Photo By Sgt. Kenneth Tucceri | Coach of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay’s female soccer team Barcelona, Navy Senior...... read more read more
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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - In a deployed environment, Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen are often told to make the best of their time away from home, use downtime productively to keep a journal, learn to play guitar or perhaps practice a new sport.
Several female Troopers and Naval Station Guantanamo Bay residents increase their physical fitness and relieve stress by hitting the soccer field. Their new coach, a fellow member of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, has the skills to take the local female soccer team, Barcelona, from entry level to excellent.
Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Peter Bergum with JTF Engineering has coached his childrens’ soccer teams for many years back home. In fact, he has a U.S. soccer coaching certification, called an E-license, and coaches in Iowa. When word of his experience reached a Barcelona player, he was recruited to help bring them together and unite a team that includes both those have never set foot on the field and more experienced players as well.
“They’re great. They’re fun,” said Bergum. “It’s fun to practice and see an improvement in the couple of games we’ve had together.”
Most recently, the team has been working on foot skills and run drills to improve passing, shooting and ball handling.
“We’re trying to get everybody a little bit better because we have all different experience levels on the team – those that have played for years and years, and those that have never played before getting here, so that’s kind of a fun challenge,” said Bergum.
Army Sgt. Rebecca Rickrode, a JTF Soldier with the 420th Military Police Company who plays forward for Barcelona, is one of the players that brings a lot of experience to the table, being a player back home. She said training with those that have never played before has been an interesting challenge, but she has seen a vast improvement in the team as a whole since Coach Bergum has come on board.
“He is a very positive coach, and he’s very helpful,” she said. “He’s encouraging but he also teaches us a lot of good techniques and helps out people who play at all different levels.”
While the female soccer league ends next week, the ladies of team Barcelona will never forget the skills they learned and the feeling of camaraderie they felt during the season, and for a brief moment enjoyed a positive distraction from being away from their loved ones.
“[Playing] just brings a little bit of home back to deployments,” said Rickrode. “You can do something that’s fun and not just do PT all the time.”
| Date Taken: | 07.03.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2014 09:16 |
| Story ID: | 135231 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY , CU |
| Web Views: | 94 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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