News
South enders start soccer league
by Rachel Kossman
MySouthEnd.com Contributor
Wednesday Jul 2, 2008
It all began with a few neighborhood parents talking about how to get their kids involved in the South End community - and now, with the help of a little seed money from the city, it could become a neighborhood soccer league.
"I had thought a couple years ago that it would be a good option, a good sports alternative in the South End, but it really grew out of a conversation with a group of residents," said Carolyn MacNeil, one of the league’s founders and community service coordinator for Area D4 police station. "I thought, let’s just throw our hat into the ring and let’s see what happens and lo and behold we were given some seed money."
That seed money came from Mayor Thomas Menino’s Boston ROCKs (Recreational Opportunity for City Kids) initiative, which has allocated $300,000 specifically to community programs this summer; MacNeil declined to reveal how much the group received for the soccer league.
"The economy is so difficult right now we wanted to make sure that kids are engaged," explained Caroline Foscato, another of the league’s founders and a South End resident. Foscato credits MacNeil for being the impetus behind the project, adding that getting it off the ground, however, is a real "team effort."
So far, the league is planning to have four groups, ranging between the ages of five and 12. Starting the week of July 14, the kids can participate in a skills clinic session for an hour and a half Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, and can then play friendly "street style" soccer matches on Thursday evenings. The league plans to hold its clinics and games at the state-of-the-art soccer field at Rotch Park on Randolph Street.
"The street soccer format gives kids the ability to be in varying teams and play with different people. It balances well if you don’t have set teams of people, you don’t have to worry about the logistics," explained Foscato. "It’s a great thing in the neighborhood that kids will be on different teams with different kids and learn to work and play with each other."
Organizers hope to attract enough attention to involve a large number of youth throughout the community; both MacNeil and Foscato are hoping that other community organizations will also get involved.
"We’re hoping other organizations that are running summer programs will take advantage of this and send kids over," said MacNeil. "That was part of the plan that we had initially... to offer something different for the kids."
While the grant money the league has received is certainly helping to get the program off the ground, the league is depending greatly on volunteers. The Boston Police Department’s activities league has donated t-shirts and Massachusetts Youth Soccer is donating balls.
"It’s really been kind of reaching out to everybody we can think of," said Foscato. Many local parents are volunteering their time to coach and referee the games, but more volunteers are always needed, she says.
"Its just going to be low key, to keep kids engaged," said MacNeil. "Hopefully they’ll learn something and we can hopefully gain some excitement for the fall."
For more information on the league, please contact Carolyn MacNeil at 617.343.5682, Jose Rodriguez at 617.635.5162 or Caroline Foscato at 617.859.7156.
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