GAME CHANGERS

Soccer program helps kids reach goals

WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON

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It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when Shawn Williams didn’t even know what a soccer ball looked like. At least, that’s what he claims.

“I knew nothing about it,” he says with a laugh. “Since I was 18 years old, I have coached football and basketball, but I was actually introduced to the sport by my oldest son, Sean Williams Jr., who started playing. That was my first introduction to the game.”

But he quickly learned about the sport through his son. And Williams discovered that soccer provided both physical skills, as well as life lessons that are valuable and unique.

“It combines a lot of things from other sports that I enjoy ... the running from basketball and football, but soccer is really the sport that’s most like life. The coach is not calling the plays for you to run. The coach doesn’t call the timeouts when there’s a problem. It’s really the children, the players, who are doing that. So in that sense, it’s truly an athletes’ game,” Williams says. “The coaches are really there to just observe and make subtle changes, but the game is the really in the hands of players. They have to step up when things are not going right or there’s some adversity.” Those are powerful lessons that offer so much value off the field. And it’s why he wanted to help bring soccer to more children. So in 2004, Williams and his supporters founded Coastal Outreach Soccer in Brunswick.

“At the time, the City of Brunswick didn’t have a soccer program. We wanted to be able to reach the children that live primarily in the city limits of Brunswick and also focus on helping to increase the high school graduation rate while serving these kids,” he said.

Today, Coastal Outreach Soccer works with the Glynn County School System and the Brunswick Recreation Department. It offers an Academy Program for youngsters ages 4 to 10. This group meets at different locations, many of those being public housing complexes and public parks, to stage Saturday morning scrimmage games.

“With this program, we bring all of those kids together and we don’t tell anyone who they’re playing. We just hand out the vests and have those scrimmage games. It reduces the anxiety of playing, so there’s no stress that you have to beat a certain team,” he says. “We’re not focused on winning, we focus on learning and developing relationships and friendships with everyone.”

In addition to the Academy Program, Williams says they also provide a travel program for older students. This allows children in sixth through 12th grades to further blossom as soccer players.

“This is an affiliate of the Grass Field Georgia Soccer Association. It’s a part of the U.S. Soccer Federation, which is the national governing body. So we have a set schedule and the games take us as far away as Northern Atlanta or Athens. But even though it’s a competitive team, we don’t focus on winning. We have some 9th and 10th grade students who’ve never played the game before,” he says.

The program continues to expand and Williams is thrilled that Coastal Outreach Soccer will open its own futsal court early this year at Howard Coffin Park. The court will support a form of indoor soccer played on a hard surface between two teams of five players each. The project, Williams adds, is a huge boost for area soccer.

“We are extremely excited. The GA 100 campaign, which is led by the Atlanta United Foundation, provided the matching funds along with corporations and individuals. We will have one of the first futsal courts in the South,” he says.

And while the game continues to grow, Williams adds that the other side of the coin remains equally important. Not only does Coastal Outreach Soccer offer children a start at the sport, it also provides academic support for future success. The students enrolled receive tutoring and mentoring, as well as incentives in the form of COS gear for maintaining honor roll status and keeping their grades up.

For Williams, it all fits together to help produce grounded and well-rounded adults, as well as proficient student athletes. In many cases, the program inspires participants to continue their education through college, quite literally changing the trajectory of their lives.

“You see these children who come into the sport, most often as first-generation soccer players. And they accept it as their thing. We get to watch them grow and develop as individuals over a period of 10 years,” he says. “We’re able to be there, assisting them and helping them reach their goals, whether that’s on the field or going to college.”

For more information on Coastal Soccer Outreach, visit coastaloutreachsoccer.com.

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