By: James Meara
Pittsburgh Soccer in the Community (PSC) is a 501c3 organization that was formed in 2004 by James Meara and Mark Taylor. As any parent who has a kid involved in youth sports in America knows, it doesn’t come cheap. Now take a kid in the inner city’s poorer neighborhoods and imagine the chances of that kid ever being able to have that chance of making and affording to be on a team…. slim to none.
The day to day issues and needs that face inner city kids are more along the lines of housing, clothing, shoes and food. PSC has brought soccer coaching to kids in those underprivileged areas at no cost. Sports are positive for all kids in so many ways: exercise, discipline, team work, and respect for teammates, opposition, and officials; Not to mention the leadership qualities that come from sports. At the end of many of the hour long soccer sessions, PSC invites guest ‘lifestyle’ speakers in from other community youth action groups to talk to the kids about making the right decisions in life and what opportunities are available to them.
One of the many wonderful stories comes from a 2008 summer camp in the East Hills area of Pittsburgh. Twenty children attended the camp along with local probation officers, volunteering their time. The officers joined in with the soccer games and gave advice to the kids. At the end of the camp one of the fathers who had three kids at the camp came up to James and Mark, thanked them for a wonderful week and said, “This is truly wonderful for the kids of this area, this is exactly what they need around here. I just don’t want my kids to make the same mistakes as I did in life, please come back again.”
The Pittsburgh Riverhounds partnered with PSC in 2007 in order to promote their programs and get the local soccer pros into the community. We encourage all families and businesses to support their mission of changing lives for the better through the world’s most popular sport!
For more information please visit www.pittsburghsoccer.org