The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
Jack Paulson, center, a 2023 CHS graduate and incoming student at the University of North Dakota, took it upon himself to help create the Carrington Soccer Club. Here, he gives instruction before the start of a drill during a practice session last Monday.
Members of the Carrington Soccer Club, coached by Jack Paulson, are, front row (L-R): Hazel Pavelko, Benjamin Blahna, Theo Saucier, Ismail Musa and Briston Kollman. Back row: Brinley Trostad, Josephine Pavelko, Rylee Kollman, Gabe Saucier, Hunter Kazimierowski and Isiah Gacho. Not pictured: Miles Thurlow, Laine Thurlow, Adeline Beal and Bristol Idland. (Submitted photo)
Adeline Beal, along with Briston Kollman and Miles Thurlow, practice soccer drills east of the Carrington Elementary School. Soccer Club runs until the end of July.
On a green patch of grass just east of Carrington Elementary School, a group of wide-eyed, impressionable young boys and girls spend their Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings learning the intricacies of the most popular worldwide sport.
Those kids have signed up for the summer as part of the city's first youth soccer program, and recently-graduated CHS student Jack Paulson is leading the club into existence.
Paulson, who played the sport for Jamestown High School and was named Most Valuable Player in his senior season, wanted to translate his love of the sport to the next generation of budding athletes.
He was asked what was the driving factor to create the Carrington Soccer Club.
"My passion for the game, and wanting to stick around it since I'm no longer playing it," he said. "I also wanted to help get more kids into the sport."
Paulson approached Carrington Public Schools Superintendent Janelle Helm and the school board about creating a soccer club, as he was interested in securing the school's facilities for practice space.
Talks went very well, and by June, the sport was up and running. Through Facebook, Paulson was able to recruit more kids to the sport.
The Carrington Soccer Club, which costs $150 for registration fees, is sponsored by Carrington Drug.
"I have 15 kids signed up, and they're really good to coach," said Paulson. He chuckled, "I mean, sometimes they can be a lot, but they're kids, so you just expect that."
Practices are spent learning about dribbling, possession, on-ball challenges, and even feature one-on-one drills to finish plays in a four-foot wide, two-and-a-half-foot tall semicircular goal net.
"We'll be investing in proper goals next year," Paulson said. "Right now, I really just want to implement the fundamentals of the sport, since they're very, very new to it and don't really know anything about it yet."
The sport in Carrington is in club status, and because Paulson didn't have an idea of turnout initially, he did not sign the club up for tournaments.
However, that is in the plans for next summer, and Paulson aims to keep the momentum going for the next few years so Carrington can build into a full-fledged program. He also hopes kids can maintain interest in the sport into the rest of their childhoods, in case they want to pursue his athletic path to the varsity level.
"I want to continue to do this every summer to the point where we have a load of kids signed up, and can have an actual field [to practice and play games]," he said.
The club's practice sessions run until the end of this month, upon which Paulson will begin school at UND this fall. His stated career options include physical therapy or pharmacy.
Jack is the son of Matt and Tiffany Paulson of Carrington. During the fall, he also played football as the Cards' placekicking specialist when not on the soccer pitch, and also was a member of the basketball and spring baseball programs at CHS.
