The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, May 23, 2013 | 24 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports 4 1 Y E A R S O F "Connected to your Community" S E R V I C E Edith Sorensen (second from left), one of the original founders of the Oakville Soccer Club, was recently recognized by the club for retiring after 41 years of service. Sorensen, 80, spent many of those years serving in various volunteer roles before becoming a club employee in 1998. She was presented with a plaque and the community room at the club's Pine Glen facility was renamed the Sorensen Community Room in her honour. Pictured with Sorensen are OSC director Chris Wight (left), executive director Dave Harris (second from right) and vice-president Vince D'Amico. | photo by Inger MacKenzie -- Special to the Beaver Baseball A's right the ship with three weekend wins After a rough start to the major Central Ontario Baseball Association season, the Oakville A's appear to be back on track. Oakville, which lost its first two games of the campaign, won all three games it played on the long weekend to improve to 3-2. The A's swept a doubleheader from the host Erindale Cardinals Saturday, prevailing by scores of 12-4 and 125, then edged the Burlington Brants 7-6 Monday at Oakville Park. Julian Richards provided the big blow in Oakville's first win over the Cardinals, pounding a 400-foot grand slam to right-centre in the top of the fifth inning. Richards also hit a two-run double to finish the game with six runs batted in, and Marc Walton was 3-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI. Matt Chisamore nailed down the victory with three innings of no-hit relief, fanning five batters. Gord Robertson, fresh off a honeymoon in the Caribbean, started the game for Oakville and departed after four innings with a 5-4 lead. In the nightcap, Zack Dickson, Courtney Morales, Matt Bekar and Walton combined to go 10-for-19 with three doubles and nine RBI. Oakville scored three runs in the third inning and exploded for seven in the fourth to take control of the game after Richards ended an Erindale second-inning threat by throwing out a runner at home plate from right field. Relievers Josh Spagnoletti, Al Hawley and Dan McMullan held Erindale to two runs on four hits over the final five innings after John Holden started the game for the A's. Monday, Jeff Jarockis broke a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning with a two-out single to left field that cashed Dickson. Spagnoletti recorded the save in the ninth, needing only 12 pitches to strike out the side. Kyle Fisher earned the win on the mound, tossing two scoreless innings. Oakville stole 11 bases on the night, including three by Richards, and has been successful on 26 of 27 steal attempts this season. The A's visit Brampton tonight (Thursday) and are back home at Oakville Park Monday for a 7:30 p.m. contest against the Etobicoke Rangers. Soccer development plan leaves no score to settle by Tyrrell Meertins Special To The Beaver Ontario youth soccer believes it is heading in the right direction with the recent introduction of its Long Term Player Development strategy. LTPD is an approach that aims to build an environment for young players to develop their skills. The goal is to make the game enjoyable, but also offer players opportunities to play at the highest level in Canada. This approach is used in several of the rich soccer nations around the world, as it eliminates gaps in the player development system. Alex Chiet, the Ontario Soccer Association's chief technical officer, said LTPD will help coaches understand the needs of a player. "What LTPD does is change the coaching curriculum. It helps coaches learn about what they should be doing at different coaching stages, because what you do with a fouryear-old is different than a 12-year-old," Chiet said. "Players will have more time on the ball. What they practise in training, they can put into play in the game and it allows young players to make mistakes and learn from them." LTPD consists of seven development stages that youth players will go through from ages four to 18. Officials say the key to youth development is educating both players and parents. There is a greater focus on smallerside games and more training sessions in order that children can build confidence with the ball at their feet. Chiet believes LTPD will set players up for a bright future in the sport, whether they play for fun or intend on playing professionally. "By doing these things it means the players will enjoy the game more. They will start to learn and develop skills better through training and playing in a way where they can touch and experience the ball more," Chiet said. "The coach can work on the development of the player, which will prevent players (from) sitting on the bench all season -- which stalls their development -- and there will be less focus on the outcome of a game." The Oakville Soccer Club is implementing LTPD standards this season from house league through rep in all age groups. The club believes that youngsters will become better players and enjoy the game more through this long-term plan. Although LTPD is a structured strategy designed to increase the development of youth players, eyebrows have been raised over the past year regarding the decision to eliminate league standings and scores until the age of 13. Dino Lopez, the OSC's technical director, contends that if the stress of focusing on scores is removed, children will enjoy the game more, stay in the game longer and develop better technical skills. "Parents and coaches put pressure on kids to perform and win games, when winning trophies and championships isn't a top priority for them," Lopez said. "At a young age, it's about enjoying the game, being around friends and having fun." There has been an outcry regarding the no score and standings component in LTPD, arguing it will kill competition and kids won't learn how to deal with defeat. Lopez believes kids compete all the time, but said the emphasis on keeping tabs on winning, promotion and relegation is more for adults. "Kids don't develop skills, they develop strategies to win and the strategy to win at eight isn't necessarily conducive to player development and technical development," Lopez said. "I'm all for not having scores and taking the pressure off kids to win at a young age, because they are still learning how to beat a player, take a ball from a player and score see Development on p.25