed soccer drop-in program welcomes people of all skill levels and also allows athletes to provide a small pay-to-play donation to support the youth programs.
To learn more about MBU programming, readers can visit their website here: MAHONE BAY UNITED – OUR CLUB
And to learn about Sport Nova Scotia funding opportunities, readers can visit Sport Nova Scotia’s website: Funding – Sport Nova Scotia
