Bolton Wanderers soccer coaches still working ahead of new summer season

April 30, 2020 · 0 Comments

Written By ROBERT BELARDI

Bolton Wanderers U10 rep coaches Nicholas Ettore and Daniel Korkis haven’t stopped coaching.

Amidst the current pandemic, Vice President of Competitive Programs, John Muir has introduced the Zoom app to communicate with players and parents within the team.

With virtual training very much in the balance, Ettore and Korkis have been pushing their team’s practice sessions to three or four times a week.

It isn’t anything overly complicated. It’s simply, reinforcing the fundamentals.

“Me and my head coach Nick, will facetime each other and we’ll plan a session,” said Korkis, who is the assistant coach of the team.

“That session includes technical work, dribbling, strength and core, simple things.”

Both coaches will send a link via TeamSnap to all the parents on the team and the parents with a message and a link.

To keep the children fit, that’s what they’ve been doing. With Ettore being 20-years-old and Korkis at 21, both coaches understand the temptation of grasping an Xbox or PlayStation controller for long hours. They both believe it’s important to keep their team active multiple times a week.

Korkis emphasized that all you need is a cone and a ball. The professionals do it, and if the professionals do it, then the children need to continue mastering the fundamentals just like they do.

Recently, last week, both coaches introduced a new training tactic. Some players worked in their basement and others outside.

The coaches wanted to introduce passing and receiving. Using the wall or the fence, the players can kick the ball off of the hard surface and control it cleanly in return. Korkis and Ettore even encouraged parents to participate, exercising with their children with simple drills.

These coaches continue to enforce high training levels at such a young age, because if players want to have the opportunity at a scholarship, or to be noticed by academy teams, these two know what it takes to play at those levels and what the commitment needs to be at to achieve it.

Ettore is a former player for the Ontario Youth Soccer League (OYSL) side, Vaughan Azzurri. He is currently studying for his National C coaching license, which is impressive, considering his young age.

Ettore phoned his friend Daniel Korkis and asked him to join him on the touchline. Without hesitation Korkis accepted.

Korkis formally played for the Bolton Wanderers from the age of five to 12. He moved on to play for the Woodbridge Strikers in the OYSL up until two years ago, and plays competitively for Humber College as well.

Both players have travelled to the United States for matches, been scouted by schools in the process. Young mentors for young minds, seems to be the right formula here for this team.

Re-joining his boyhood club, Korkis is determined to rejoin the club to bring it back to the level when he was growing up playing the sport.

“It gives me more motivation, to return to my boyhood club. This is who made me, into the soccer player that I was.”

He wants to give back to the community. He wants to see the Bolton Wanderers, travel to England to see the League 1 side Bolton Wanderers facility. When Korkis was young players had this opportunity and the exposure motivated young players at the age even more.

For now, Ettore and Korkis will continue to train their players as contingency plans are created for the upcoming season.