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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, September 9, 2016 | 36 Student starts skills academy to provide free soccer training By David Lea Oakville Beaver staff A 17-year-old White Oaks Secondary School student is bringing the joy of soccer training to youths who might otherwise not be able to experience it. Aakar Khanna is the founder of Play it Forward, a skills academy with a mission to provide high quality one-on-one soccer training to any youth players in the GTA no matter their financial situation. The academy was founded in March with Khanna, who has experience as assistant soccer coach with a house league in Clarkson, starting with just one student. His organization now has four staff who currently train 16 students. "We limit our training sessions to three players because we want to make it very individualized," said Khanna. "One day a week I take three kids and go to a local field, something near them, and we do training that is specified for their needs...If they are not good at passing we'll do more passing drills or that sort of Aakar Khanna runs a drill with Ethan Bhalla, left, and Bode Ripton at Pine Glen Field in Oakville. Aakar founded Play It Forward Soccer Academy. It provides high quality soccer training no matter what financial situation a student's family is in. | photo by Franki Ikeman -- Special to the Post thing." Khanna said his father had a deep love of soccer and passed that love on to him when he was young. The White Oaks student has played the game competitively for the last 10 years. "It sounds cheesy, but it really is more than a sport. Whenever I'm stressed about something I go to the soccer field and kick the ball around," said Khanna. "When I'm with my friends, playing soccer with them is probably the most fun I've ever had, not going out and partying. I just have a lot of passion for the sport." While he enjoyed the game, Khanna said getting high quality training to improve his soccer skills was something that was not available to him when he was younger. The Mississauga native said academies that could have provided this training were either too far away or too expensive. Khanna began offering the enhanced training to area youths at no charge to get the requisite number of volunteer hours to graduate high school. However, when he had all the volunteer hours he needed he kept going and expanded the program. Training sessions now take place in Oakville and Mississauga with new sessions about to begin in Brampton. "It just turned into something where I didn't care about the volunteer hours anymore," said Khanna. "I just really love doing it. When I get a new trainer in I always ask them, `When you're done your volunteer hours will you keep doing this?' If they say `no' I tell them, `Sorry it's for someone who really has passion for the sport.'" Khanna emphasized what makes these training sessions different from others is that they are individualized, located close to where the students live, and are free. He said when a student begins he actually attends one of their soccer games to see what areas they need help in. The lesson plan develops from there. The students range in age from 8-12 while the trainers range in age from 14-17. Khanna said all instructors have sports training experience and have been cleared by police to work with children. The Mississauga youth is hoping to continue expanding Play It Forward and is collecting donations to cover the cost of renting soccer fields during the winter and purchasing equipment for participating youths. He said part of his motivation for keeping the academy going comes from seeing the youths use the techniques he has taught them. "I just watched the first kid I instructed play a game and I can say he has definitely improved in the areas we've covered," said Khanna. "That's awesome to see that I actually did help someone out." For more information about Play It Forward visit http://playitforwardacademy.weebly.com/about.html. Red Devils repeat as GHSL champions Coming off a championship season, the Oakville Red Devils could have used a number of excuses to explain a subpar season in 2016. The under-18B squad didn't have to come up with any, however, after successfully defending its Golden Horseshoe Soccer League Elite Division championship and League Cup. The team's 2016 season was plagued by injuries and short benches, but when it was all over last weekend, the Red Devils had yet to lose a game. "These ladies had the heart and determination to play through punishing circumstances and found a way to win," coach Mark Twerdun said. In the Cup semifinal, the Red Devils played with only nine healthy players. Two more could have sat out because of injury but elected to play, if only to take away alleys and provide support, in 34 C weather. Oakville won 1-0 to advance. The Red Devils have a few players who turned down National Collegiate Athletic Association scholarship offers to play university soccer in Canada. Follow Halton sports on Twitter: @postbeaversport (Kevin Nagel, Burlington Post and Oakville Beaver sports editor) @miltononsports (Steve Leblanc, Milton Canadian Champion sports editor) @herbgarbutt (Post, Beaver, Champion sports reporter) Members of the two-time PHSL championship Oakville Red Devils include (front row, from left) Supreet Bhangu, Kaelan Peterson, Lauren Georgopoulos, Gillian Day, Jessica Twerdun, Kathryn Manarin and Ella Griffin; (back row) assistant coach George Georgopoulos, Chantal Pande, Malvina Goral, Steph Pfiffer, Robyn Smith, Kathy Yu, Laura Wu, Alyssa Walkuski, Sarita MacAldez, Hannah Ritchie and coach Mark Twerdun. | photo submitted Blue Devils U21 team wins another league title The future looks bright for the League1 Ontario Oakville Blue Devils if its feeder team in the Ontario Soccer League's U21 Elite Division is any indication. After winning the Central Division provincial U21 championship last year, the Oakville squad won the Elite Division this season with a record of 10-1-5, two points ahead of Toronto FC (10-3-3). Leading the way for the U21 Blue Devils was Oakville resident Matthew Santos, who led the division in scoring with 19 goals, three ahead of runner-up Mike Matic of Sigma FC. "It shows very positive development for OSL Provincial U21 Elite Division G W L T F AP Oakville Blue Devils 16 10 1 5 60 11 35 Toronto FC 16 10 3 3 57 17 33 Sigma FC 16 11 5 0 47 21 33 North Toronto 16 10 4 2 37 26 32 Vaughan Azzurri 16 9 3 4 45 21 31 FC London 16 9 7 0 46 34 27 North Mississauga 16 3 13 0 23 70 9 Markham City 16 2 14 0 15 67 6 Guelph Oaks 16 1 15 0 9 72 3 the future of our club," said League1 Ontario Blue Devils coach Duncan Wilde. "Santos was also the leading scorer playing for Burlington in the Ontario Soccer League's Provincial Division the past two years."