`It's more than just a game ... it's life.' Soccer at North Village Community Club continues to flourish this season particularly for the younger crop, with a restructured programme being instituted, one which places a greater responsibility on parents, coaches, administrators, as well as the players themselves.

And it also puts an emphasis on education, with participation directly correllated to work performed at school.

"This is the first year of our restructuring where we've introduced a new scheme of things at North Village, in terms of making the parents and the members a lot more responsible for the development of the children in the programme,'' explained president Shervin Dill.

"As a result we've been quite successful in getting the parents' participation in overseeing the development of the child, not just in soccer, but in other areas of life as well.

"We came to the point where we felt that in rebuilding, we were focusing too much at the top and decided that we would rebuild from the bottom and we're finding it to be extremely successful.

"We're in the third quarter of the season and the response from, particularly the younger level, has been awesome.'' The programme demands accountability from coaches, who, for the first time, are being remunerated for their services.

Whereas in the past it was seen that coaches might simply roll out a few soccer balls and allow merely for the youth to `have a kick', today there is a greater emphasis on a structured approach to teaching methods.

"We're looking to take the development of soccer in Bermuda to another level, a higher level, and in order to do so we must ensure that people are getting proper instruction from the mini-minors straight through,'' continued Dill, who was elected to the post of president last August.

"In order to do that we must have the expertise from the coaches, so we're talking about total development from the early stages.

"With Kenny's (Thompson) programme, they're required to attend coaching sessions once a week to make sure that everybody is aware of our techniques and technical requirements, and to make sure that at all the levels there is a documented lay-out of what our expectations are and what we want to achieve at the different age levels.

"So, in terms of development we've got an excellent programme, and the parents certainly appreciate the time that we put into it and the administrative aspect.'' Dill admitted that there was initial resistance to the instituting of such a programme, much of it due to the cost factor placed on parents, with they being asked to fork out over $400 per child -- those with more than one in the programme were granted reduced rates.

That fee allowed for the purchase of track suits, boots, training gear, gym bags and other material requirements, as well as contributing to coaching expenses.

However, the president added that the fee was needed if the programme was to run on a professional basis and be self-sufficient.

"It (resistance) initially came from people not having a proper understanding of what the new infrastructure was all about, and, of course, money was a major factor,'' he explained. "But, what we've done is provide a professional concept of training, whereas we've fully outkitted all of our teams, so that if you see a North Village player on the street on a Saturday you know that it is a North Village player.

"We had about a hundred of the youth players at the Dandy Town match and it was a thrill to see the uniformity that we have. In training sessions you see with a professional team that they're all uniform, so we've added a professional flavour to our training sessions and, of course, to our game as well.

"Not just in soccer, but also in netball, softball, cricket and all the other things that we're involved in, we were finding that our resources were constantly being drained year after year, and with this new concept it makes it, for the most part, self sufficient.'' On the educational side, Village have linked up with various school principals. Junior players are required to submit reports on their performance in the classroom.

Said Dill: "We've launched a sports area where the chairman of the sports committee and the chairman of the education committee work hand in glove to oversee what's happening in the schools with the kids.

"We've got forms that we've sent out to all of the schools and we've received a lot of cooperation from the schools. The principals, in particular, we've worked with applaud what we're trying to do.

"We get a weekly report on the performance of the children at school and this impacts on their participation in sport at North Village Community Club, and I think this is one of the drawing cards for the parents, who are very happy to see us looking out, not just for their participation in soccer, but to also gain knowledge of the importance of both aspects ... education and sports.'' As for the response from the participants themselves, Dill said that most seemed to revel under the new system, and could often be seen comparing reports.

"That's very heartwarming for me, as far as children really being aware of what we're trying to achieve here. That really makes me feel good.

"They have an identity and can relate to something and identify with it, and it goes from club to country.

"I'm really hoping that from the success of our programme that it will catch on throughout the country ...'' Shervin Dill: `We're making the parents a lot more responsible for the development of the children.'