Yukon soccer superstar Joe Hanson and his pals held a Yukon soccer camp in Whitehorse recently. The camp took place July 18-19 on the turf field at F.H. Collins.

The event had two age groups: eight to 11-year-olds and 11 to 15-year-olds.

It featured Hanson, his sister Malorie, and Lowell Wright and Max Anchor, teammates of Hanson on his Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 club.

Local soccer guru Jake Hanson was instrumental in running the camp.

The elder Hanson said of his son, "He likes to come home with his week and had some teammates and buddies that were interested in coming to see the Yukon, so we asked if they would be able to help with this camp."

Hanson said the camp was going "really good."

"I think we had 65 kids yesterday.

"The young ones enjoy being with the older guys. It's been positive."

Jake Hanson invited Wright and Anchor to the camp.

Wright, 19, from Brampton, Ont., is a striker with the Whitecaps FC2.

"I said 'Why not? I have a week off. Help the youth,'" related Wright.

"I really like it. It's the second day. The kids are definitely more focused than the first day but I think they're really enjoying it. I really enjoy it. I can give them a bit of what I know from when I was their age, so they can kind of gauge and see what they need to do."

This is Wright's first time in the Yukon.

"I really love it. I love the scenery. Joe's taken me on the quad … I definitely will come back out here."

One of the camp kids, Lachlan Jorde, 10, said his favourite sport is soccer. In fact, he recently went to an MLS Next Pro game in Huntsville, Alabama while there for a visit to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

Jorde said he wanted to improve his skills.

"I want to get more experience in soccer."

Regarding having Joe Hanson out on the pitch, Jorde said, "It feels really great that I can actually meet a professional."

When asked if he had fun, Jorde replied, "A lot."

Jorde added, "I really like how they trained us and let us play games because I really like that."

Emile Oslund, 8, was part of the younger group.

He said the camp was "good."

Despite obviously being a very skilled player, Oslund said he wasn't sure whether he wants to play pro. He said he came out to the camp "to have fun."

Kayn Morrison, 15, also attended the camp as part of the second group. He said he sees Joe Hanson as a role model for Yukon kids.

"He's from Whitehorse and made it to a professional level and I think it's good to show that kids from Whitehorse can maybe get there one day."

Regarding playing pro, Morrison said, "In the Yukon, there's not much soccer happening, really, at least for my age, so there's not really many opportunities, so I think for me, it's maybe not, really. I just kind of play for fun.

"But a lot of the kids here are younger, so, for them, for sure."

Shamus Inglis, 13, explained why he came to the camp.

"I really love soccer."

Inglis said he's happy to see the Whitecaps' pros in Whitehorse.

"It's a cool opportunity to be able to come down and train with them."

He explained what it means to him to see the guest coaches make the pros.

"It's pretty inspiring because they were all just like us, playing in smaller leagues. One comes from the Yukon, so that's pretty great. That's pretty inspiring, because (for) a bunch of us, it's a dream to go play pro some day, and that just shows that it's possible. You can do it."

Inglis has his long-term sights set on playing pro.

"That's the dream. I'd love to. I try to get out every day, play some soccer. It's achievable but it'd be hard. But it's pretty great to see these guys who've actually done it."

Malorie Hanson was helping the guys with the camp.

"Just helping teach the kids a little bit more about football."

Hanson said the camp was "really great. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. It was a great turnout and I think we saw some development just over two days, too. Lots of kids and parents said that they had a good experience, so, that's what we wanted to see."

Hanson added, "I think it was a great experience having the kids out and the boys did a great job running the camp, so, overall, really great to build soccer in the Yukon."

Burnaby's Max Anchor, 18, the starting goalkeeper for Whitecaps FC 2 team, also enjoyed the camp.

"It was good. It was fun helping the next generation. It was also cool to be in the Yukon and see their type of environments and how they train. It's always fun helping the youth and hopefully we see a couple of them move to the real Whitecaps in a couple years."

Anchor said it's interesting dealing with younger kids.

"It's probably my first experience coaching.

"You've got to start there and if you can deal with the little kids, I'm sure I can deal with the teenagers."

Anchor does have coaching aspirations.

"For sure."

Joe Hanson, 19, plays striker and wing for the Whitecaps FC2.

"It's been great … the kids seemed to really enjoy it and they've been pretty well-behaved and really focused and honestly, surprising a lot of us (with their) talent and how good they are. It's been fun."

Hanson said the goal of the camp is to "give the kids an opportunity to play together a little bit and get to be coached by some professional players and high level coaches and give them a little experience in looking into what the pro game might be like for them. They have those dreams."

Of his teammates and fellow coaches, Hanson said, "They're very, very good players and good coaches and good people, too, so really nice for the kids to meet them and to get to be coached by them and just get to know them a little bit."

Hanson, said it's "really good to be back in the Yukon. I don't really come back that often anymore, so the times that I get to come back, especially in the summer, really special."

Jake Hanson added there are plans for another soccer camp in the future.

"Joe and I talked about doing a December camp cause then he's in his off-season … we penciled in a weekend in December that we would maybe try to see if we could get the turf at the Canada Games Centre and do something during that end-of-season break."