Millburn Soccer Club has added a free Goalkeeper Academy for its travel goalkeepers, with Saturday morning sessions at Washington School running through Nov. 21.
The club describes the program as a member benefit at no additional cost, according to the MSC website. Sessions focus on skills, drills and training specific to the goalkeeper position. The academy is scheduled on Saturday mornings to avoid conflicts with regular team games and practices.
Three age groups train in one-hour blocks: U8-U9 players at 9 a.m., U10-U11 at 10 a.m. and U12-U14 at 11 a.m. The program began Sept. 5 and runs 10 sessions total, with the final four on Oct. 31, Nov. 7, Nov. 14 and Nov. 21.
Lydia Schlegel, an MSC trainer, coaches the academy. The club's website describes her as "a former professional goalie in the Bundesliga with the Vfl Wolfsburg organization." Career records on worldfootball.net, however, list Schlegel with VfL Wolfsburg II, the club's reserve team, from July 2012 to June 2014. VfL Wolfsburg's women's first team competes in Germany's top division, the Frauen-Bundesliga, and won the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2013 and 2014.
Schlegel, originally from Germany, describes herself as "an active-retired professional soccer player" on her personal website. She is also a licensed educator and a student at Montclair State University, according to the same profile.
Demand has been high enough that the club is running registration on a waitlist basis. MSC requires families to notify the club by 7 p.m. the night before any session a player cannot attend. Failure to notify MSC by the deadline will result in removal from future sessions, the club states.
The remaining sessions are all at Washington School in Millburn. Families can register through the club's website.
