Former Bryst Top Dog, Fraser Aird of Scarborough, has been selected for the Scotland U17 National Team in preparation for the European Under 17 Championships in March. Fraser is currently a member of the Glasgow Rangers Youth Academy.

http://www.rangers.co.uk/Academy-News/article/2594852

Fraser trained for three years with Bryst as a Top Dogs player and represented Canada at the Danone Cup in France. Congratulations to Fraser.

Bryst President, Gary Miller, attended the annual NSCAA Coaches Convntion in Kansas City on January 11-14. The NSCAA is the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Gary has been a member for 25 years. This year the convention was held in Kansas City with over 5,000 soccer coaches from the US, Canada and the rest of the world.

Key presentations were held by the US Soccer Federation on their success at the Women's World Cup, the Mexican Soccer Federation and their success with their youth and senior programs, a Japanese futsal program in schools, Prozone Game Analysis program, creating a High Performance Program by the US Strength and Conditioning Coach and many more. Over 150 presentations were provided over the 5 day period.

This information is brought back into the Bryst organization to consistently upgrade the level of coaching and player development within the Bryst system.

The 2012 BFA Program kicked off last Thursday, January 19th with a presentation to over 250 members of the BFA program. Players, parents and staff were present to review the exciting 2012 season with teams in SAAC, OSL and OWSL. President Gary Miller introduced the coaching staff and the new developments for the season. The Player Handbook was also reviewed for all players and parents.

The BFA also introduced their new logo (graphic) for the 2012 season. Training kicked off the weekend of January 21st & 22nd with over 130 players being put through their paces by the top level Bryst coaching staff. Bryst welcomes back Steve Payne (UEFA Pro License) as a former BFA staff to the 2012 staff.

Welcome to all BFA members.

The 2011 BFA Teams celebrated their year end banquet last week at Fontana Gardens. Over 250 athletes, parents and staff celebrated the year end event with recognition and accomplishments of each team, the most improved player on each team and the success of Bryst moving players onto a higher level of play. Coaching staff were also recognized for their ability to raise their level of certification in Canada and Europe.

The guest speaker was Ron Smale, President of The Ontario Soccer Association. Ron spoke about the state of the game in Ontario through the Long Term Player Development Plan and the future role of Academies. Ron also handed out several awards during the evening.

Congratulations to all of the players and staff for a great year.

The following are the Most Improved Players for 2011:

U9 - Ariana Kavianpour

U10 - Inder Thind

U11 - Daniel Whitton-Lowry

U12 - Tyler Gerrard

U13 - Samuel Regeling

U14 - Jordan Shortreed

U15 - Lucas Marques

U16 - Bhavdeep Mangat

U17 - Connor Prince

Senior Girls - Alex McIlwaine

U21 - Brendon Regeling

Bryst Staff Coach, Sanford Carabin, has been hired as the part-time Technical Director of the Durham Region Soccer Association. Sanford will be responsible for providing technical leadership to all of the clubs in Durham. He will oversee the District Player Development Program. He will also lead the Long Term Player Development Program that has been handed down by the CSA to all of the clubs in Canada. Congratulations to Sanford on this appointment.

Sanford will continue as a Staff Coach in the Bryst FA and in 2012, he will coach the U17 Boys team in the OSL U21 Regional League. Also in 2012, Sanford will finish up his UEFA B License in Northern Ireland and his U.S B License.

This is the second Bryst Staff Coach in the last two months to be hired as a part-time District Coach. Steve Payne was hired in December by the Huronia District Association.

BFA Boys Under 17 and Under 16 teams competed in the 2011 Sigma Showcase Tournament in December at the Hershey Center. Both teams played two games over two days against teams from New Jersey, Ajax, London, FC Toronto and Sigma. Both teams did very well in showcasing their abilities to over 60 U.S. and Canadian University coaches that attended the two day event.

Several players are now being contacted by coaches as a result of their performances. Congratulations to both teams.

A second SAAC Bursary Award has been presented to a BFA player. Justin Bryant, of the U21 Men's team, has been awarded the SAAC Bursary Award after BFA player, Jen Poppe. Justin currently attends Urbana University in Ohio on an athletic and academic scholarship.

Justin has been a member of the BFA for the last three years and travels in two hours per night for training three times per week plus a game. This has been a huge commitment for Justin and his family and it has paid off. Congratulations to Justin from the Bryst staff.

Bryst's main sponsor, SDA Building Services (http://www.sdabuildingservices.ca/) were recognized at the recent BFA year end banquet. President, Luis Leite, accepted a gift on behalf of SDA from Bryst's Managing Director, Cindy Miller.

Thanks again to SDA for their continued support for the Bryst programs.