PCU TOPSoccer
- WHAT IS TOPSOCCER?
- The Outreach Program for Soccer is a community-based training and team placement program for young soccer players with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers. The program is designed to bring the opportunity of learning and playing soccer to any boy or girl who has a mental or physical disability.
- Benefits for Participants
- SOCIAL SKILLS – Players interact with their volunteer Buddy and other athletes in a fun, group setting and learn proper social behaviors.
- TEAMWORK – Players learn to trust someone else and rely on them through soccer activities and games.
- PERSEVERANCE – Players might encounter difficulties with activities, but they will be encouraged to keep trying and overcome challenges.
- CONFIDENCE – Players will achieve success on the field that carries over to their lives off the field in so many ways!
- Differentiators of TOPSoccer
- BUDDIES – Each participant is assigned a volunteer, trained ‘Buddy’ who is typically a little older and neurotypical. This Buddy works with their player individually and makes sure they are safe, engaged, supported, and having fun. The player-Buddy relationship is maintained throughout the course of a season, resulting in strong interpersonal bonds and an establishment of trust and confidence that allows each player to achieve their full potential.
- COACHES – TOPSoccer coaches and administrators have taken formal USYS education and certification training that assists them in successfully delivering the program. In addition to providing coaching strategies and tactics specifically for children with special needs, the training identifies the traits of the most common disabilities and provides guidance on how to modify typical soccer practice activities so everyone can be successful.
- GROUPINGS – Players are grouped by ability, not just age, such that they can develop at their own pace and participate amongst others with similar abilities.
Become A TOPSoccer Buddy
We are welcoming volunteer buddies for our Topsoccer program!
At the start of each season the Buddy Meeting will give information of the upcoming season.
If you want to become a TOPsoccer Buddy- please fill out this initial form. The office will then generate a formal application that you will in a few office days receive via email from GotSoccer.com with further instructions.
If you have questions about being a TOPsoccer Buddy
Interested in Volunteering / be a Buddy
- US Youth Soccer is a proud member of the US Soccer Disability Soccer Committee (DSC), which promotes its activity through the ADAPTandTHRIVE moniker. TOPSoccer is the largest grassroots member of the DSC focused exclusively on soccer. Please click on the link below for more information on the DSC. (https://www.ussoccer.com/adaptandthrive)
- US Youth Soccer is a proud member of the United Adaptive Soccer Association (UASA). This organization is a 501-c-3 non-profit focused on increasing awareness and opportunity for the disability soccer community in the US. Please click on the link below for more information (https://unitedadaptivesoccer.com/)
Our club uses PlayMetrics as our All-in-One Club Operating System for Registration, Payment, Communication, and Schedules. All new users must create an account through PlayMetrics in order to register for any of our programs.
