“Dribble, dribble! Good, well done, Vanya! Great!” — the coach shouts as the blond boy drives the ball across the uneven field.
After the half ends, a crowd of such boys surrounds the coach in a circle.
“The red team’s task is — pass from the goalkeeper… You must score in the small goals.. You pass to the sixth, the sixth — to the fourth, then the fourth back to the sixth. Such a goal counts as two,” — explains the coach, while the young players peer intently into their notebook and try to memorize every word.
This is a football training of the children’s team of Velyka Oleksandrivka. Two years after the de-occupation of the settlement a football section was revived here, and now more than 30 children train and achieve victories here.
MOST looked at how sporting Velyka Oleksandrivka lives.
Before the full-scale invasion, the Children and Youth Sports School of Velyka Oleksandrivka had sections for freestyle wrestling, volleyball, athletics, rhythmic gymnastics and football. Now the school’s premises have been completely destroyed by the Russians. The director of the sports school, Viktor Buzhak, says that by 2022 the school had even managed to equip a gym with a treadmill, an elliptical trainer, a stationary bike and an abdominal bench.
“There was a community development program, and with co-financing we were allocated funds, we bought these machines. People trained there in bad weather. In July 2022 the sports school was destroyed. Everything down there now lies in ruins. After the de-occupation we didn’t know whether it was mined or not. But, as you can see, everything is destroyed,” he says.
The building that houses the sports equipment for the only section currently operating at the stadium — the football section — is shown by Youth Sports School coach Serhiy Mishchuk. It’s a half-destroyed building in which traces of the former renovation can still be seen in places.
“There was a changing room, a shower. It was great here. And now… This is all that the orcs left us,” he says.
However, these difficulties do not prevent the sports school’s pupils from training regularly. Residents of Velyka Oleksandrivka whose children attend the football section say that after the de-occupation a group of parents gathered and appealed to the school’s coaches asking them to come up with some activity for the children. The parents themselves helped clean up the stadium — clear it, level it, mow the grass.
“This is our salvation, we all live by it now. For the second year in a row our children travel to represent Kherson Oblast at competitions. Last year it was Kyiv, this year, due to the security situation, they were moved to Lviv,” says Yevheniya, mother of one of the young footballers.
According to coach Serhiy Mishchuk, the section is currently attended by 34 children — 18 in the older group and 16 in the younger. Most often the football team, called “Legion”, travels to championships in Kryvyi Rih. A month ago the footballers took part in the “School Ball” tournament, where they won first place.
The footballers themselves are also proud of their achievements and happily tell us about their victories and teammates.
The coaches’ and team members’ most cherished dream now is the reconstruction of the stadium. During the occupation there were large active hostilities here — in fact, the front line ran across the stadium. On one side Ukrainian troops advanced, on the other the Russians entrenched themselves. In 2022 fierce battles raged here; that stadium was partially destroyed.
Velyka Oleksandrivka was de-occupied in October 2022, and within two years the football section was revived. It is mainly maintained by funds from the community and the parents of the pupils.
While we talk, the boys carry out the coach’s tasks, driving the ball along complex trajectories.
“We represented Kherson Oblast at the “School Ball” tournament in Kyiv and they gave us uniforms. And this blue one that you see on the boys was given to us by volunteers,” says Serhiy Mishchuk. “The field was mowed for us, but we want it to be even, synthetic, with a good surface”.
Soon “Legion” will represent Kherson region at an all-Ukrainian tournament. For this the boys train a lot and diligently — without proper conditions and comfortable changing rooms, on a beaten-up field, but with great love for their craft and belief that their ambitious plans will come true despite the war.