From Coronado to Cape Town: Soccer Uniforms Donated to Young Lions FC

By Brooke Clifford

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, one local family found a way to help a soccer club 10,000 miles away in Cape Town, South Africa. I had a chance to speak with George Smith about his family’s ongoing efforts to help supply the Young Lions Football Club (FC) with equipment and their own uniforms.

The Smiths hail from England and have brought their love of soccer to Coronado when they moved to the States about ten years ago. Just before that, Smith had attended the 2010 World Cup in South Africa which is where the inspiration to help out Young Lions FC began. “Some friends and I decided we wanted to try and do something to help people while we were out there,” he began. “So we collected 300 football shirts and took them over in our luggage, and we went to an orphanage in Johannesburg and then an orphanage in Durban and gave out the soccer kits to kids out there.”

“It went really well,” Smith continued. “We played soccer with the kids at the orphanages in their new football shirts and it was a cool experience. They seemed to enjoy it and so did myself and my friends.” Fast forward ten years and Smith was planning another trip to South Africa for a friend’s wedding in Cape Town. “We’d thought we could do the same sort of thing leading up to the wedding, collecting football shirts to bring to Cape Town when we went.”

Smith’s three children are involved in the recreation and Coronado FC soccer programs, and he approached Cindi Gehler, a member of the Coronado Youth Soccer League (CYSL) Board of Directors, with the idea. “We knew Cindi, and I figured if anyone would know about extra kits, she would,” Smith noted. “So I asked if the club had extras, and they had just switched over from Nado Select to Coronado FC, and she told me they had boxes of stuff.”

Gehler and Coronado FC were able to bring Smith 140 full Coronado uniforms. Smith also collected donations from the CYSL recreation league teams he coaches, pieces from thrift stores around San Diego and kits the Smith kids had outgrown or no longer needed, all adding to a growing supply that he would take with him to the wedding in Cape Town. But then COVID-19 began to spread worldwide and the shutdowns began. “Our friends were out here visiting us right before COVID, and luckily they got home to England before [the shutdowns], but the wedding was called off,” Smith recalled. “Suddenly we had all this stuff with no way to get it to South Africa.”

“We had been wondering if we should take it to an orphanage again, but this time we had full kits so we thought it might be better to find a club,” Smith explained. He got in touch with the friends who had been planning their wedding in Cape Town, and they reached out to their family there and found the Young Lions Football Club.

“They’re based out of one of the South African townships and seemed like a really worthy cause to have these full jerseys to donate to.”

Alfonso “Fonnie” Manuel runs the club which is based in the Delft township of Cape Town, where the average monthly income is about $300. “I had been in contact with Fonnie and had told him all this stuff was coming and when I learned I wouldn’t be going I felt really bad as I’d promised them these 150 sets of kits,” Smith told me. “But then my kids came in and got the idea that we could recycle cans and they would do lemonade stands and we could use that money to pay for shipping to get it all over there.”

As the family had been saving up with their fundraising efforts and keeping in touch with Fonnie, a stroke of good luck came about earlier this year. “My wife mentioned that our friend and neighbor, Jessica Tompane, would be going over to South Africa,” Smith said. “She kindly agreed to take some of the donations with her and managed to bring 70 pounds of stuff (the maximum she could take) to Cape Town.”

Since February the Young Lions FC players, ranging from U-8 (under eight) to U-18 (under 18) boys teams, have been able to make use of the Coronado uniforms that Tompane was able to bring over to them. “Before all they had were t-shirts and for games they’d try to all wear a black t-shirt and that would be their uniform,” Smith added. “So we were happy to get that over, and we still have about 30 pounds of stuff to figure out how to get to them.”

Smith also has another goal in mind now, which is to help Young Lions FC get their own jerseys. “We would love to get them their own kits so that the Coronado stuff could be used for training and they can have a Young Lions kit for their games, so that’s our next target,” he mentioned. The Smith family is still working on collecting spare jerseys, but also on raising money now to get new uniforms made. The Smith kids have raised a little over $300 so far with their can recycling and lemonade stand efforts to help the cause, and Smith has been reaching out to friends and fellow soccer lovers to reach their goal.

A design with the club’s green, yellow, and red colors has been created with input from Fonnie, and the Smith family has collected enough funds so far to have jerseys made and shipped to Cape Town for one of the club’s age groups. “We found a way to get whole new kits made at $20 a kit, so every $20 goes to a kit for a kid to wear and can get passed on from generation to generation in the club. So these would be for all the kids going through that football club over there,” Smith added. For Smith, seeing these efforts come together and how his family and the community have gotten involved has been particularly special. “It’s been cool to get my kids involved where they’re able to see how lucky they are to have a home jersey, an away jersey, a practice jersey, and perfect grass fields, etc., and to have the chance to see kids super happy to play soccer who don’t have those things,” he described. His son, Charlie, who was present for our chat as well, nodded at this. “I hope it’s been helping them early on to think about being altruistic, and I think that’s something that the Coronado schools have done a great job in as well.”

“And thanks to Cindi and Coronado FC, which is such a wonderful community asset for all the kids in Coronado, especially at the moment in times of COVID when sports are more important than ever after kids have been stuck indoors” he continued. “I coach as well and I think it’s such a great way for kids everywhere to stay out of trouble and keep them busy and on the right track health wise, and with mental attitude, and as a way to communicate,” he noted. “I’m a big believer in that, and being able to help people who are less fortunate and be able to help them enjoy soccer makes me feel really happy about this.”

Smith hopes to be able to continue these efforts in the future and help other kids in need around the world, as well, but for now they are focusing on their efforts with Young Lions FC. “I would love to someday visit Cape Town and get the chance to meet Fonnie and see them play and

what they’ve got going on as a club,” Smith said. “In [the] meantime I’m getting to live vicariously through the club’s Facebook posts and it’s super cool to see those Coronado shirts and the Coronado FC club being representing miles away.”

Anyone is welcome to get involved and help donate gear or money for Young Lions Football Club uniforms, and can contact George Smith at georgeecfc+kitsforkids@gmail.com for more information or visit https://www. freefunder.com/campaign/new-kits-foryoung-lions.

To see more about Young Lions FC and their soccer exploits, check out their Facebook page at https://www.facebook. com/groups/328883024686131/.