Day 6

       

Kelly teaching shooting skills.

After two informative days of camp run by the DPV boys, it was time for us to run the show. The main emphasis of this class is learning leadership, and I cannot think of a better way to learn it than teaching sports to children in the DR! Ashley, Jared, Kelly and I were handed the torch to run the first day teaching soccer. There were three different components that we used as guidelines to help make the day run smoothly: 1. a warm up to engage the children 2. a leadership lesson and 3. teach them soccer skills and techniques.

Bria and Ronny helping during
soccer camp. 

​For the warm up, we started with a classic game of Simon Says, Dominican style. Jared spent time looking up the translated words for each body part and had a lot of intensity to start the day off right. All of the kids were loving the game and they were all really good! After that was over we taught them an important leadership lesson titled Drivers and Passengers. We explained that drivers are people who take control of the direction of their life and their attitude when something goes wrong. Passengers are those who blame others for their troubles and don’t take responsibility of their lives. We summarized the lesson into three main points. First was having “actitud positiva” which means positive attitude. When things don’t go the way they planned them to they can be sour and blame others for their misfortunes or they can keep a positive attitude and keep moving forward. The second main point is “determinacion” which means determination. This is important for them because they have to be determined to have control of their life and not let someone steer them down a wrong path. Lastly, flexibilidad (flexibility); when they reach an unexpected obstacle it is important for them to persevere. After we finished teaching lesson (all using a translator, they are the BEST!) we split the kids up into groups and began the soccer stations. The four different stations were dribbling, passing, shooting and juggling. With the help of the other student athletes, we taught them those four skills and the kids were having a ball (no pun intended hehe.) It was really inspiring to watch them be so excited to learn new things! We wrapped up the day with a huge game of kickball and about 70 kids smiling from ear to ear.

Ashley rounding the bases
during kickball. 

​After the kids left at 12, we sat as a group and talked about what went well about the day as well as improvements that can be made for tomorrow. After brainstorming for about fifteen minutes, we headed to lunch and then had some free time. A good number of us headed to the beach and some people stayed behind to work on other classes they have or to catch up on some zzzzs. At 6 oclock we all gathered together again to eat a delicious buffet dinner that was set up for us at Francos. We ended the night by having class by the pool discussing how past experiences, good or bad, shape our futures.

Shannon Mayrose