During the summer of 2017, Susan Gallant spent every night at the Stephenville soccer pitch as part of her commitment to growing the game in her town.
She served as co-president of the Stephenville Minor Soccer Association and cheered for her two teenage children who have been active in the sport for a number of years.
It was a summer that Gallant and her executive were very proud of because the association experienced significant growth with 75 new players boosting the numbers to the 300 plateau.
Gallant is committed to being involved with the program again this summer by offering to run for the executive, but she’s hoping to see more parents come on board to assist with the program because there is a need for more helping hands, especially with the boost in numbers in one year.
The association held its annual general meeting last week to form a new executive and set plans in place for another season but only six people showed up to the meeting so another one is planned for Wednesday 7:30 p.m. in Room 324 at the Douglas Fowler Building in the main campus of the College of the North Atlantic in Stephenville.
Gallant was hoping to see more people attend the AGM because there are a lot of new players in the mix now so that means there are parents who can help make things run a little easier if a handful of people don’t have to carry the load.
She has talked to a number of parents over the past week who asked how they could get involved. She said a lot of the parents are new to how things run from an organizational point of view so she hopes they get a handle on how parents are very important to the success of running any minor sports program.
“So what we’re looking to do, I guess, is just kind of encourage some of those new parents in the newer groups to realize, yes we have students on the field, but we need parents to help with the coaching from the sidelines and we need parents to assist when they can,” Gallant said.
With more people helping out Gallant believes the program can only flourish. She believes the program has the support of the town in all aspects and attracting sponsors for the program has gone really well over the last few years so it’s all looking good for another summer of soccer for youth in Stephenville.
“We’re not in a situation where we have to really scrape the bottom of the barrel to run our program up to date,” she said. “We’ve really managed to build the program and we have the resources to do it, but we’re just lacking I guess in parental volunteers.”
Gallant wants soccer to be a great experience for youth in the area. She just hopes there are parents who are willing to play a small part in keeping it alive and well for those who look forward to kicking the ball around on the soccer field when the final school bell rings in June.
