Barca Academy Camp Scores Big for Athletes and Coaches Alike
Great Hearts Academies January 5, 2024 -
Great Hearts Athletics hosted students aged 6 to 14 from across the Valley for the Barca Academy Phoenix Xmas Soccer Camp for the second consecutive year during winter break at Scottsdale Prep. The previous year marked the inaugural camp organized within the United States by the Barca Academy and their pro league partner, FC Barcelona, former home to soccer great and Time Magazine’s Athlete of the Year 2023, Lionel Messi.
Barca Academy Camps are dedicated to the training and enhancement of young soccer players’ sporting abilities. Managed by the Barca Academy in Barcelona, Spain, the camps feature coaches who provide a structured program, guidelines, and expertise. The recent camp at Scottsdale Prep included coaches from Barca Academies in Casa Grande, Australia, and Barcelona.
64 student athletes attended the camp this year, up from 39 attendees last year. Students from nearly all the Great Hearts Arizona academies came and had the opportunity to experience the Barca way of training while forming new friendships with peers from other schools across the Valley.
Arizona Network Director of Athletics, Jon Rickey, explained that the partnership began about two and half years ago when Great Hearts coaches were invited to visit the Casa Grande campus and learn from the professional coaches there. He noted the partnership works so well due to the similarities in values. “A lot of what the Barcelona way is when they speak of H.E.A.R.T. – humility, effort, ambition, respect, and teamworkare really the core values of what we have as well with Great Hearts,” he said.
“Anytime that you can have like the New York Yankees of soccer come and do a camp on your facility, at your schools, I mean you want to take those opportunities,” added Rickey. “So it’s been great and you can see behind me people are working hard and having a great time. We have professional coaches alongside five or six of our Great Hearts coaches and they’re actually learning and getting better at the same time that our student athletes are getting better as well. It’s been a wonderful experience.”
Jacob Isaias was one of the Great Hearts coaches who attended. He graduated from Great Hearts Anthem in 2020 after playing Varsity High School Soccer all four years and has returned to coach for high school and middle school at Great Hearts Anthem while also attending college. “Once this invitation came out where we would work with coaches from Barcelona who have experience in the methodology, I couldn’t say no,” said Isaias. “You can see how much passion, effort, as well as the detail that the Barcelona coaches put into their work into the methodology and into how they share the methodology and as well… It’s just great.”
Camp Director Pasqual Queralt was born and raised in Barcelona and played soccer, or fútbol, since he was just four years old. “We found [this place to be] a really great environment because the kids are so polite, the facilities are amazing, [and] the people that we trade [with] everyday are really kind, so we are glad to have this kind of experience,” he said. “It’s easy to do our work here. It’s so easy because they are always curious, [asking] questions about our methodology and this makes it so easy and so fun too.”
Throughout the 4-day training, participants witnessed true excellence in skill and learned to be better players, but more importantly, learned a little bit about how to also be a person, on and off the soccer field. Great hearted athletes and coaches alike emerged with a rejuvenated passion for the game and a fresh perspective that will further their commitment and expand their fulfillment derived from soccer, both as individuals and team members. Not a bad way to spend their winter break. Keep an eye out for future opportunities and camps at https://barcaresidencyacademyusa.com/camps/.
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