Spring 2023 Season a Success
It has been a joyful spring season for the children of Chester Upland Youth Soccer and all of their supporters.
CUYS’ after-school soccer program ran three days per week at Edgmont Scholars Academy, Main Street Elementary and Stetser Elementary, and two days per week at Chester Charter Scholars Academy, Eddystone Elementary and Fairgrounds Community. It was our honor to receive a 2023 Community Partnership Award for our work in the Chester Upland School District, which encompasses three of these schools.
Here are some demographics about the children we served this spring:
94 percent indicated they qualify for free or reduced school lunch.
43 percent are female; 57 percent are male.
43 percent are in kindergarten through second grade; 52 percent are in third through fifth grade; 5 percent are in sixth through eighth grade.
68 percent identify as African American; 9 percent identify as Caucasian; 7 percent identify as Hispanic/Latino; 2 percent identify as Asian; 11 percent identify as Other/Multi-Ethnic; 3 percent did not share their ethnicity.
45 percent had never played soccer before the CUYS season began.
CUYS’s end-of-season survey showed these findings:
94 percent agreed: "After participating in Soccer for Success, I enjoy the idea of physical activity more than I did prior."
94 percent agreed: "After participating in Soccer for Success, I try harder to stay away from violence and fighting."
90 percent agreed: “After participating in Soccer for Success, I make healthier choices when deciding what to eat or drink."
92 percent agreed: “After participating in Soccer for Success, I feel better about myself."
All children who register for CUYS are invited to weekend events run by sister organization Youth Development United, at which healthy lifestyle choices are further encouraged for the children and their families through athletics, dance, career discovery activities, music, outdoor adventures and other fun. All programming is offered free of charge to families, and is intended to increase access to wellness, the arts and personal development. Plus, they provide more opportunities for families to spend time positively engaged together.
For example, on June 5, CUYS families were invited to Crozer Library and its “backyard,” Chester’s Memorial Park, for a variety of fun activities. Included were the latest installment of YDU Career Discovery Day (featuring jobs at the library), a musical instrument petting zoo hosted by Keep Music Alive, free lunch for all, and of course, soccer drills and a fun scrimmage.
This soccer season, our partnership with The Player Project significantly raised the level of coaching expertise that the organization was able to provide to the children, especially compared with the rest of the pandemic era. Additionally, our program enjoyed tremendous support from the Widener University community, including its Physical Therapy department and its varsity women’s soccer team.
We asked our coaching staff about their favorite memories from the season. Here are some responses:
Seeing the kids have fun and stay active
I enjoyed getting to know all the Edgmont students and having fun while teaching them soccer, teamwork, and healthy habits!
Showing up the first day, it was an incredible experience getting to know the kids who came. They were incredibly excited to have us there to coach and made us feel so welcome. I enjoyed working with the kids and certainly learned a lot from this experience.
I enjoyed getting to interact with the kids individually and seeing them open up.
My favorite memory from my coaching experience so far has been seeing the children's improvement in their soccer skills over the weeks. It is nice to see them actually learning some new skills and improve over time. As well as, it is nice to see how excited they are to now to play soccer when they come down to the gym.
Meeting and working with the kids at Fairgrounds Community. They are the best bunch and all so polite. I would love to continue coaching there next semester!
Meeting all of the kids and seeing how much they enjoyed the program. It was great to be a part of something that you can tell had a positive impact on a group.
Seeing them smile everyday because whenever I’m there
I really enjoyed getting to work with the kids of Edgmont Scholars Academy.
I really enjoyed this experience and enjoyed getting to know the kids in Community Fairgrounds.
I would definitely like to continue coaching at Fairgrounds next semester, the kids were so great!
I’m glad I got this chance to help us much as can and will continue to do so if the opportunity is giving
My favorite moment from my coaching experience so far occurred at Edgmont. I had been there for a couple of sessions and there was a player who really wanted to dribble, but “dribbled” by passing the ball back and forth between her legs instead of letting it roll and do the work for her. I helped her to work towards improving her dribbling to the point where she looked like a completely different player. She then went into the scrimmage that day and dribbled around a fellow student and made a crazy accurate pass for a goal. She was so excited to have done it well. The smile on her face after completing that move is one thing I will never forget.