Soccer		Lacrosse		Adult Recreation

The Kenan Center Youth Soccer Program provides a quality soccer experience for young people in the Greater Niagara region.

The indoor youth soccer season consists of a fall and winter session played in the Kenan Center Arena on boarded fields with a professional athletic floor covering for a safe playing environment. Players range in age from four years in the Clinic Division to 18 years in the Senior Teen Division.

The outdoor youth soccer season, played during July and August, is played on one of several outdoor fields on the Kenan Center campus. Players range in age from 4 years in the Clinic Division to 18 years in the Senior Teen/E Division.

The Kenan Center Youth Soccer Program concentrates on providing basic soccer skills training. Team size varies in each division, and is designed to afford each child personal attention in order to address the specific needs of the players and equal playing time during games. Each division is grouped by age and skill level.

Summer Youth Soccer League

3 V 3 Standings as of May 11.

The Girls of Soccer: Learning to Play, Lead, and Kick Some Serious Goals

Senior Heather Rhodes is one of those lady players who has been competing with and against boys since she started playing at age four in a Kenan Center soccer clinic. She got into the sport, in part, because her father was a coach and older brother played. But Heather soon discovered she liked the game, and playing with the guys. The reason? “Their game is faster!”

One of the few female soccer players at the time who strongly influenced Rhodes was Shanna Sheehan. “I remember their pink jerseys,” says Rhodes, who cited Sheehan’s commitment to sharing skills with kids as something that inspired her to do the same. And inspired, she was. Rhodes recently signed a letter of intent with Northwood University in Michigan to play soccer on an athletic scholarship, fulfilling a goal that spurred her on since the beginning, which was to play college soccer.

There were sacrifices, says Rhodes, which is one reason she believes a lot of girls drop out of playing once they turn 12 or 13. “It’s hard when you have to practice and travel to tournaments. You miss a lot of things.”

The benefits, however, seem to outweigh the missed social life. Like Rhodes, Caitlin Deuil began playing in the soccer clinic and feels that the sport has given her tremendous personal skills like discipline, self-confidence and working as a team. And when it comes to playing on predominantly male teams, Deuil says she prefers it. “With boys, there’s less drama. And they tend to be more helpful about teaching you things.” She also concurs with Rhodes on the decline of girls playing soccer when they get into teen years.

However, the interest is anything but waning. Last year Deuil coached a clinic for four and five-year-olds and said that “out of 20 kids, at least 12 or 13 were girls.”

For parents, soccer offers the best of all worlds. Soccer moms, Cheryl Szymanski and Amy Cavallari, say that their daughters’ are very aware of good nutrition and health because both affect how well you play. Cavallari, who plays in the Kenan Center’s Women’s Soccer program, adds that soccer teaches girls like her daughter Laura “good aggression,” or as she puts it, “to push, but not be pushy.” Szymanski’s daughter, Kailyn, is only in her second year of playing soccer at the Kenan Center, but her mother sees the positive impact on a child who tends to be a little reserved. “When she’s out on the field, she’s a different person.”

All agree that the media exposure of women’s national soccer and celebrities like Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain has given girls incredible role models, but the true inspiration has come from the volunteer coaches who have encouraged the girls through the years including people like Chuck Tabor, Dan Grabowski, Carol Deuil, and Christa Wright. Says Amy Cavallari, “Her coach helps her to feel good about herself and that she’s wanted.”

For these girls and others who are part of the Kenan Center soccer program, there is no question that they gain skills that will last a lifetime. Whether it is the ability to confidently talk to others or defend a goal, they are prepared to meet the challenge.

Lady Soccer Players Signed by Universities

Support Kenan Center Youth Soccer by Becoming a Sponsor!

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Uniroyal Tire and Dunn Tire Support Kenan Soccer Program

Now in its eighth year as a major sponsor of youth soccer, Uniroyal and its dealers have provided more 735,500 free soccer balls to soccer families across America and have donated a total of $10 million in funds and equipment.

For more information on this program, visit the Uniroyal website at www.uniroyalcom.

The Kenan Center was proud to bring TOPSoccer, an Outreach Program for physically and mentally disabled children to our campus during the summer of 2007. Created by the U.S. Youth Soccer Association and supported by the New York State West Soccer Association, TOPSoccer provides children ages 5-19 with special needs the opportunity to play soccer in a safe and fun environment.