Campbell's Corner

Braden River's TOPSoccer program is a sanctuary for participants all to enjoy

The recreational soccer program has been serving children with disabilities since 2007.


TOPSoccer player Warren Cannon receives advice from LECOM volunteer Hunter Salisbury. Every player in the TOPSoccer program is assigned a personal buddy.
TOPSoccer player Warren Cannon receives advice from LECOM volunteer Hunter Salisbury. Every player in the TOPSoccer program is assigned a personal buddy.
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There is an imbalance in the world of youth sports

For children, sports start out as an activity, a chance for them to get outside and be active. T-ball is meant for running around on the grass, heading down the wrong baseline, and whiffing at a stationary object. 

It doesn’t take long, however, for sports to become something entirely different. Teams start to have tryouts that leads to tiering children based on skill level and athleticism. Suddenly, the recreational league isn’t enough for the young athlete, so travel teams, starting for kids as young as 6 or 7 years old, come into the picture. 

What used to be an activity becomes an investment. Kids invest their time and effort, forgoing birthday parties and field trips to play in the next basketball tournament on the other side of the state. Parents invest their time and effort, too, but more importantly, their money.

Gas isn’t cheap and neither are the hotels, team registration fees, equipment and weekly private lessons. The older and better their children get, the more expensive and time consuming athletics become for parents. Sports become a pursuit. 

What is often lost in this, is the fact sports are meant to be fun. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone having more fun than the participants in the Braden River Soccer Club’s TOPSoccer program. 

The program, founded in 2007, celebrated its 18th season last fall and just began its winter season Feb. 1. TOPSoccer provides an avenue for people with special needs, developmental disabilities and physical disabilities to partake in the world’s sport. 

“It’s the most inclusive game in the world,” said Chris Collins, executive director of Ability to Include, the nonprofit organization that runs Braden River’s TOPSoccer program. “It represents inclusion not just for its ability to connect cultures, but in its simplicity. All you need is a ball and your feet to play. You don’t even need the goals.”

TOPSoccer structures itself based on age and ability, with participants ranging from as young as 2-years-old to over 25. 

A morning session, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. serves both younger players and those with higher needs based on their disability. A full game or traditional practice isn’t always in the cards. The league offers different stations or a general free play session. For the higher-functioning players, TOPSoccer provides a more traditional approach, with structured drills and scrimmages.

For the participants, which Collins expects to be in the younger age range this spring, the focus is just on letting loose and having a good time. Collins hopes the program can be a break in what can be a stressful day for those with special needs. 

TOPSoccer player Preslie Hutchinson stands in goal. Ability to Include, the organization that runs the program, is in the midst of a $200,000 capital campaign to create an ADA accessible mini-pitch for participants to play on.
Courtesy image

“There’s a lot of times during the day where these kids are having all of these rules and demands put on them,” said Collins. “A typically developing kid will go to school and do their homework, but these kids are going to occupational therapy, behavioral therapy, speech therapy as well. This is the place where they’re in charge and they get to have fun.”

Making all of this possible is the dedicated group of volunteers, the majority of whom are first and second-year students from LECOM Medical School. For every player, there is a volunteer providing one-on-one support. 

Some things have changed with the program since its inception in 2007. At the time Collins was a senior soccer player at Southeast High and a first-year volunteer with the program. Over the years, players have grown alongside the program. TOPSoccer is no longer just for children, but for adolescents and young adults as well. 

Some, like Gilberto Rios, who has autism, have been with TOPSoccer since it began. Others have used the foundational skills they learned at TOPSoccer to move onto more traditional recreational soccer programs at Braden River. 

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More recently, Collins removed the buddy system with the older groups, inserting volunteers into group activities instead of pairing a 17-year-old with a personal buddy, which can be infantilizing, he said. 

“We’ve also added an inclusive element to it, where the siblings of the players can also join in,” Collins said. “A lot of them have typically developing siblings and to see them on the sidelines isn’t fun. I was a pre-school teacher in an inclusive class room and have always understood the benefits of having strong peer models for these kids and the difference that it makes.”

Collins has grown with the program as well. He credits his time spent with TOPSoccer in high school as the reason he’s devoted his life to working with special needs children. After college, Collins initially planned on being a high school teacher. 

“The only reason I weighed out the option to teach in a special needs preschool was because of TOPSoccer,” said Collins. “From that moment on, I knew that this is what I was meant to do. I just love working with kids and soccer is my other passion.

“Sometimes the volunteers or the parents will come up and thank us for doing this, which adds an element of humility,” said Collins. “The motivation in what I’m doing with this is so inherent. It’s not a chore, and it’s not a difficult endeavor. I’m lucky enough that I get to do something like this for these families.”

Collins referenced the support of the community, like the $4,000 grant from the Manatee Community Foundation this past season, to being critical to the program's success. He hopes to grow the program's reach in the coming years, partnering with other soccer clubs in Sarasota and Manatee counties to create an over-arching umbrella for TOPSoccer in the area.

 

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Dylan Campbell

Dylan Campbell is the sports reporter for the East County and Sarasota/Siesta Key Observers.

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