GSA
News
October 2008
Finding
their feet through soccer
By
Cindy Swirko •
Sun staff writer
Elijah Thomas always had a thing for soccer. But with cerebral palsy that keeps him mostly in a wheelchair, the 11-year-old never had the opportunity until now.
On
a recent sweltering evening Elijah — with the help
of some University of Florida volunteers — kicked
ball after ball into a goal.
Elijah is one of dozens of disabled Alachua County children and young adults who have found their feet through the TOPSoccer program run by the Gainesville Soccer Alliance.
“Elijah
has wanted to play for four years now. This is all he wants
to do now,” said his grandmother and guardian, Kathy
Thomas. “This is his favorite thing. He gets so excited
that you’d think he would fall asleep on the way
home, but all the way home he keeps thanking me.
TOPSoccer stands for The Outreach Program for Soccer and was created by the US Soccer Youth Association as a way to get disabled youngsters involved in the game.
Patti Atchison, an officer with the Gainesville Soccer Alliance, started the program locally last year. The alliance is a nonprofit organization that runs soccer teams and built fields at Alachua County’s Jonesville Park, which is where TOPSoccer is played on Friday
| More News | |
HOODIES U14
Boys Attack Blue practice player makes |
Olawale
Olaoye recieves the Rob Balloon Memorial Scholarship New
Champions of the U19 men’s division at Black
Watch Labor Day Tournament” |
| If you have any good news, please email: infor@gainesvillesoccer.org | |
available asap on a first
come first serve basis. Most of them are tiny (academy)
sizes. If we can get a second order for at least
20 we will place a second order. Please email patch87939@aol.com
asap if you are interested in getting a hoodie. Orders
will be placed next Monday, so decide now. (I would
love to have a volunteer to take over this task if
anyone is interested. It will be a short lived project
of collecting orders and money, ordering the items
and them delivering them to the managers.)
Region
ODP team
He has played defense, striker and mid-field
and presently this year is playing defense for the
U18 Boys team. Olawale is a team player and brings
strengths of speed, diligence and endurance on the
pitch. Olawale hopes to further his soccer career
at the next level in college. 
GSA
U18 boys took the field at about 3:00 pm, which
was one hour after the scheduled kick off. Our
boys played fantastic possession soccer for the
first 22 minutes. The referees stopped the game
at 23 minute mark for what they thought would
be a quick water break, but the two teams would
not return to the field for another hour, due
to lightning delay. After the game finally resumed,
GSA boys quickly capitalized on the opposition’s
miscue to score the first goal of the match and
go to the half with a 1-0 lead.