Street Soccer 945: Raod to the Street Soccer USA Cup 2009: FC Watershed

FC Watershed is a soccer team formed out of Watershed Church. Heidi Snyderburn contacted me this winter to get herself and her team involved with our progam. So on a Tuesday afternoon in February we met at Freedom Park and started playing soccer together. That soccer match then turned into a monthly meeting where sometimes we played against each other and other times we mixed together and played and sometimes we just talked and kicked the ball around together. The relationships that have formed between players has been a stablizing force for our team members and Watershed has truly reached out to us to get to know us. They have treated us as friends and as people and have gone the extra mile to invest in the lives of our team and community. The team has been super in their support recently helping field teams to scrimmage us in the 4 on 4 street soccer style that we will be playing in DC. They have prepared us well.

Pasted here are a few words from Heidi about their soccer team and their experience playing with us:

Watershed is a church where urban lives intersect the Divine, where compassion, conversation, and creativity coalesce, where relationships go beyond surface level and where ALL walks of life converge.

An expression of Watershed’s pursuit in these areas is by way of its developing relationship within the homeless community of Charlotte through the vehicle of soccer. For the past 6 months, Watershed’s soccer team, FC Watershed, has teamed up with Urban Ministry’s homeless soccer team, Street Soccer 945.

The two soccer teams have been scrimmaging and practicing together to prepare the 945team for the Street Soccer USA Cup in Washington, DC. The relationships built in these environments have, over time, morphed into mentoring opportunities and friendships. The partnership of FC Watershed and Urban Ministry’s 945 Team are setting an example to the greater Charlotte area that hope and transformation for it’s homeless community are possible and within reach.

Watershed is a part of our soccer family. Thier support makes our journey to Washington so much more special because we know that they are counting on us to make them proud. We will be thinking about you guys. Thanks for your support.

Street Soccer 945: Road to the Street Soccer USA Cup 2009- SS945 in the News!

Michelle Bailey of WBTV Charlotte covered Street Soccer 945 at our practice at the Sports Connection. Have a look!

http://tiny.cc/SSUSAcharlotte

Street Soccer 945: Road to the Street Soccer USA Cup 2009- TEAM BUILDING

This weekend Street Soccer 945 took the team away to the Tennessee mountains to work on some team building exercizes and to bond our team together before our trip to Street Soccer USA Cup 2009.
Peter Fink, super volunteer, invited the team to his family house. We departed on Saturday just in time to grill hot dogs and hamburgers and watch the sunset. The team then sat down at a family style dinner and took turns sharing with the group the best and worst parts of our week.

TEAM DINNER

COACHES PETE AND RAY

LUIS SPEAKS TO THE TEAM



Luis in particular opened up about his appreciation for having what he called "genuine friends" he has made on the team. While in living in Miami he said he had plenty of friends but the kind of friends he had to keep an eye on and this team has helped restore his faith in people and relearn to trust people and know there are good people out there he can let his guard down to.

On Sunday after a good nights rest with each player in a bed of his or her own, a luxury not many on our team know, we woke up to Pete cooking breakfast for everyone. Then we went down stairs to work together, to form a bond together for DC. Pete is pictured holding a couple of wooden boards. Each team member received a board after they told the team what they individually were going to bring to the team to help us be a cohesive unit on and off the field in DC. Some said, "never give up, not matter the score," while others said, "I am going to listen to my teammates and to coach." The players were given the boards and then they had to cross a pit of lava (the concrete deck) and get to the other side without touching the ground. The boards were their only refuge. If they were to take a hand off the board it would float away. This took communication and what we learned is that communication is not only talking, but listening and the tone in which you deliver you message can effect how your teammates receive what you have to say. You can tell by the pictures we came together and worked hard to get everyone across the pit safely.



PETE ASKS "WHY DID YOU LET GO OF THE BOARD?"



MISTER LOOKS FOR GUIDANCE

LUIS TALKS ABOUT WHAT THEY STRUGGLED WITH AT FIRST AND THEN WHAT MADE THEM WORK TOGETHER TO GET ACROSS

THEN THE COACHES HAD THEIR TURN!!








Rob, Ray, Pete and Curtis luckily made it too!

Former players now coaching for SS-945

Ray Isaac, Homeless World Cup Team 2005 and Tim Cummins, Homeless World Cup Team 2008 have moved into a coaching roll for Street Soccer 945 in Charlotte. Ray is mostly a team manager, making sure everyone is dressed in proper uniform and has a drink and a snack before the game. He also monitors substitutions by seeing who is into the game with a positive attitude and who works well together. Ray only allows positive cheering. Tim is the tactical coach, teaching skill and positioning and a loud voice calling for players to pick up a person on defense and to pass the ball. Both of these guys have set as a goal to be leaders and coaches for the Charlotte program. They both are doing it in their own way. Tim only shows up for games and is an example of someone who has moved on past the program in a healthy way. He's always dirty from a full days work he pops in and cheers the team up with his constant talking and smiles. Ray is now an employee of the Urban Ministry Center and runs the art room. He mentors young men and women who need a positive male role model. He counsels and encourages everyone and sees the best in them, but holds them to a standard of respect and teamwork. Big Cheers for these two excellent leaders and program graduates. (Ray on the left, Tim on the right in the picture)