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Scoring for Education Campaign

Soccer and Education, The Global Team, Youth Soccer

Nov 282012

Happy Holidays from the Global Team

2012 has been an exciting year for the Global Team. Having started just over 12 months ago, I am happy to report the joint efforts of our volunteers, partners and supports has already led to the first signs of growth and impact. From our continued partnership with GOALSHaiti to our newest partnership with ARISE Foundation Uganda, we are excited about the work happening on the ground around our mission.

However, this is the season not only to reflect but to look forward. In 2013, we are planning to complete a translation of our environmental curriculum into Haitian Creole, provide a 3-day training for our Ugandan coaches and expand our online tools and resources. With your support of our current initiatives, we can ensure that our youth receive access to educational outcomes and structured learning experiences centered around the sport of soccer.

Looking to give a meaningful gift this holiday season? Please consider donating a gift to the Global Team and our international programs. Looking to support locally? Starting in 2013, through the support of you and our volunteers , we are preparing to start a locally-based program here in the Pacific Northwest. At the Global Team, we recognize that local kids need as much support as kids in Haiti or Uganda, and this new effort is a result of that recognition.

All these developments are exciting but the success of the Global Team is linked to your kindness and support. A donation from you today will provide education, hope and support to our children and coaches. Today, as we begin a season of thanksgiving and holiday celebrations, I ask you to make a life-changing tax-deductible donation to the Global Team. Your gifts go a long way in ensuring we can continue to provide our players primary education through soccer.

Please join with us this holiday season by giving the gift of education and soccer to our players around the world. Donate today to the Scoring for Education Campaign.

Thank you,

Heather Turney

May Day: Tips for Successful Soccer Programs

Grassroots Soccer, Soccer and Education, Sport and Development, Youth Soccer

May 012012

This month the Global Team will be highlighting fun ideas, tips and suggestions for developing soccer programs and integrating education onto the field. As many of us know, there is much more behind-the-scenes action that occurs before and after the blowing of the whistle.

Don’t know the first thing about soccer programs or sport for youth development? No worries, here are the first three tips of the month:

Keep it Age Appropriate

Beginning players and players at the youngest ages need a different structure than older players. As a general rule, the younger the player focus should be placed on smaller teams (ie. 3v3 or 4v4) and individual ball play. As players age, slowly grow teams and move practices towards pair and group play. Full 11v11 play should not be introduced until around age 11! By following this simple guide, you will ensure that players have the most success possible and are learning at levels that match their age and development.

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Lessons in Unlikely Places

Youth Education

Apr 242012

One of the reasons my life took a turn down the Elementary Education path is that I never outgrew my love for kid stuff. I wear Lego earrings and play video games, I still get kid-level excitement walking into a toy store; but most of all I love cartoons.

Sitting down to write this post, one particular cartoon sprang to mind. A Nickelodeon show, The Legend of Korra, premiered last week. It’s set in a world where people can harness the power of the four elements: earth, fire, air and water. Our hero, Korra, has mastered three of the four, and in the series premiere she goes to find a master to teach her Airbending.

Korra reminds me of most of the kids in my 2^nd grade class. She is impulsive, compassionate and confident. She can’t sit still and is easily bored, thus she tends to get into a lot of trouble. Her teacher is a spiritual old man, well-respected and experienced in guiding young people through to mastery, but he cannot handle Korra. She can’t sit still long enough to meditate, she destroys most of the training equipment because she loses first her patience and then her temper, and she repeatedly disobeys his commands.

Our Top Ten Reasons Why: Education through Soccer

Grassroots Soccer, Soccer and Education, The Global Team, Youth Education

Apr 082012

This post highlights our Top Ten Reasons why we love soccer, believe in the importance of education and promote education through soccer. What are yours?

1. Soccer or Football is Universal: More popular than any other one sport, more transcendent than any one culture, more connective than any one langauge, the sport of soccer touches everyone everywhere no matter the differences. Example, there are more national member of FIFA than the United Nations.

2. The Team: While there are many team-based sports, nothing compares to soccer because the team expands beyond the 11 players on the field. Need an example? How many photos have you seen with people huddled around the one tv in their village or packed into a pub. Is it because they want to watch the game? No. It’s because they are part of the team.

3. The Passion: Now we are sure that many sports fans would call themselves passionate, but how many structure two weeks around one cup, waking up at 4am or staying up to 2am on a work day, just to watch a “game”? Or how many people can say that they play even if they have to use a rock to replace a ball? We venture to guess not many…

4. The Health Benefits: Nothing is better for the body or the soul than being active and physically fit. Enough Said.

5. The Academic Benefits: As we highlighted in our last post, sport and physical activity has a huge impact on a person’s ability to learn due to increase blood flow and an increased ability to stay focused. Education through Soccer.

5. The Great Equalizer Education: Each one of us is born with a dream, an inspirational goal or a vision of our future. These are shaped by the environment we live in, our culture, parents, friends and family. But they are achieved in part due to our access to education. Without an education an idea cannot be developed, a goal cannot be articulated and a vision cannot become a truth. By giving everyone an education, even a basic one, dreams are given the energy and the ability to be put into actuality.

6. Good Education is Fun: Education should not be a teacher in the front of the classroom lecturing at students. A good education should be a creative environment where students are asked questions, challenged to think and find solutions with the teacher and their classmates. This is why we believe in using activities, discussion and of course soccer, to provide education!

7. Teachers and Coaches Are Important: Teachers and coaches are the people who, in some instances, spend more time with children than parents. While they are instrumental to developing creative, confident leaders, they are role models and mentors to their children. This is why we focus so much energy providing our local partners with training – so that they understand their role as leaders of exploration and role models, not only as a teacher or soccer coach.

8. Soccer has the Power to Change the World: This may sound like a strong claim, but the universal power and attractive that soccer has can be used to develop cross-cultural understanding, empathy, education, life-skills and so much more. Our Founder & Executive Director, Heather Turney, was once told a story by a young gentleman who was lucky enough to be discovered in Africa, brought to the United States and is now playing professionally in the MLS. His story stayed with her because it underscored the power of soccer and the role it has with education. What he said was that many times instead of going to school, he would skip out and go play soccer – because that was all he had ever dreamed of doing, even if he knew that education was important to his future.

9. Education through Soccer: Our vision is for every child to have access to a creative education that leverages the power of soccer to realize dreams. the Global Team seeks to ensure that every child is provided the chance to learn by integrating educational topics with the sport of soccer to keep kids engaged in their education while developing creative leaders and providing high quality education through local, low-cost solutions. This is why we believe in the power of ‘Education through Soccer’.

10. …?: You, our supporters around the world, are part of the ‘global team’ – so let us know what you think one of the most important reasons why soccer, education or education through soccer is important.

Physical Activity and Academic Performance

Soccer and Education, Sport and Development, The Global Team, Youth Education

Mar 232012

Whenever I begin introducing the Global Team and our mission of using soccer to provide access to primary education, I am met with a range of questions. How can sport impact academic performance? How could sport be used to provide education? How does sport support or enhance educational outcomes?

Given the current state of education in America, and indeed across the world, of cutting physical education, reducing the number of after school sport activities and programs, this is a good question to ask.

The answer is multi-fold.

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