Still having a blast

Derek Lawther knows soccer. At 72, he’s seen plenty of the game. Some would say he’s seen it all, coaching on various levels, including Olympic and World Cup teams.

Yet for the past 35 years, there’s just something that remains unique about working his Future Stars Soccer Camp during the summer. He sees soccer purity, as he gets down to the basics with children ages 4 to 14.

“I just get a kick with the kids,” said Lawther, a former Corona del Mar High boys’ soccer coach who was also the head man for the UC Irvine men’s and women’s soccer teams. “They are so young and you have to baby them a bit. They are really learning. You are helping them improve. The job is introducing the game to them.”

For the past week, he’s been directing the camp at Buffalo Hills Park in Corona del Mar, getting kids ready for the upcoming AYSO season. The youngest of the players are actually 4 1/2 -year-olds, the ones entering their first soccer season. Lawther doesn’t mind preparing the up-and-coming generation for the soccer season. After all, he’s the coaching administrator for AYSO Area Q.

Fundamentals are stressed. Lawther knows that wins and losses mean nil on these fields. A yellow card? Not here. A red? Forget about it.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Lawther said of working with the younger players. “We make it fun. They learn while they’re having fun. The 4-to-5-year-olds, it’s like babysitting in a way, but they do learn.

“When they come on Monday and leave on Friday, there is a huge difference.”

Since Fridays is the finale of a one-week course, Lawther and his staff make sure they go out with a bang. Some of the camps’ coaches perform different soccer moves, more for a show than for instruction.

On most Friday mornings, the children see Brett Luchesi play with a ball, turning his body in mid-air for a bicycle kick. Jared Maister, a 5-year-old from Newport Beach, watched, hoping that he would someday be able to pull off that move.

“It was great,” Maister said of Luchesi’s kick.

Apparently, Maister’s hopes of performing deft moves could come sooner rather than later. He impressed Lawther during the camp. And, coming from a soccer family, one in which his older brother, Ryan, 11, and sister, Taryn, 13, also play, he’ll definitely remain grounded in the game. His father, Marc, played and coaches Jared’s AYSO team.

Jared said he’s learned how to fake out defenders, shoot, dribble and pass in his first soccer camp.

“I just wanted him to have some fun, learn some skills and be ready for the upcoming soccer season,” said his mother, Mandy, who has heard plenty of compliments about her son’s play. “He’s a pretty good player.”

It’s been a fun summer for Luchesi, too. Actually the past eight have been enjoyable for the Corona del Mar High product, who was a varsity player for four years for the Sea Kings.

This week, he found out that he had coached Taryn when she 5, starting out in the camp. Now, she’s a camp counselor.

“Soccer has been a love of my life,” Luchesi, 24, said. “I just love seeing the kids get better. Just the feeling that they’re enjoying it is great. They’re coming in not knowing that much about soccer. There’s always something new that pops up with soccer, too.”

Lawther surely takes pleasure in that as well.

STEVE VIRGEN may be reached at (714) 966-4616 or by e-mail at steve.virgen@latimes.com.