With this team challenge, trainer Christopher Brand wants to keep his players happy in lockdown and ensure the fitness factor. Since the start in December, an impressive 1600 kilometers have come together. “We are divided into three groups. The two groups that are ahead at the restart of the football season will receive a small prize. The last group takes over the field service in the second half of the season, ”explains Dominik Schumacher. The 21-year-old is under the average age of 24 in the young VfR team, but is already in the fourth season and has long since fought for a regular place in the defense.
He has been playing for the red-blacks since he was a child: “The VfR once offered a trial training session for mini-kickers. It was so much fun for me that I stayed, ”says Dominik Schumacher, who went through all years of the youth play community Borgentreich / Bühne and was allowed to help out in the first team in the last year of youth. “That was good. I trained in the first and also got assignments. It was easier to gain a foothold there, ”he remembers the transition to the senior area. For one year, the A youth district league was on Saturdays and the senior district league on Sundays. “It was sometimes stressful, but the coaches always coordinated with each other,” clearly outweighed the advantages of the double shift for the defender.
So he could slowly get used to the senior sector. “Another kind of football is being played there. The game is more physical and much faster than in the A-youth ”, said Schumacher. “In addition, the top teams like last year Lippspringe or Heide Paderborn are very strong in terms of play. You have to be careful that you are played dizzy. ”
That apparently worked out well: the 21-year-old quickly secured his place in the back line and was not missing a single minute before the lockdown this season. With eighth place at the early winter break and especially with victories against higher-ranking teams, the VfR is even a bit above expectations. “We are a counter-strong team and therefore looked very good against strong teams like Dringenberg or Lemgo,” said Dominik Schumacher, recalling two surprise victories, but also admits “that we usually have a harder time against teams at eye level.”
A plus of the borrowers is the cohesion. In the first team, all players play who have already laced their football boots for the club in their youth. That shouldn’t be the case with many clubs in the district league.
