At around 26 years old, I decided to start hosting free soccer clinics in Bridgeport on Saturday afternoons. Bridgeport is full of kids that want to do things but don’t always have the opportunity.
I reserved a field through the city office for an hour and a half and asked them to get the word out. They didn’t tell anyone and zero kids showed up. I had convinced around fifteen people to come coach with me for this free clinic. I had to keep morale up with the coaches so I started a game between all of us. We were playing and a guy walking by came to talk to us. He worked for the city and was impressed with the level we were playing at. I told him that we were there to do a free soccer clinic but no kids showed up. He vowed to me that he would get some kids for us if we did it again.
We did the same thing the next Saturday and he showed up with a Spanish family with three kids, two boys and a girl. The fifteen of us coached those three kids with so much passion and fun. Over time, we built our Saturday clinic to over 100 kids each week. Every Saturday through the Spring, Summer and Fall, we went out there and coached those kids.
Years later, I ran into some college kids in Bridgeport that recognized me. We started talking and one of them told me that when he thinks about his childhood, he thinks of those soccer clinics. He walked there every Saturday. He didn’t play on any other teams because his parents couldn’t make it work. Those clinics were the one activity he was a part of. He is now in college and plays soccer with friends multiple times per week.
What made this program so impactful was the consistency. We didn’t have the nicest equipment, we didn’t have elaborate coaching plans for each clinic, we just went out there every week for years and had fun with the kids. Being consistent has a way of making a deeper impact than getting flashy stuff for a moment.
