Kaylyn Kyle has had a successful soccer career, and she’s still going.
Growing up in Saskatoon, Kyle realized she’d need to make a move if she wanted to be serious about a career in soccer. At a young age, she moved to Vancouver to pursue her dreams. She played for the Vancouver Whitecaps, played in two Women’s World Cups, two U20 World Cups, has been part of two Olympic teams and now plays professionally in Orlando.
Kyle was on the Olympic team in 2012, when they won the bronze medal at the London Olympics. She also traveled to Rio this past summer as an alternate on the team.
For the past few weeks, she’s been touring Saskatchewan to offer camps to children. On Tuesday, Oct. 18 she visited Yorkton.
Approximately fifty kids showed up to her clinics held in the Flexihall at the Gallagher Centre. There were both boys and girls, from the under eight age group to under sixteen.
One reason she gave for returning to Saskatchewan for these camps was to give back to the province that supported her in reaching her goals. The other reason was a lack of female role models in soccer in the province.
“For me growing up, I guess I didn’t really have any female role models that were in soccer. We grew up in a hockey province, a football province. For me it was super important to come back and give these kids confidence both on and off the field,” she said.
Kyle also touched on how playing soccer helped her through problems she had growing up.
“I was bullied in elementary school. I think team sports really instills confidence in kids and I think it’s super important for kids to develop it. If I can provide a little bit of confidence in these kids here, I think that’s what I’m here to do.”
At the camp, kids got the opportunity to learn some technical skills from Kyle and other coaches. Kyle wants the kids to take away drills and exercises from the clinic that they can do on their own to improve their game.
Mike Jakubiec of the Yorkton United Football Club said kids had been looking forward to this clinic for some time.
“There’s been a lot of buzz in the soccer community, especially the young ladies who were very excited to come work with Kaylyn,” he said.
He also said this level of camp was beneficial for each player who attended.
“It gives them exposure to higher level players and expectations. It puts them a little out of their comfort zone and it pushes them – that’s for sure.”
