The Sudbury Canadians Soccer Club received a
$25,000 grant from the True Sport Foundation and Bell Canada as
part of the Bell Community Sport Fund recently. The money will
be used to develop a Soccer Outreach Project to provide
increased accessibility and promote youth participation in
sport. The program will organize soccer clinics at 22 local
elementary schools during the winter and offer seven summer
soccer programs in low-income areas. The funds will be used to
purchase equipment, hire instructors and produce education
materials for the program.
The Sudbury Canadians have had the
distinction of playing in virtually every level of soccer
including District, Regional Leagues, OYSL, Super Y Tournaments
as well as the United Soccer League W League, which constitutes
the highest level of women's soccer in North America.
The highly competitive soccer club also
operates the Girls Indoor Soccer League in Sudbury and The
Sudbury Soccer Academy. While the prolific nature of the club
is well known, its history of reaching out to less fortunate
kids and families is not. Much of this is due to the team's
head coach Frank Malvaso.
"Families involved in competitive soccer know
how expensive the sport can be," said Malvaso in a press
release. "Unfortunately in our province there are many families
that cannot commit to the sports because of a lack of
funds.
In addition to covering registration fees and
paying for equipment, in the past the club has hosted free
clinics in local playgrounds, many of which are in low-income
neighborhoods. The club has handed out over 400 soccer balls to
First Nations communities.
