Sam Stoner
@sstonercourant
Every Saturday morning during the fall, a large group of children from all age groups can be found on the soccer field at Saxe Middle School. However, the children are not playing an ordinary game of soccer. TOPSoccer, a program which enables athletes with special needs to get moving and have some fun outside, invites children from around town to play soccer with some people they would not usually play with.
The TOPSoccer program is just one part of a larger program called Sports Buddies, which offers a variety of sports from soccer to basketball to kickball, depending on the time of year. The program has been around for 15 years and offers the athletes a chance to meet new people.
Photo by Sam Stoner
One coach, Josh MacDonald, describes the program as an opportunity for children with special needs to socialize and play sports. “The program itself is to allow children with special needs to have a social experience and to learn sports skills. That’s really the main goal for the program,” he said. “Underneath that is for a volunter type environment to come in and help with that. It helps children with special needs get involved in the community more and learn the social skills that are really needed.”
Sports Buddies Coach Howie Berg says the goal of the program is to allow the athletes to try a variety of sports and help them live like ordinary children. “The basic idea is to provide some form of activity every Saturday morning to the kids,” Coach Berg said. “It’s to know that they have somewhere to go every weekend just like typical kids do.”
Coach Josh MacDonald believes the program not only benefits the athletes with special needs, but also the volunteers who come out to help. “It helps the volunteers by getting them out of their comfort zone and looking at sports in a different way,” Coach MacDonald said.
Coach Berg feels that there are three main ways in which the athletes benefit. “Many of our kids don’t get regular exercise so this is a way for
Photo by Sam Stoner
them to number one, get regular exercise; number two, socialize with other kids; and three, to have some fun,” he said. “They see everyone else playing on Saturday morning so why can’t they?”
A third coach, Chad Garrett, believes the character and mood brought onto the field helps the athletes in many ways. “They are getting a lot of team interaction with each other,” Coach Garrett said. “They’re having great sportsmanship, their attitudes are great, and it gives them a good deal of confidence to deal with everything else that’s going on in their lives.”
Despite the positive aspects of the TOPSoccer and Sports Buddies as a whole, there are still some issues. The program runs smoothly each Saturday but there is always room for improvement. “There could be more people, as far as even more athletes.” Coach Garrett said. “The more the merrier.”
Coach MacDonald recommends that people should come at least once and see how they like it. “We can always use more buddies,” he said. “Just come out and give it a try even though it’s on a Saturday morning. It’s a great program and everyone is likable and we could always use more support.”
Coach Berg spoke about the diversity of athletes and how all of them require different amounts of attention and care. “Our kids have all
Photo by Sam Stoner
kinds of different needs. Sometimes it’s difficult to meet their expectations and needs and it’s challenging, but getting all the kids to come down is the most important part,” he said.
The Service League of Boys (SLOBs), a club at NCHS, supplies Sports Buddies with many volunteers throughout the year. “We can rely on an organization to keep sending pretty much the same people week after week, and our athletes develop relationships with the buddies that come down, that’s a very important part of the program,” Coach Berg said.
Coach Garrett thinks that the volunteers who come to help are great and benefit the athletes in a major way. “We have a good amount of help, great buddies, and people that are very knowledgable about the sports that we’re doing,” he said. “We have wonderful kids, so in my opinion, the only thing is getting the word out so people know we have an amazing program all around.”
Coach Berg thinks that the program is a good way for him to get out each Saturday and have some fun. “I love the program, the kids, and everybody who helps,” Coach Berg said. “It really starts the weekend off the right way and I want to see it keep going.”
