Champion Soccer School Focuses On Community, Accessible Soccer & Fun

This Patch article is sponsored by Champion Soccer School

Local businesses are the heart of our communities. Patch had a chance to talk with Charles Goodhue and Brian Bisceglia-Kane, Co-Owners of Champion Soccer School.

Patch: Tell us a bit about your business or organization.

Charles Goodhue and Brian Bisceglia-Kane: Champion Soccer School (CSS) (www.ChampionSoccerSchool.com) primarily runs K-8 (as well as some high school) soccer camps in Wayland, Belmont, and Wilmington, MA. These camps are open to all players/genders within these communities and surrounding towns. We are run by local coaches, players, and teachers.

Patch: How long have you been doing business in town, or how long has your organization been around in the community?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: This summer will be our 21st season in operation. Charles Goodhue co-founded our Wayland camp, which first ran in 2003. Brian Bisceglia-Kane led the charge in starting up our Belmont camp, which is starting its 15th season. This summer is particularly exciting, as we are operating for the first time in Wilmington, MA, where Charles lives and where his kids play in the town soccer league. In addition to camps, we also run winter clinics in Belmont and help with player placements (evaluating players’ skills to match them with the appropriate travel team) for a couple of towns. While the majority of players and coaches are based in the towns we run (Belmont, Wayland, and Wilmington) the CSS family over the years has grown to include campers and coaches in many surrounding towns: Waltham, Watertown, Somerville, Arlington, Cambridge Lexington, Weston, Sudbury, Natick, Framingham, Lincoln, Sudbury, Woburn, Billerica, Tewksbury, Burlington, North Reading, and Reading.

Patch: What attracted you to the line of work you’re in, and how did you get started?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: Our camp opened on the premise that quality soccer development should be accessible to all kids because learning to play organized sports is part of social and athletic growth. Along with this, we have an invested interest in creating special camp memories for both our campers and staff. Many of our leadership team work in education, are pursuing careers in education, or are soccer coaches who have a shared collection of great summer camp memories. We hope to create these same memories and make them accessible for all.

Patch: If you had to sum up your business mission to a stranger in five words, what would those words be?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: Community-based, fun & accessible soccer

Patch: What’s the biggest challenge or most difficult moment you’ve faced in your job?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: In school, the best educational experiences flex to match the needs, interests and goals of students. At camp, we face the same challenge. We’re constantly striving to better meet the needs of our diverse camper population. Whether it’s related to soccer skill development, social emotional health, or behavior, we are constantly faced with the challenge of differentiating our curricula, as well as our staff training to prepare for the constant pivoting we must make to ensure every camper has their best day.

Patch: What’s the most satisfying part of your job?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: Year after year, helping young players develop into older, more experienced players and people, who eventually work as coaches at our camp. It makes Champion Soccer School feel more like the family that we’ve always hoped it will be for the players.

Patch: How would you say your business or organization distinguishes itself from the others?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: Importantly, each location of our camp is homegrown and civic-minded. We understand that we are part of the community, and we build our camps around providing an important service to the towns. So much of our steady growth over the years has come from families’ recommendations, and we take pride in that. Similarly, how we have improved has come from feedback from families as we continue to adapt to meet the needs of each community.

Brian is in his 17th year of teaching third grade in Belmont and coached for the high school for the majority of those years. Charles grew up in Wayland and helped win a state Championship as a captain of the ‘01 team. He has been a coach on the Wayland varsity boys team for 15 seasons and has helped them achieve 3 more state championships. As he now lives in Wilmington with his children, Charles also has coached in their Youth Soccer system over the last 12 seasons. Matt Berk, Dan Bekenstein, Meredith Prince, Liam Johansson (our other owners and directors) have similarly played and/or coached within our soccer camp communities. We are fully embedded in our towns and want their programs to succeed for reasons more important than our camp’s business. We have a strong drive to serve these families, players, and students to make them better players and people and help strengthen our community.

Patch: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given when it comes to success?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: Success can be measured in a number of ways, but doing something you love and feeling a strong sense of responsibility is so important to becoming a more impactful person. Our owners and directors are all here because we love soccer and all care deeply about the relationships we’ve formed on our CSS journey. We see it as our responsibility to help our campers become better players, people and form the same long lasting relationships we have.

Patch: Are there any new projects or endeavors you’re working on that you’re extra excited about?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: We continuously work to make camp a better experience for our families. This year we have revamped our curriculum to support what many town soccer programs are using for player development. We are updating our leadership structure, so there is more room for personal and professional growth for our staff. Camp Leaders have more autonomy when working to help our coaches develop their own professional talents. Our counselor-in-training (CIT) program helps aspiring coaches learn necessary skills for mentoring young players and the professional responsibilities of working at a camp.

Patch: Do you have any events coming up in your community?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: K-8 camps run June 20-September 1 in Belmont at Pequossette Park (PQ) Park (72 Maple Street); July 5-21 in Wilmington at the Shawsheen School (298 Shawsheen Ave); and July 24-August 18 at the Wayland Middle School (201 Main Street).

Our Freshman (Grade 9 only) High School camp runs July 31-August 4 at the Wayland Middle School; our High School (Grade 9-12) Elite Technical Skills camp runs August 8-12 at PQ Park in Belmont; and our High School Team Scrimmaging camp (we often have large teams from Belmont, Wayland, Weston, and often a handful of players from surrounding towns) runs at the Wayland High School from August 14-18.

Patch: How can Patch readers learn more about your work and business?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: For registration and more information, visit our website. You can also check out pictures and updates on our Facebook page. If you have any questions, you can also email us.

Patch: Anything else you’d like to share?

Goodhue & Bisceglia-Kane: A quote from Meredith Prince, former camper and current Camp Director: “There’s a certain home-like feeling that kids get when attending Champion -- one that makes them want to return for as long as they can. I’ve been attending this camp since 2011, and the program and staff had such a strong impact on me that I knew Champion was going to be a part of my life for a long time. Since then, I’ve been a camper, counselor-in-training, staff member, and now a camp director, as I want to give kids the same family-like, welcoming dynamic that I experienced at camp for so many years. This speaks to the incredible, warm environment and fun of Champion.”