THUNDER BAY - Dominic Oliveri knows it takes hard work, determination and a love for the sport to reach higher levels of soccer.
The technical consultant and director of scouting of the Seattle Sounders USL W-League franchise spent the past weekend working with three Lakehead Express youth teams, showing them how they can achieve their dreams.
“The minute this game becomes a sacrifice is the minute you need to stop playing,” he said.
“You need to be passionate about the sport, you need to give wholeheartedly into it. Everything you do on the field needs to be with everything you have.”
The time spent with the players in the elite development program as well as both the under-14 boys and girls squads included on-field training, such as working on tactical pieces like attacking, defending and transition, as well as off-field where they had a scholarship information session.
Oliveri, who formerly worked with the W-League's Ottawa Fury and still has ties with Ottawa's Algonquin College, met Express technical director Rob Pasqualino at a showcase tournament in the fall.
They quickly hit it off.
“Sometimes it comes down to the simplest thing such as playing style, how we develop our players, long balls versus short balls, teaching kids at the earliest ages skill and fundamental development,” Pasqualino said.
“It’s the basis of how we run our program and he was really on the same page right from the start.”
Working with the players is only a portion of the purpose for Oliveri’s visit.
“We’re able to coach the players but we’re able to coach the coaches as well,” Oliveri said. “In football you’re only as good as your coach. If your coach is always learning and constantly progressing the players will never progress as well.”
His experiences, which include working in the youth, collegiate and professional ranks, really helps broaden the horizons of the program’s coaching staff.
“His experience and approach to things are really an asset to us because in some cases it’s different from what we’re usually taught from our perspective,” Pasqualino said.
The weekend was an eye-opener for those players, such as 16-year-old Megan Clarke, who have aspirations of advancing to the collegiate level.
Clarke, whose older sister currently plays at the OUA level for Nipissing, described the camp as a beneficial experience as she looks to follow in those footsteps.
“It gives a feel for what it’s like to play at the next level and to talk to coaches at the next level,” she said.
“He relates a lot to what it’s like being at the next level like speed of play. You need to be aggressive, you have to always be aware of what’s going on so that really widened my mind to work on that so I’m able to play at that level.”
