Overview

North American Soccer Camps was a company quite unlike most youth sport oriented organizations.  CEO/Owner, Dr. Gary F. Russell specifically focused on his strong belief that each individual child is important and that soccer must be taught in such a way that each individual child's total needs are met.   His view of education and children, blended into the exciting sport of soccer, assured success for everyone involved—children, parents and coaches.  It was this client-centered approach that led the company to gain its reputation as the nation's largest youth soccer education provider.  Since North American Soccer Camps’ inception, and using its success as a model, Russell continually dedicated himself to the evolution of his philosophy and theories through research and teaching.

Behind the Scenes

By offering innovative week-long summer camps and clinics to boys and girls ages 6 to 18, North American Soccer Camps quickly grew to beat out all its competitors in both quality and reputation.    Russell attributed much of that to what went on behind the scenes.  “Many people weren’t aware of what was going on behind the scenes,” he said.  “Our ‘soccer camp’ company was being run by staff that would be the envy of major corporations.”  Russell took his commitment to developing his office and coaching staff very seriously, and did all he could to ensure that only the most qualified team of professionals was serving his clients.

Armed with an abundance of knowledge about children, North American Soccer Camps delivered an educational experience that encouraged young players to achieve higher levels of success than they perceived to be possible.  This was accomplished through the application of Russell’s child-appropriate curriculum, called Kidriculum®, which is sensitive to the physiological and psychological needs of each individual participant.  Fun was also an integral component of the programs, so much so that it became North American Soccer Camps’ corporate slogan:  “Serious about fun.”

In the United Kingdom during spring of each year, Russell had all his newly recruited soccer coaches run their paces both on and off the field as part of their intensive training process before the summer camp season began.  Since many were expecting to learn all about the soccer activities that they would be teaching the young campers, they experienced an unexpected paradigm shift.  They discovered that their “soccer training” focused more on how and why Gary Russell created his child-centered curriculum, called Kidriculum®, than the actual soccer activities themselves.  They also discovered how Kidriculum®, and, in fact, every teaching tool and methodology they used was developed from Russell’s own researched and proven behavioral model — Focus®. He developed this model through proven research and effective application for the previous two decades.  Its use ensured that positive behaviors could be replicated and consistently produce positive, predictable outcomes in every interaction between two or more people.

Back in the U.S. Russell made sure that his office staff, consisting of administrative, sales and marketing teams, was living the company’s mission of Lifting People Beyond Their Vision of Capability.  Weekly staff development meetings, again using his Focus® Model as the structure for replicating positive outcomes, was utilized each and every time, which ensured the same positive outcomes the coaches were experiencing in the U.K.

Going Beyond Soccer

In 1993, Russell made the insightful decision to extend the success of his soccer venture by replicating its programs to work with high profile organizations such as the NFL (National Football League) to offer football camps, and Jack Nicklaus’ Golden Bear International to offer golf camps.  This was the beginning of North American Soccer Camp’s metamorphosis into the more diversified North American Sports Camps.