Girl soccer players face no shortage of trials and tribulations. Young women are much more likely to quit soccer during their preteen and teen years than boys.
In addition, most female soccer programs receive different budgets and attention than their male counterparts. Not to mention the pressures from the sidelines, the coaches, and themselves. But thankfully, there are organizations out there that want to do nothing but help, organizations like Bottlenoses.
Founded in 2020, Bottlenoses is all about building up young girls who play soccer and keeping them in the game as long as possible. Founder Oscar Yactayo and the Bottlenoses team believe in a more equitable world for women, and they are starting with soccer.
Originally from Peru, Yactayo has a deep, deep love for soccer and believes that it can make a genuine change in the world. He was inspired to found Bottlenoses in large part by his mother, whom he remembers fighting for equal pay in her own life. After seeing the lack of resources for setting young women up for success, he decided to put together a team and be that missing resource.
The Bottlenoses team includes juggling expert, pro beach soccer player, and coach Louise Arseneault; health and wellbeing leader Emily Shiers; world-class nutritionist Reily Beatty; and psychologist Marcella Chiromo who specializes in youth development.
Bottlenoses offers programs designed to help inspire confidence in young women and fine-tune their skills. Created by a team of experts who really care, Bottlenoses offers training and programs in things like nutrition and wellness, and lifestyle.
While they do offer a few skills programs, Bottlenoses seeks to provide tools to develop different parts of being a soccer player. You’re already getting technical, ball-handling training at your club practices, but are they helping you be more confident and mentally strong? Bottlenoses uses a holistic approach to help socceristas with skills on and off the field. Currently, everything they offer is fully digital, but they do have plans to organize camps, training sessions, and more.
They even offer resources for soccer parents–whether they have a seasoned soccerista or one who is just starting. Yactayo believes that socceristas and soccer parents must be a team to nurture a supportive environment where they can grow and properly develop.
Bottlenoses believe that success should be measured by progress and not the level of achievement on the field. Bottlenoses is all about encouragement and nurturing. Whether it’s encouraging potential socceristas to take the plunge or giving established socceristas the tools to be more confident and mentally healthy, Bottlenoses is just all about supporting women of all ages.
If you are a soccerista beginning to feel the struggle or a soccer parent who wants to be of more help, we couldn’t recommend more that you sign up for Bottlenoses incredible academy.
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