Scoring On and Off the Field

Past TOPSoccer athletes.

As a firm believer in paying it forward, I’ve always been involved in community service efforts.  I spent the past four years leading my high school service club of 600 students all working to make a difference in the community.  I organized food drives that brought in over 3,000 pounds of canned goods and coordinated hundreds of service opportunities for students throughout the school year.  But being assigned to volunteer in a soccer program threw me for a loop.  Why?  Because the last time I touched a soccer field I was three years old and probably scored on the wrong goal.  

But lucky for me, LYSA TOPSoccer requires no background in soccer for volunteers.  Instead, they ask for a kind, compassionate volunteer to attend weekly practices and support their players. 

Masterson Station Park.

LYSA TOPSoccer, founded in 2009, is a community program that provides a unique opportunity to athletes with a developmental, physical, or intellectual disability.  Athletes with disabilities such as Down syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy, or Cerebral Palsy are given the chance to participate in the team sport of soccer and attend weekly practices at an outdoor complex in Lexington.  The Top Outreach Program for Soccer is run solely by volunteers who serve as either an administrator or a Buddy, all under the direction of Dr. Jessie Birdwhistell.

Sunday practices, held at Masterson Station Park, are run by a team of coaches who specialize in working with special needs individuals.  Through simplistic drills and friendly competition, athletes work to improve their coordination, sportsmanship, and athletic ability all while enhancing their social skills.   

This picture features a Buddy and athlete pair from a past season.  

The key component of TOPSoccer is the Buddy system.  Each volunteer is paired with an athlete to serve as their “Buddy” - a guide on the field, friend for the day, and support system to cheer them on from the sideline.  To serve as a Buddy requires no extensive knowledge in the sport of soccer, just a patient personality willing to run alongside athletes throughout practice.  

Equally as important as the athletic component of practice is the social aspect for the athletes.  They anticipate seeing their Buddy and are ecstatic in knowing they get to be around new people each week.  Several Buddy/athlete pairs have been together for multiple seasons and have formed special friendships.  Other athletes enjoy the chance to meet new people and opt to work with a different Buddy each practice. 

I attended my first practice on September 13, 2015 and was paired with a young athlete on the Blue Thunder team named Enzo.  Enzo is a sweet soul that lights up with a big smile and hands out unlimited high-fives upon scoring a goal.  Every water break, he ran over to his mom on the sideline and gave her a big hug, gleaming with pride over his accomplishments.  I look forward to a season of working with Enzo, watching him grow and becoming his friend.  He might just have more to teach me about life than I can teach him.  

Website Citation:

TOPSoccer. (2012, August 13). Retrieved September 13, 2015.  

TOPSoccer Scores

Kicking, punching, screaming, yelling,

Shouting, crying, pushing, shoving,

A buddy helps an athlete kick the ball

Biting, fighting, cursing, spitting,

But all in the name of fun.

LYSA TOPSoccer is a program that assists disabled children and adults with athletic development and social interactions. With the help of ‘buddies’, each athlete learns the game of soccer and also develops a special relationship with their buddy. As a volunteer, the hope is to have a buddy that listens well and can copy the instructions. Unfortunately, this past week when I went to volunteer, I did not have a buddy and was very disappointed.

Though I didn’t have a buddy, I was still able to interact with the athletes as a goalie and cheerleader. At one point while I was playing as goalie, after one of the athletes scored on me, he ran behind me inside the goal and started dancing his “victory dance” and singing his “victory song”. It was pretty cute.

The athletes were doing a ‘relay race’ and I was cheering them on. At one point, an athlete named Alvin was really struggling to complete the obstacle and it was very rewarding to encourage him to push through and finish the race.

One reason that I feel so attached to these kids is because my cousin is severely autistic and I have worked with him and his golf team during Special Olympics. His name is Christopher and he inspires me every day. He struggles with the simple things like tying his shoes and going to the bathroom. Christopher has given me a new perspective on people with disabilities and on life in general. He inspired me to take a sign language class to better communicate with him and he inspired me to volunteer at LYSA TOPSoccer to get to know the disabled community in Lexington.

From volunteering at LYSA TOPSoccer, I hope to gain a better understanding of what it is like dealing every day with an incurable illness. I also want to develop a special bond with my buddy.

 

Making Goals, One Kick at a Time 

 

LYSA TopSoccer logo
(LYSA TopSoccer, 2012)

Have you ever found yourself lost on your way to a soccer field and ended up in the parking lot of a prison?  Perhaps you have not, but as of last Sunday, I am one of the few that have.  However, despite the surprising morning detour, I finally arrived at the park which LYSA TopSoccer calls home. Located on the outskirts of Lexington, KY, this park is complete with a number of soccer fields and no scarcity of caring volunteers.

 

Players having fun!

(LYSA TopSoccer, 2012)

LYSA TopSoccer is an amazing organization dedicated to providing opportunities for disabled children to learn, participate, and play soccer in a fun and encouraging environment.  According to TopSoccer’s website, the volunteer-based group was established in 1991 and the Lexington chapter has been serving this community for over seven years (2012, p. 1)  Throughout the both spring and fall seasons, participants can practice and compete in a number of soccer events aided by dedicated professional coaches and volunteers.  Practices are held every Sunday, while select Saturdays are reserved for tournaments where everyone, no matter what skill level, is part of a team known as the Blue Thunder.  However, the most important part of the program is the buddy system. Each participant has one to two “buddies” whose sole purpose is to encourage, support, and befriend the player. These volunteers demonstrate a high level of commitment and dedication to their buddy by never leaving their side during practices or tournaments.  This system makes sure no one is ever left out and ensures that every player has a friend.

LYSA TopSoccer is a very unique organization for a number of reasons. With the exception of a small fee at the beginning of the season, the organization is completely funded and operated by a group of dedicated volunteers and a handful of local organizations, such as Children's Charity Fund of the Bluegrass and The Jerome S. and Grace H. Murray Foundation.  It is because of the generosity of LYSA TopSoccer’s volunteers, that every participant, no matter his/her financial situation, is given a chance to enjoy the game of soccer and work toward his/her personal goals.  According to LYSA TOPSoccer volunteer Janice Birdwhistell, LYSA TopSoccer works to make sure participants have everything they need to succeed.  The organization is prepared to provide players with any gear they might need, such as cleats, shin guards, or a jersey.  However, LYSA TopSoccer provides more than just material possessions.  Participants become part of a community where there is no shortage of support, encouragement, and, above all, friendship!    
 

Go Blue Thunder!   

Works Cited:

LYSA TopSoccer. (2012).  What is TopSoccer?  Retrived from      http://www.lysa.org/tops/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=53

It's More Than a Game

This picture, from the LYSA TOPSoccer website,
shows buddies and players from previous years in action.

Lending a helping hand to others has always been a passion of mine that I have demonstrated through my love and constant pursuit of volunteering;  and I get the lucky opportunity to be able to earn credit for a class and do projects through work in a volunteer organization! The organization LYSA TOPSoccer was presented to me and I knew instantly that it was perfect for me due to my experience with soccer as well as my previous work with special needs children.  Through extensive research, I learned many enlightening and heartwarming things about this organization and how strongly it impacts the lives of children.

The main aim of LYSA TOPSoccer is to help children with special needs learn the game of soccer through relaxed drills and fun activities. This is done through one-on-one pairings of athletes to buddies-- us volunteers being the buddies. According to their website, the buddies attend to the physical, cognitive, behavioral, sensory and hearing needs of their athletes while giving them constant encouragement to improve.

This program began in August of 2009 and has been growing exponentially since.  It is a community-based soccer program that has truly impacted the lives of so many young individuals.  With an age range of 4-18, no child will be turned down the opportunity to get the chance to learn and play soccer in such an engaging and positive environment.

I actually got the opportunity to participate this past weekend in a practice, and it exceeded my expectations. I was paired up with a boy named Damien who made me smile from the moment I started talking to him.  His energy was unbelievable, and the time we spent hanging out and playing soccer made me so eager to come back for the next practice. I got to observe how Damien overcame the physical and mental obstacles that his ADHD and Autism created, and seeing him improve in merely an hours worth of practice just made my day.

All in all, I absolutely cannot wait to continue volunteering with this organization.  It has already been exciting as well as eye-opening and I've only been to one practice!

Website Citation:

LYSA TOPSoccer. (2012). Retrieved September 15, 2015.

Top Notch TOPSoccer Program

From a young age, I have shown a huge passion for volunteering. Through programs I participated in from 6th-12th grade, I always went above and beyond the volunteering expectations. When this project in my CIS 112 class came up, I was overjoyed. Choosing the program I wanted to be apart of at first seemed challenging, then I came across LYSA's TOPSoccer program. 

Since August of 2009, LYSA has offered the TOPSoccer program to disabled children and adults. For 7 years now, LYSA has helped these amazing souls learn the joy associated with the beautiful game of soccer. I've been on a soccer field since I was 7 years old. It's like my second home. If there's anything I could hope to do, it would be to share this love with someone else. The TOPSoccer buddy program helps me do just that. The programs website sums up what a buddy is perfectly:

"A Buddy is an invaluable volunteer. A Buddy is not a player and does not score goals. Buddies can be a caregiver, aide, family member, same-aged peer, a teenager or an adult. They can be a soccer player, someone who works with special needs children or someone who has no soccer experience."

What I love about this quote from the web page, is that it puts all the focus on the real stars of the program, the players. That's also what our job is as a buddy. We are there to cheer the kids on and make them feel like the most important people in the universe. The humility that comes with this job is overwhelming. We, as college students, for just one hour out of our week, get to volunteer our precious time for the bettering of our community, and even better, the improvement of another person's life.

This program is completely reliant on it's volunteers, which I also greatly value. Even the program's leader, Janice Birdwhistell, is a volunteer. Janice has a PhD in Psychology from The University of Kentucky, and she still chooses to volunteer her time with this amazing organization. The fact that the workers volunteer allows for greater passion in what they do. All the coaches and volunteers stand behind their work and take great pleasure in seeing their teams succeed, because that's all they receive back from the program. They're all already true inspirations to me.

This past weekend, September 13th, I got to attend my first practice. My player, Caleb is a pure ray of sunshine. According to the website, the main focus of the practice is to "..improve the overall fitness, self-esteem and social skills of your athlete." Caleb has already made amazing leaps and bounds. He's slowly learning the importance of working in groups with his fellow team members on The Blue Thunder. As his team scored goals in scrimmages, you could see his eyes light up in realization that even though he didn't score the goal, he was benefiting from his team's success.

I'm already in love with the LYSA TOPSoccer program and I cannot wait to see how the rest of the semester goes with this amazing group of people.

website APA citation:

 TOPSoccer. (2012, August 13). Retrieved September 15, 2015.