July 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 22

Who, What, Where & how Around the Parks

Mentoring and healthy lifestyle tips are offered in Washington, DC (above) and
Los Angeles.

authoritative way. "
Chen explains that all of the coaches
go through training on how to work with
low income kids, who often have not participated in a sports program before. " A
lot of the urban kids, we don't know where
they came from or what their background
is in terms of whether or not they had
breakfast or even had a meal that day, "
Chen says. " We don't kick people off the
team-it's not competitive. We're not trying to create the next Pelé. We're trying
to develop these kids in a very positive
way and address the areas that they lack. "

20 Parks & Recreation

J U LY 2 0 1 1

The program uses a small-sided
game format, allowing four smaller fields
marked by cones and pop-up goals to
fit in the space of one regular field. Play
begins immediately, with no drills, but
later in the session various themes are
introduced, such as nutrition tips. Another advantage of the small-sided format
is increased playing time for all of the
students.
" The kids can't hide, " Welch chuckles. " So there's a lot of running and a lot
of touching on the ball, making the game
and the ball the best coach. "

www.NRPA .ORG

The foundation has been measuring
body mass index of players at the beginning and end of the season. Though
complete results of the Stanford University study are still pending, many students
have dropped from the obese to overweight category, or from overweight to
normal, Chen says.
" We have an incredible amount of
girls participating in the program, specifically in the inner city, " Welch says proudly. " We have a lot of young ladies with a lot
of weight issues....We started with some
girls who could not run up and down this
small field. By the end of the program,
they're running, they're jogging, and
they're not breathing hard. "
Although hampered by privacy concerns, the foundation also hopes to add
measurements for attendance and academic success for participants. Chen
says that the major obstacles for expansion of the program include finding field
space, preferably at or near schools. Another challenge is finding local funding
partners, which are needed to contribute
between 33 and 66 percent of the money
for each program. In Houston that effort
was kick-started by the owner of a local
taxi company, who made a $10,000 donation to local youth soccer programs.
" Our number-one objective when
we started the program was academic excellence, " Welch says. " We're using soccer as a vehicle to motivate kids
to understand the importance of staying
in school....living the dream of getting a
college career. We know about the physical benefits of soccer and now there are
academic benefits. "
-Elizabeth Beard, Managing

Editor, Parks & Recreation

Photos by Zola Short (below) and Zach Ridge (above)

We're not trying to create
the next Pelé. We're trying to
develop these kids in a very
positive way and address
the areas that they lack.

July 2011 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2011 - Parks & Recreation