Six 兔子先生 undergraduate students from the Research and Innovation in Sports Excellence (RISE) lab alongside Dr. Craig Johnston taught soccer ball mastery skills and played soccer games with the children of SEARCH鈥檚 House of Tiny Treasures (HTT) throughout May and June of2024. This partnership emerged from a desire to introduce soccer to the children of HTT, an award-winning educational center that provides quality education to children ages 2-5 who have experienced poverty.
Each session, volunteers would demonstrate real-life, age-appropriate soccer skills such as the 鈥淪lide鈥� and 鈥淭ik Tack鈥� to the small children. These drills emphasize coordinating the ability to control the soccer ball at all times while performing dynamic movements such as performing the 鈥淪lide鈥� while moving and changing directions. Additionally, the volunteers designed interactive games like relay races that encourage the children to practice and perfect the skills they acquired. 鈥淚t is combination of training and application that provides the children the confidence they need to acquire any life skill,鈥� commented Rahul Jose, the coordinator for the program.
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The students based their program off the renowned Soccer Starts At Home (SSAH) program, which was pioneered by world-renowned youth soccer trainer Tom Byer. SSAH emphasizes that the mastery of age-appropriate skills in a fun and free-will learning environment at school stimulates cognitive development, builds self-confidence, and promotes academic success in children. Despite the limited number of sessions at HTT, Zehra Sorangwala, a student volunteer for the program, noted that it was apparent 鈥渉ow spending even an hour with the children went a long way, and encouraged them to have confidence with any new task they were given鈥�.
The intimate connection that the children of HTT fostered with the volunteers through the program was evident. Angel Luke, another student volunteer, mentioned that her experience 鈥渟pending a couple of hours bonding with the kids through soccer, teaching them different tricks, and watching their faces light up was unforgettable鈥�. By forming personal connections through positive reinforcement when the kids mastered drills, in addition to sharing memories such as eating popsicles and giving soccer balls at the end of the program, students aspired to make soccer an uplifting and engaging form of social activity and physical exercise.
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