Buddy Soccer Participants Reflect on Fun, Prepare for More Games

The first season of Buddy Soccer is over for 11 exhilarated players and their 22 buddies, but the smiles endure as players, their buddies and their families look forward to the 2011 season.

The program, sponsored by in Buffalo Grove, was started by Cary Claver, who is a current board member and past president of the travel soccer club. Buddy Soccer provides kids with disabilities an opportunity to play soccer in a fun, noncompetitive environment while working with a teenage buddy one-on-one. Grove United along with several volunteers helps support Buddy Soccer, and the has provided the fields, so anyone with a special needs child can join presently at no cost.

Players, ranging in age from 6 to 18 years with developmental or physical disabilities, are paired with one or two teenage buddies that play travel soccer for Grove United. Each week the buddies guide the players through calisthenics, ball handling drills and an actual game. Buddy Volunteer coordinator Eileen Rubin ensures players and buddies who stay with them throughout the season are well matched so that the experience is rewarding for all.

Claver said Grove United had been thinking about creating a buddy league for quite some time.

“Our goal is to get kids moving around and provide them with an opportunity for social engagement, as well as, get the teens of our community to participate in and enjoy helping others," Claver said. "Most importantly, we want all the kids to walk away with a smile.”

Brad Morgan, who is the board Treasurer of Grove United Soccer, has three children who volunteered as buddies one Saturday. “It is so rewarding to see all the children out there together, working as a team to build skills, connect with one another and lift confidence. The greatest achievement of Buddy Soccer is not the goals they make, but the goals they set and achieve together,” Morgan said.

And it seems to be working. Eleven-year-old Tyrese Walker, a student at Virginia Lake School in Palatine, said, “It feels so good when I score goals. I love to run. I love to pass the ball with my buddies.”

Peter Whelan, a 7-year old at Windsor School in Arlington Heights heartily agrees with a succinct “Wow!” And Amanda Konopacki, a Grove United soccer player and seventh-grade buddy who attends Aptakisic Junior High in Buffalo Grove, concurs. “It’s really fun to see and help other kids. The players are so excited to come to soccer and that makes me feel good," she said.

Because of the popularity of the program this fall, Grove United plans on repeating the Buddy Soccer Program this spring starting May 1. Information on registration for buddies and participants is posted on the Grove United website.