| Woodcock's Gamble |
By: Mike Besack
|
   ShareThis
 Print
|
| Posted: Friday, April 30, 2010 1:31 pm |
|
 |
| Junior Blades Academy Director Glen Gamble |
Glen Gamble presides over the pitch with a presence that makes him seem much taller than his already-impressive 6-foot-3 frame actually portrays. He uses the kind of booming Yorkshire accent you love hearing over a soccer field and the kind of laugh that makes you happy to be there in the first place. He’s a towering English gentleman with hands like shovels and at first glance you might mistake him for the tall, lanky fellow who used to play on “Who’s Line is it Anyway?”
“I regularly get mistaken for Brad Pitt or Charles Atlas,” he says, joking.
All right, I’ll say it — the man’s a bit of a goof. And that’s why he’s one of the best youth soccer coaches in Orange County.
Gamble is a former English Premier League-system coach, who also can relate with 4-year-old players like they watch the same Nick Jr. shows, get along with 8-year-olds like they just got busted by their 2nd grade teacher together, and charm the frowns off of parents who think their 10-year-olds should be playing attacking center mid instead of defensive center mid.
Yes, soccer can make for a small world, but it’s not always easy for high-level coaches to communicate in that world with players who still need help tying their cleat laces.
“You have to put yourself at the same level as the people you coach,” Gamble says. “It’s being a kid at heart and never growing up,”
That’s why FC Blades Technical Director Tim Woodcock was quick to lure this 6’3” Peter Pan away from his job with the Burnley FC academy in England and give him the keys to his now uber successful Junior Blades academy program for kids ages 4 through 11 living in Irvine.
And 18 months later, Gamble has more than doubled its size, become a known presence in the City of Irvine’s school system, and has even gotten married.
Like Gamble, Woodcock hails from Yorkshire County, England, though the latter didn’t know the former when he brought him over two years ago to coach in the FC Blades’ annual EPL Summer Camp — a three-week program featuring a half-dozen or so coaches from EPL programs.
Gamble, 38 and now living in Huntington Beach, came highly recommended and soon Woodcock found out why. The two hit it off, finding they shared many of the same views on the game and how to develop young players.
“I think he liked the way I conducted myself with the kids and parents,” Gamble said.
“He’s probably the best coach I’ve ever seen with little kids,” Woodcock says. “He’s got the personality to make it fun for the kids and he gets along with the parents well.”
Gamble had lived in Denver for five years for a period starting in the late 1990s, so he was no stranger to the U.S. He answered Woodcock’s call in 2008 open to possible career opportunities. His coaching pedigree dates back to 1991 and his playing resume includes stints in the York City FC and Leeds United programs — Leeds being his hometown team.
He went home after the camp only to turn around three weeks later when Woodcock put him in charge of Junior Blades.
“It was a relatively easy decision to make,” he says. “Other than leaving family and friends and a good position [at Burnley]. It was a good opportunity.”
Junior Blades is the academy portion of the FC Blades, an Irvine-based club featuring about 20 teams playing in Coast Soccer League. There are spring and fall editions of Junior Blades — this spring’s edition meeting every weekend at Irvine ’s Heritage Park.
“It mixes recreational soccer in a fun environment with a dash of professional coaching,” Woodcock said. “And it’s all overseen by our amazing academy director.”
Woodcock’s Gamble has been paying off.
There currently are 535 kids playing in the Junior Blades’ spring program, up from just over 500 in the fall, which was Gamble’s first year at the job on his own. Last spring the academy hosted 230 players and then 330 in the fall. All told, there are 60 Junior Blades teams with 60 coaches, all overseen by Gamble.
Gamble also coaches the FC Blades’ BU11 and BU12 teams and is heavily involved with the Irvine Schools Soccer Camps.
Woodcock knows that with Gamble, his Junior Blades can do a better job of developing players than the AYSO system can develop theirs. The technical director marks 1,000 players as his dream goal for the Junior Blades.
“With Gamble at the helm it’s possible to go over that in the next year.”
In the meantime it’s up to Gamble to make kids fall in love with soccer, and he’ll do it by making it fun so they’ll enjoy and learn.
He’ll also be able to do it because, well, he’s just like they are.
“I act like a kid. It’s just the way I’ve always been. I don’t really know why. Maybe I should grow up at some point.”
However, Gamble growing up wouldn’t really be a benefit to the Junior Blades program. Those kids like him just as he is.
|
|
|
|
|
.jpg)
