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The Montevallo Bulldogs taught soccer skills to the next generation at the second-annual Montevallo Soccer Camp as they aim to continue growing the game in the community. (Contributed)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – The Montevallo Bulldogs continued their efforts to grow the game of soccer in the community with their annual Montevallo Soccer Camp at Theron Fisher Stadium on June 3 and 5.

The boys and girls varsity teams welcomed 52 campers to their home pitch as head girls soccer coach Rylee Holt helped orchestrate a successful camp for the second-straight year.

“We had 52 campers and I think we had 28 high school players that were able to come and work, so we had very good participation,” Langer said. “Although it is centered around the young kids, our high school kids are a big part of it too because they’re learning how to develop leadership skills during this camp because they take the main lead of the coaching role in it.”

After a popular debut year in 2024, Holt and Langer decided to continue the camp for another year to give kids in the community a chance to learn from the high schoolers.

“I think it went really well,” Langer said. “Our girls coach, she’s kind of the brains behind it. Rylee Holt, she put together this camp a year ago and then we decided we would do it again this year.”

Kids from ages 5-14 rotated through a series of drills during each of the two days, learning skills like dribbling, passing and shooting before playing each other in small-sided games. At the end of each day, some of the age groups played in a short scrimmage or another activity to tie all the lessons together.

The biggest goal for the Bulldogs with the camp is to continue growing soccer in Montevallo, a sport that has already grown tremendously in recent years. That growth has carried over into the varsity teams as both the boys and girls made the Class 5A playoffs in 2025 while the boys beat Sylacauga on the road in the first round.

Beyond that though, it’s also an opportunity for the players to take the lead and grow their own coaching and leadership skills by teaching drills to the younger kids.

“One of our goals in this camp is we’re trying to promote our game in our community, and we know that it’s very popular in Montevallo, and this is a way for our players to give back to our community,” Langer said. “This is not about coach Holt or myself, this is about our players developing those leadership skills and teaching the youth and giving back to the future of Montevallo soccer.”

Langer said that it is often a special moment for the players to coach at the camp because of how many of them have relatives participating as campers.

“A lot of the campers are younger siblings or cousins or family members of these kids, so we’re excited to give them that opportunity to take the lead with our guidance and give back to the youngsters of our community,” Langer said.

Overall, Langer and the coaches were pleased with the turnout and engagement from the kids and look forward to the third edition in 2026. He thanked the city of Montevallo and Montevallo High School for allowing them to run the camp at Theron Fisher Stadium.

“We had a lot of participation and looked like our youth in the community had a lot of fun,” Langer said.

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