Youth Soccer Team Lands State Championship, Wins National Fundraising Honors
boyle, cancer research, central kentucky soccer club, duane steber, lincoln and mercer counties, recreation, state championship,
Winning the state champion-ship in 2007 was plenty to brag about. But when the Central Kentucky Soccer Club’s Under 12 boys team came in first in the nation for a very special fundraising effort, it made for quite a year.
The team – composed of boys from Boyle, Lincoln and Mercer counties – shocked the competition when it beat out the previous year’s champions, the Thoroughbreds of Oldham, in the state finals.
“It was the first time they entered and the first time they won, so that’s pretty good,” says Duane Steber, who coaches the team along with Rick Angel and Stephen Hall. “I thought we had a chance, but we were playing with some of the top teams in the state – places like Louisville and Lexington, where they’ve got more people and more teams. Nobody could believe it when we got done that day.”
Other than the fun of pouring ice-cold water down their coaches’ necks after the big win, the team members had another big incentive. In addition to playing for a championship, they had been working to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s “Soccer Kicks for Cancer” program. And for a very personal reason.
Team member Mason Angel’s younger brother Drew had been diagnosed with leukemia about a year prior to the start of the season. The struggles he and his family faced during the various treatments for his illness hit home with the boys and their families, so they joined forces with Soccer Kicks for Cancer and set about getting pledges.
When it was all said and done, the U12 team had raised almost $5,500, the most of any soccer club in the country. Not only that, but Drew Angel’s team raised the second-highest amount.
“It was pretty impressive. They really got out there,” says Cindy Angel, Drew’s mother.
“When our younger son was diagnosed in fall 2005, we learned about the fundraising, and my older son Mason and his teammates went around asking teachers, friends and other people if they would sponsor them. It was really very personal for the kids.”
Each player had to get 2,000 touches on a soccer ball within a two-week period, and they received donations of $10 on up from contributors.
Soon after the drive was over, the team found out it had led the nation, Angel says.
“We were competing against teams nationwide, in much bigger places, so it was really an amazing feat,” she says.
For finishing first and second, the two teams earned a visit from professional soccer player John Michael Hayden of the Houston Dynamo.
“He’s from Kentucky and had played on teams here,” Angel says. “They had worked so hard, and getting a visit from him was really special.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by submitted
