Glendon Poe | The Valdosta Daily TimesLowndes coach Jordan Breit instructs proper passing technique during a middle school summer practice Tuesday.

VALDOSTA — Under the afternoon heat of the South Georgia summer sun, middle schoolers from Pine Grove, Hahira and Lowndes middle schools developed their soccer skills at Lowndes High’s practice field Tuesday.

Lowndes varsity coaches Jordan Breit and Jake Chitty instructed and observed during the start of Week 2 of the annual Lowndes middle school summer soccer program.

Around 20 players showed up for last week’s opening day and 25 came Tuesday. Breit and Chitty both expect those numbers to continue to climb as the summer progresses.

“I don’t think we’re close to what we can get,” Breit said. “I really think by the end of the summer we’ll see 50 kids out here through all the practices.”

Lowndes will continue hosting its middle school summer program every Tuesday and Thursday in June and July — except the week of July 4th. The program runs from 4-6 p.m.

Player dues are $20 for T-shirts and equipment and joining is as simple as showing up.

“If they played at a middle school last year, they can just come and play for us,” Breit said. “If they didn’t, they need to bring a physical. We’ll sign them up, we’ll get them a T-shirt for $20 and play soccer.”

Tuesday’s two-hour session began with dynamic stretching that transitioned into agility drills. Instruction for proper passing technique preceded passing drills. Shooting drills that incorporated proper passing, diagonal runs and quick shots at goal culminated into a scrimmage.

“This practice and our varsity practices start the same way,” Chitty said. “Today, we talked about giving them harder drills because we have higher expectations. If we have high expectations, they’ll do it.”

Coaches first divided each player into groups with their corresponding school, then mixed the groups for the scrimmage.

Both Breit and Chitty noticed the players who attended last year’s middle school summer program made significant improvement throughout the 2015-16 regular season.

“We found last year that the program helped,” Chitty said. “The best players were the players that showed up last year.”

Said Breit: “There’s a group of about four or five girls out here that come to everything, and you can tell. Right now you’re seeing the benefits of what they’ve been doing, just working, coming to everything… and they’re still excited to come so that’s great.”

Chitty said two eighth graders will start practice with his varsity squad Wednesday.

The program is about developing smart players who are technically and fundamentally sound, players that not only understand the rules of the game, but understand situations and can become aware of how to react.

Like the middle school program, Lowndes is doing the same thing for its varsity players Mondays and Wednesdays.

The varsity will play in matches against other schools throughout the summer. The Lowndes boys travel for a 7-v-7 tournament at Oconee County on Friday. The Lowndes girls visit Houston County next Wednesday.

On June 25, both Lowndes varsity teams travel to Lambert for “Midnight Madness,” a 7-v-7 tournament starting at 7 p.m.

“The championship game could be at like 2 o’clock in the morning,” Chitty said. “We play all night.

“We think stuff like that will be fun. It’s better than playing at a tournament in the middle of the summer when it’s a 100 degrees outside.”

Lowndes hosts its Summer Slam 3-v-3 Challenge on July 16.

“It could be a bigger animal than we anticipated,” Breit said.

For additional information about the summer programs, email Breit (jordanbreit@lowndes.k12.ga.us) or Chitty (jakechitty@lowndes.k12.ga.us).