Soccer mom pushes thrill of the game

For Joan Dillon, Jasper’s Minor Sports Soccer Director, soccer is an easy way to get young Jasperites outside, running and being active. 

“I love to see the kids play soccer and I think it’s a lot of fun,” she said.

Ensuring the season runs smoothly for nearly 300 children is no menial task, but Dillon said the most important skill for the job was patience, “just a bit of time and caring for kids.”

According to Dillon, the key to the soccer season being successful is the help of the parents, or young adults in the community. However, getting parents involved also proves to be the hardest part of her role. 

“Unfortunately, a lot parents didn’t grow up playing soccer so they’re kind of reluctant to get involved... that’s what’s hard,” she said, “whereas hockey - it’s very big.”

“We just need to get more people involved because it’s a lot of work for a short amount of time. If we spread the work load out a little more it would just be a better program for the kids,” she said noting that the league always needs more coaches, referees and somebody to run the registration wouldn’t go astray.

Despite needing a little bit of persuading, getting the children and parents involved in soccer is one of the rewards of her volunteer position.

“Seeing so many kids get involved and seeing more parents get involved. The ones that do get involved have so much fun, but it’s just trying to get them out, sometimes it’s like pulling teeth but once they get involved they really have a lot of fun,” she said.

Unlike the parents she speaks of, Dillon grew up playing soccer in Vancouver and enjoys the opportunity to run around with the children. 

According to Dillon, an adult pick-up league would also be popular in Jasper and was something she’d enjoy to be a part of, but would need someone (other than her busy self) to organize. 

Obviously a fan of the sport, she said some of soccer’s other advantages is that it’s open to both sexes, with Jasper fielding eight traveling teams and four house league teams, there’s not much equipment needed and it simply gets children moving.

“I think soccer’s great because it’s boys and girls, and it gets them outside and active and it’s a fun team sport,” she said.

“You don’t need a lot of equipment, [it’s] lots of running, kids are active - kids need to be more active so it makes me feel good to see them out there,” she said. “And, hopefully it’s encourages them to just go out there and play on their own.”

A mother of two soccer playing girls, Dillon has coached for the last six years and said watching the kids develop over time is another enjoyable part of her position.

“It’s fun to see the kids come along, because now they’re... skilled and they play really well,” she said, “it’s fun to see them have some confidence instead of backing away from the ball.”

“To have that something happen that makes things click and they just start to go for the ball instead of backing away and letting others take it,” she added.

In an effort to keep growing the skills, Dillon organized a coaching course in Jasper this year for people willing to get involved. She also sent someone to Edson for a referee course. 

While the 2009 season was played in Centennial Park, due to the bad condition and irregular size of the school field, the soccer mom hopes that with a new school building will also come another field, or at least some funding being put into maintain the current school field. 

“There’s enough interest in town it would certainly be used and if we had more we could run some tournaments and have more people in town,” she said noting that she’d spoken to the school board, but everything was on hold until a decision about the school location was made. 

Testament to Dillon’s hard work is the two teams, the U16 Girls and U14 Boys, that will represent Jasper at the provincials this weekend.

Looking forward, she hopes to recruit some new coaches for next year so she can be left to the organizational realm of Soccer Director.