Date & Time: Every Friday afternoon between 3:30-6pm
Location: BLADIUM, ALAMEDA
Who is attending: Street Soccer USA’s After School Program Partners – Rudsdale Continuation School, Street Academy Alternative High School
Description:
Street Soccer USA’s Oakland community is taking a new shape.
Over the past few months, SSUSA has been partnering with Bay Area Community Resources to bring our programs to transitional age youth at Rudsdale Continuation School and Street Academy Alternative High School.
Every Friday, these after school program teams come together with other continuation or alternative high schools in Oakland to compete in a Street League.
Street League games are held at Bladium Sports Complex in Alameda, a small island just off the Oakland Harbor. Our teams travel to Alameda each week because Oakland does not have an indoor soccer or Futsal facility. Many of the youth carpool with their teammates, school site instructors, or us coaches! Getting to and from the game is a great chance for the youth to Build their Triangles.
Street Soccer USA runs practices twice a week at their High School campuses, and our practices are either held on black top or hardwood basketball courts. We are able to transform this playspace with our unique street soccer style of play—we play small sided games and activities which focus on building both soccer skills and life skills through playing in a fun and positive environment.
The Street League games on Fridays provide a competitive atmosphere for these teenagers. It creates a space where they can strategize and learn about a host of topics like: tactical organization, how to play as a group, commitment to defense, unselfishness, leadership, hard work, perseverance, empathy, respect to the game, respect of authority and refereeing, discipline, and sportsmanship.
It is amazing to see how these kids have grown as individuals just by playing soccer and most importantly by enjoying the competitive atmosphere of Street League games. At the start of the Spring Season for the Street League, our coaches noticed how many of their players were overly prideful—wanting to have rivalries with other schools in their league and showing violence toward other players and the referees. Our coaches therefore made sure to create a positive environment at each game; players shake hands at the end of the games, are recognized for showing sportsmanship, and have started to develop friendship among all teams that play in the Street League.
As a result of that, we have decided to create a Community Club including all the various players from the Street League, with the hope of creating one or two Oakland teams, representing our Town in the SSUSA Cup Series, at local tournaments, national cups, and on the world stage at the Homeless World Cup in Wales!
