Over 200 players from different teams joined Robson for skill development sessions and were given the once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from one of English Football's true legends!
"Bringing Bryan over was truly a once in a lifetime experience for our program" said Andrew Fleming, Technical Director of the Bearspaw FC program. "With the plethora of information available on the web these days, most of the kids had done their homework on him and you could definitely see the nerves setting in with some of them once they stepped on field with him!, though you couldn't hope to meet a better ambassador for the game"
Robson worked with 8 teams from the Calgary Blizzard Soccer Club in team training sessions, ranging from 7 and 8 year old boys to 18 year old girls. There were two individual skill development clinics in which players as young as 4 years old took part. On the Sunday, Robson watched 6 U14 Boys teams from Calgary in exhibition games which were put together to provide a lucky player with the opportunity for a trial in the future at Manchester United! Robson also took part in an autograph signing with Bearspaw FC sponsor, Charlesglen Toyota and the feature event of the weekend, which was a fundraising dinner at Bearspaw Lifestyle Centre for the Place to Play project.
The dinner, on the Saturday evening, was very well attended and well supported not just by the local community but also other local clubs, Blizzard, Foothills and NSD Soccer. "It was fantastic to see the support from the other clubs around the city" said Fleming. "Often we get caught up in competing with each other, but it was great to see everyone out to further the goal of developing facilities for all youth players in the city". Representatives from Calgary Minor Soccer as well as the Technical Director of Alberta Soccer, Shaun Lowther, were also in attendance.
"All in all, it was a brilliant experience for both our kids, and for myself" mentioned Fleming. "Here's hoping it's only the start of something bigger and better than we can all imagine!"
Alan Rickwood, Calgary Blizzard General Manager with Bryan Robson and Andy Fleming, Bearspaw FC Technical Director
