Lloyd McIntyre has spent more than two decades involved in the youth soccer scene in Southern West Virginia.
As President of the Shawnee Soccer Recreational Academy (SSRA), McIntyre runs a non-profit program that describes its mission as focused on building emotional, social, physical, and technical ability designed as a player-first model for children to learn required soccer skills to play on any team and at any position. While the Academy is designed to sit on the developmental pyramid between recreational or neighborhood soccer and competitive or travel soccer, McIntyre will soon embark on an entirely new journey altogether — one that came about through his experiences with SSRA at the Shawnee Sports Complex in Dunbar.
“This year, we had a big influx of middle school and high school kids joining our program,” McIntyre said. “That included 125 middle school and high school kids out of the [Kanawha] Valley, and a big chunk were from Buffalo High School and George Washington Middle School. Parents of the Buffalo kids had told me they wanted to start a girls soccer team, and I told them I’d help them get started through the first steps. So I helped with a fundraiser and asked a lot of different people about possible schedule openings. I saw the girls were really committed to wanting to play.”
McIntyre also noticed commitment from parents of the BHS students, who then gauged his interest in becoming head coach of a girls soccer program that the school has never before had.
“I was reluctant,” McIntyre admits, “because I have a lot of things going on.”
But not reluctant enough to turn it down as McIntyre is gearing up to guide the Bison this fall when Buffalo fields its first girls soccer team.
“It’s exciting for them, because they are making history,” McIntyre said. “Two of the other high schools in Putnam County in Hurricane and Winfield are super strong. Soccer is not a traditional thing in the part of the county where Buffalo is, but they have some talent and they are committed to working. I’m excited to work with them.”
McIntyre does not have high school soccer coaching experience, but was the soccer head coach at Dunbar Middle School for four years and an assistant coach for the boys and girls teams at Andrew Jackson Middle School for three years. He also previously served as the head golf coach at Nitro High School for three years.
Six years ago, McIntyre started SSRA, and since then, its popularity has grown.
“The Soccer Academy was started during COVID as a way to help grow interest at the middle school and high school levels, and this year we had a big influx of boys and girls,” McIntyre said. “Being able to bring these kids together and give them a chance to play is a lot of fun for them. We’ve had kids from Buffalo, Poca, George Washington, Nitro, St. Albans … all these different schools that get to play together.”
That they come together at the Shawnee Sports Complex, which opened in the summer of 2018 and includes six artificial turf soccer fields, has proven to be beneficial.
“I’ve been saying for the last couple years that soccer in West Virginia is in a golden age,” McIntyre said. “Since we established the Shawnee Soccer Complex, you wouldn’t believe the amount of kids playing soccer every night. We have competitive soccer leagues and several competitive travel clubs. The academy is more designed for under-privileged kids and a lot of the ones we have aren’t under-privileged, but that was the original focus of it.”
Since agreeing to serve as head coach of the Buffalo girls program, McIntyre has encountered more challenges away from the field than on it, something not altogether unexpected.
“The first challenge is funding,” he said. “The school has been very supportive, but you want to make sure you have uniforms, training kits, after school snacks, trying to raise money for practice goals. Having the funding to make sure you can cover everything during the season is important. The other thing is making sure you have talent and commitment from players. Some girls have played academy or competitive soccer. Other girls are new to soccer. But you want a commitment to be able to establish a team and get it off on the right foot.”
Of 17 regular season games scheduled, the Bison girls soccer team has five at home while sharing a grass field with the boys soccer squad and BHS football program.
The team’s first regular season match will be held Saturday, August 23 at the Shawnee Sports Complex against Scott, which is bringing girls soccer back after a four-year hiatus. That is the same day the Shawnee Sports Complex hosts an 8-hour Middle School Socceramma, an event in its sixth year that brings together 50 middle school soccer programs from all across West Virginia to participate in scrimmages before regular season play begins.
“That’s something we’ve done to try and build up soccer at the middle school level and it’s been received well,” McIntyre said.
Shortly after the middle school scrimmages, Buffalo will battle the Skyhawks and make school history in the process.
The Bison are part of Class AA/A Region IV and the Little Kanawha Conference for their inaugural campaign.
“My expectation for this team is to have fun, a positive environment and walk away from this season knowing they accomplished something nobody has ever done before at their school,” McIntyre said. “If I can get them to come back for a second season, we’ve accomplished something. If the kid wants to come back, that means they’re having a great time and learned something. I tell people all the time, I’m not trying to create collegiate soccer players, I’m trying to create great humans.”