Men’s Soccer: Former Buckeyes Now Getting Their Kicks in Player Development – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
SuperKick/TeamZone facility in Lewis Center training kids to Crew
LEWIS CENTER, Ohio – While the world of Major League Soccer is quickly becoming more populated with former Ohio State student-athletes, there is another group of former Buckeyes who may not be on an MLS roster, but who are perhaps having an even greater impact on the sport.
The Ohio State soccer program has produced 10 MLS draft picks this decade and that number is sure to grow in future decades thanks to the work going on at SuperKick, a 62,500-square foot indoor facility operated by a staff that many of whom wore the Scarlet and Gray not long ago.
Located just north of Columbus in Lewis Center (409 Orangepoint Drive, www.SuperKickColumbus.com), the facility opened in January 2007 and is already among the premier indoor training facilities in the area. The Columbus Crew has named it their official indoor training facility.
SuperKick president and CEO Jim Waters built the facility from the ground up and is responsible for what the facility has become, though he is more interested in where it is going. His goal, quite simply, is to raise the level of youth soccer in Ohio to the next level.
“We are on a mission to raise the soccer skill level in Ohio,” said Waters, who was a goalkeeper for the Buckeyes from 1982-83 and now heads up the men’s soccer alumni association. “And here, we want to train everyone from kids up to MLS all-stars. We don’t want to be an elitist facility.”
Despite its connection with the Crew, SuperKick would never be accused of catering to the professional athlete. Its massive indoor playing field capability, known as TeamZone, allows the center to live up to its goal of being Your Training Center for individuals of all ages, teams of various sports, schools and clubs of all sizes and even businesses in the private sector.
The level of performance is not what matters when an individual or team enters SuperKick. The progress made when they leave is what matters.
“We confine them to a limited space with a lot of touches,” Waters said. “That’s how you get better.”
AN ALL-STAR STAFF
Considering the talented staff that Waters has assembled at SuperKick, it is no wonder the facility has risen to an elite level that mirrors the rise of the Ohio State soccer program. The Buckeyes, which for decades were an unfunded program by the University and struggled to win consistently, have become a perennial Top 25 program and advanced all the way to the national championship game last December.
Many of the men who were a part of Ohio State’s rise are now directors and instructors at SuperKick, which employs a combination of nearly 30 full-time and part-time employees.
Former OSU captain David Ridenhour (2000-03) serves as the Center Director after three years in the front office of the Crew. Another former Buckeye captain, Tony Earp (1999-02), is the Director of Soccer Skills.
Physical therapist Brian Smith, a 1997 Ohio State graduate for former conditioning coach for the Crew, is the Director of Sports Performance. Dr. Todd Kays, Ph. D., is a regular contributor.
Professional soccer standout Jon Busch, a household name for Crew fans, is the Director of Goalkeeper Development and is joined by former OSU All-Big Ten goalkeeper Kerry Thompson.
“We are quickly becoming the center for goalkeeper development in Ohio,” said Waters, who had 119 saves for the Buckeyes in 1983, which rank fourth all-time at Ohio State.
And the most recent Buckeye to join the staff is Casey Latchem, who was in goal for every game of Ohio State’s run to the 2007 national title game and set program records with 15 shutouts during the 2007 season and 28 career clean sheets.
The Ohio State coaching staff is very involved with the center. Head coach John Bluem is the center’s Executive Director for Coaching, while associate head coach Frank Speth is on the training field with various teams and assistant coach Andy Brinkman joins the goalkeeper coaches.
In addition to their one-on-one instruction inside the facility, the staff writes regular features on topics from how to follow soccer and developing a soccer champion for life to goalkeeper maintenance during the season and making the transition from high school to college soccer.
Those features are available in a monthly newsletter and on the center’s web site.
DEVELOPMENTAL BY DESIGN
What has made SuperKick an instant success is due in part to the design of the indoor fields. Instead of hard AstroTurf and hockey-style walls surrounding the field, SuperKick has SprinTurf, which is the same artificial grass the football Buckeyes play on in Ohio Stadium, and out-of-bounds space with no walls that allow for game conditions.
“We have developed an alternative,” Waters said, “to other indoor leagues where you’re kicking the ball off walls. There is nothing natural about that.”
The design of the facility has led dozens of local high school and even college teams to utilize the facility for all kinds of sports in addition to soccer from football and field hockey to lacrosse and from all around the state, including from as far away as Cincinnati.
“Any field sport can come in here and have a place where they can have a full-team practice,” Waters said. “We have had high school teams practice in here to get used to the surface before they play a state playoff game on it somewhere else. And when it helps them win, word gets around.”
The facility also includes a large meeting room that hosts events such as a lecture series and referee certification courses.
It is a facility that is going nonstop from 9 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“When we first opened,” Ridenhour said, “it was just me and Jim. We were here from 6 a.m. to midnight every day. But now we have a staff in place and it is a good one.”
SKILL, SPEED, STRENGTH
Those words are painted more than a few times inside the SuperKick facility and are the mantra for Waters’ vision. Each program offered by the center is personalized and uses high intensity skill development in the areas of soccer skills, goalkeeping skills and sports performance.
Developing those skills is a process that, at SuperKick, can begin in the youngest athletes. After an adult work out that begins at 6 a.m., the SuperKids Soccer and Fitness Program is designed for kids ages 3-8 and is on the schedule every morning from 7:30 a.m. to around 3 p.m.
In the afternoon, individuals and teams arrive for soccer skills training along with speed, agility and quickness training.
“Coaches are more than happy to turn their kids over to us,” Waters said. “Because they know their players will get better.”
Finally, four nights a week the SKTZ Adult Indoor Soccer Leagues take the field well into the night as organized teams continue to refine their skills and play competitively.
And while instruction sessions and team practices go on at various times throughout the day, the adult fitness center is always available for those who have hung up the cleats in favor of cross-training footwear. York free weights, Paramount Innovative Strength Systems, Vertimax and UltraSlide equipment and Woodway Desmo Pro treadmills fill the work-out area.
ONE TOUCH AT A TIME
There is no better way to speed up individual skill improvement than by spending one-on-one time with an instructor.
“Other facilities are heavy into leagues, but we’re heavy into training and personal fitness,” Ridenhour said. “Kids get better with training. Here, kids are touching a soccer ball for the entire 70 minutes they spend with a coach. It’s all about player development and skill training.”
“Any league we have here is for skill development it’s not a rec league,” Waters added.
And that is where Earp comes in. He notes that often team practice during a season is dedicated to strategy and tactical aspects of the game, not improving the individual skill level of each player.
“Players get more fit and tend to play better as a season goes on as they get used to the pace of the game, but that’s not due to a noticeable change in their individual ability,” Earp said. “At practice, players learn how the game should be played and how their team will work together on the field. Combination play and movement off the ball are just a few of team strategies that coaches try to teach their players.”
Those are critical, Earp said, but the problem is that players also need to improve their individual skills. While a player may not get many touches in a standard practice, that is quite the opposite at SuperKick, where there rarely a moment when a ball is not in contact with a foot.
That concept is just as relevant to Smith and his work with sports performance, who has always stressed skill development for sport performance and injury prevention.
“Your body is the most important piece of equipment in the game of soccer, or for that matter any sport,” Smith said. “One of the main points we try to make with our field players and goalkeepers consistently is that you have to work on the skills and technique. In every evaluation I have with an athlete, I always let them know that the main thing I am looking for is how they move.”
THE PROGRAM IS IN PLACE
Just like the Ohio State soccer program they helped build into a national power, SuperKick directors and instructors are now building a dynasty of a different kind.
“This started with a dream and now here we are,” Waters said. “And this is just the beginning. I have long-term plans and ideas for this facility and we are not done growing.”
That will no doubt benefit Ohio college programs like Ohio State and MLS teams like the Crew as the talent base in their native state rises.
“I grew up in the south and never had to play in the snow,” Ridenhour said. “If you look at the nationally ranked teams during the season, 75-percent of them are from warm weather states. Ohio may not be warm in the winter, but because of this facility we don’t have to stop training.”
And from former Buckeyes to future Buckeyes, that is the plan for a successful program.
### OhioStateBuckeyes.com ###
By Tim Stried, Ohio State athletics communications – stried.3@osu.edu
