Celebrate with Coaches across Continents!

The Harvard Crimson won the Ivy League championship for the first time since 2006! But the season's not over yet. The Crimson takes on Monmouth on Sunday in the NCAA Tournament for a chance to make it to the Sweet Sixteen! Celebrate with Harvard Soccer and Coaches across Continents by making a donation today! http://www.firstgiving.com/harvardsoccerseniors

Ivy League Champs

Both the Harvard Men's and Women's Teams won the Ivy Leaugue!

Harvard Alumni Join the Team!

Last weekend over forty Harvard soccer alums from across the country came back to Ohiri field on a beautiful Cambridge morning to relive past excitement and glory. After a hard fought 2-2 draw, the Even Year Alumni Team beat the Odds in a nerve-racking penalty-kick shootout. Later in the afternoon everyone was entertained by the current Crimson men and women beating Ivy League rival Brown.

Dozens of alums also became part of the Goals4Leaders campaign by donating money to support Harvard's commitment to grassroots international development. Several thousands of dollars were pledged over the weekend, and donations will continue to accrue with every goal the Crimson scores this season! We would like to thank all alumni who came out and pledged their support for Goals4Leaders, Harvard Soccer, and Coaches across Continents.

If you would like to join movement as well and make a pledge, please click on our donation link below:

Join the Team!

The Harvard Men's Varsity Soccer Team is doing their part. Are you?

The Crimson is not only ranked in the top ten in the nation and undefeated in the Ivy League, but every goal scored this year contributes to grassroots global development. Harvard Soccer has teamed up with the international non-profits Coaches across Continents and PlaySoccer Malawi to develop educational and health awareness programs that utilize the power and joy of the beautiful game.

Current Harvard athletes and alumni have already spent weeks traveling and volunteering throughout Africa and now we want to get all Crimson family, friends and fans involved in the movement. We need your help! Pledge today to donate money for every goal Harvard scores this season. Donations of $1 or less are welcome! We want to get momentum behind the movement and show everyone that the ENTIRE Harvard soccer
community is dedicated to changing the world! Every nickel, dime andquarter counts!

Go to http://www.firstgiving.com/harvardsoccerseniors now to make your pledge. All you have to do is sign up, no actual payment is required. Money collected at the end of the season will directly benefit and help sustain grassroots development programs in Africa led by Harvard athletes and alumni.

Check out this video of kids that current Harvard student-athletes Adam Rousmaniere and Sophie Legros coached this summer. Despite difficult circumstances and substandard resources, these children embody the skill, joy and perseverance that will allow them to succeed on the soccer field and in life.



Make a pledge today to support their growth and development:
http://www.firstgiving.com/harvardsoccerseniors

And come support the Crimson as they take on their Ivy League rivals Brown at Ohiri Field on Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 1:30pm

JOIN THE TEAM!

The Season Begins!

Soccer season officially starts today! The Crimson women take on San Diego State while the men test their early season mettle against Stony Brook. The double header takes place this afternoon at Ohiri Field on Harvard's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To find out more about the games and the rest of what promises to be an exciting season, visit the official Harvard athletics webpage at gocrimson.com

But today isn't just the start of another exciting soccer season. The Harvard soccer program is also kicking-off their partnership with the international non-profit Coaches across Continents. Please take a moment to read CaC's first official press release regarding the initiative and explore ways that you can get involved using the beautiful game to support grassroots development around the world.

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Goals4Leaders is an exciting new initiative designed by David Williams '06 to raise funds for Coaches Across Continents. With your help, results can be impressive and will make a huge difference to the people in the communities in which Coaches Across Continents works! The idea is simple - family, friends, fans and businesses sponsor each goal scored by their chosen soccer team across the whole season. The more goals scored, the more money raised! Individuals can also donate a fixed amount if they are worried that the team they are sponsoring will be TOO successful in their goal scoring!

So why are we telling you all of this?! Well, we need your help! There are 2 ways you can get involved:

1) Donate! We already have the Harvard soccer teams who are acting as the pioneers for Goals4Leaders. You can sponsor them per goal, or for a fixed amount. Help motivate them to score as many goals as possible! To do this, go to
Men: http://www.firstgiving.com/harvardsoccerseniors
Women: http://www.firstgiving.com/hwssophomores *
*(These funds will be used for a new program for two orphanges in Uganda 2010 to tackle two social problems that are guns with boys and girls being used as sex slaves)

2) Support your team and generate social change! Register your soccer team so that you can raise funds for every goal that you score! As an extra incentive to score more goals, if you raise enough money there will be an opportunity for you to travel to one of the community programmes in Africa or one of the other countries in which Coaches Across Continents operate and see what your money is directly contributing to! Create your own fundraising page by going to: http://www.firstgiving.com/22655

Please tell all of your friends, family and colleagues about Coaches Across Continents and Goals4Leaders so that we can get as many different soccer teams as we can registered and raising funds! You could also get rival soccer teams to sign up and add some extra rivalry - not just in the game, but in who can raise the most money!

We can't make a difference without you...sign up now!

Thanks in advance,

Aaron

Coaches across Continents


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Interview with Adam Rousmaniere

After spending 5 weeks coaching in Blantyre, Malawi, Adam Rousmaniere shares his thoughts on his experiences in Africa and his work with Coaches across Continents.

Malawi Street Soccer

Coaches across Continents and Play Soccer Malawi collaborated to organize exciting street soccer matches that brought together Play Soccer coaches and playeres with local street vendors and market sellers. These matches not only brought entertainment to the community, but also served as a venue to address issues like crime and local sanitation.

Play Soccer "Strikes Gold"

Before leaving Malawi, the Coaches across Continents team was again featured in the Malawi national press. While leading a training session at Kamuzu National Stadium, Christian Aviza spoke with a journalist from The Daily Times about grassroots development in Malawi and CaC's three year commitment to Play Soccer Malawi. That same morning David Williams participated in a short interview with a reporter from the nation's government radio station reflecting on the CaC team's five weeks of work in Blantyre.

Pass it on!

Harvard Soccer and Coaches across Continents have entered into a three-year partnership with Play Soccer Malawi to help develop grassroots soccer education programs throughout the country. Together we can help spread the power of the beautiful game across the warm heart of Africa. Take a look at our new video and if you like what you see, send the link to your friends, family, and anyone else interested in soccer and grassroots development. Join the movement, "pass it on!"

Thanks, Mr. President

While on site in Malawi, Nick Gates, global strategist for Coaches across Continents (Harvard '91) and Christian Avisa met with the President of the Malawi Football Association, Walter Nyamilandu. The discussion centered on CaC's work with PlaySoccer Malawi and the commitment the Harvard soccer program has made to helping develop grassroots soccer education programs in the country. Nyamilandu stated how pleased he was with the work the CaC team did in their first trip to Malawi and that he looks forward to the return of more Crimson athletes and alumni in the future.

Sophie's Story

Coaching and playing soccer in a country where the people have a genuine love of the beautiful game; seeing Coaches across Continents' success in a smiling child's eyes; watching an international game on Independence Day where sixty-thousand spectators danced after each goal scored by Malawi: all of these combined to make a perfect summer experience. The practices with the Play Soccer Malawi children were also one of the highlights. I kept wondering how these children become so skillful when there are at most 5 balls for hundreds of kids. The energy and enthusiasm of the coaches, players and site managers would fuel my excitement, from the very moment we would step foot on the dusty, dirt fields jutted with rocks.

The Ndirande site, in a neighborhood outside of Blantyre where some of the practices were held, was my favorite. Here a number of fifteen year-old girls were constantly scoring against boys and tackling them, showing their passion for the game. I was impressed by their desire to learn new soccer skills and to earn the respect of their male teammates. After practice we would exchange soccer moves against dance moves. At this site and others, the absence of shoes, the sight of girls running in skirts that prevented them from taking long strides, or a kid battling to sprint with his flip flops, finally deciding that it was better to take them off and skin his toes, and the lack of proper soccer uniforms or even clothing (one child was wearing a one piece pajama “sleeper”), reminded us of the real and dramatic daily challenges these impressive players face from the start - and which the laughter and smiles could sometimes make us forget...

The headmistress at one of the primary schools described to us the problems the Malawian children experience - ranging from misbehavior, theft, corrupting influence of teenagers outside the school, smoking and alcohol consumption - and how much the situation has improved since the students began playing soccer after school with Play Soccer Malawi, while learning important health and social skills. (For example, it is now safe to leave bags in class during recess, without the risk of having them stolen.) Girls are particularly vulnerable, not only risking rape or physical abuse (most often from a parent or family member) and prostitution, but also burdened with caring for younger siblings or with hard labor, like the girls we saw on our hike up Mulanje Mountain hauling heavy bundles of wood on their heads, walking barefoot all along the steep, rocky paths.


Having the opportunity to stay after school to play soccer and compete against boys gives the girls a moment in the day when they can just act like ordinary children. They begin to learn that they can have a voice, which implies the choice not to get married or pregnant at the age of sixteen, or if they do, to continue their studies. I particularly enjoyed getting to know the female coaches in Ndirande who would carry their babies on their backs during the entire practice and with whom I was actually able to play a couple of rough Street Football games. On two different Sundays we joined these women, homeless children, potato merchants and male coaches for a 4 vs 4 tournament. A “field” would somehow emerge from what had previously been the parking lot for two trucks and a space where some women were selling peanuts and bananas. The final touches would be added by the placement of two goals and powder sprinkled around the boundaries. A cheering, delighted crowd would contribute to the excitement of the game. We got an idea of the extent of Street Football's popularity when we arrived in Mzuzu (in the north) and were recognized by a woman who had seen us on television. Throughout my stay, I was struck by the consistent interest by everyone, from the ordinary Malawian to a local newspaper journalist to a nation-wide television reporter, in the activities and objectives of Coaches across Continents. And although we saw only male journalists, they were all genuinely interested in the issues concerning women playing soccer in Malawi. As the interest in the Street Football games developed during our time there, so did the general realization that girls, too, can score, dribble, tackle, fall on the concrete and get right back up and continue playing.

Coaches across Continents' unique approach, of working with local organizations and training local coaches, allows it to coordinate with existing programs, taking advantage of their positive features and helping them to improve and expand their influence. I began to grasp the impact the organization will have in Malawi when I saw how much effort the local coaches in Mzuzu exerted to learn and remember the games we taught them for future practices with the children.

My last practice with Coaches across Continents took place with forty children who had been found on the streets. There could have been no more rewarding end to my trip than to coach and play with the children who needed us the most. It was nice to leave, knowing that their coach was one of the local coaches we had trained and who will continue working with these street children. His new motto, which he told us he learned from our sessions, is: "always coach with a smile."

-Sophie Legros

Malawian Celebrity

After less than a month in Malawi, the CaC team has been featured on almost every national media outlet. During a press conference in Blantyre, Malawi, Sophie Legros was the center of attention for her thoughts on how soccer can change and improve the lives of young girls. Focusing on her own life that led her from Belguim to France and now to Harvard University in the United States, Sophie conducted a number of radio and press interviews and talked about how Coaches across Continents has helped young girls choose their futures by giving them a voice. She spoke clearly about how young men change their views on women in developing communities when they are able to share time on the field and how attitudes and teenage pregnancies have dropped in Blantyre due to the success of the after school football programs.



The next week, after several interviews with local journalists, stories about the CaC team’s work were featured in the Daily Times and the Malawi Nation, two of the country’s most prominent newspapers. A picture of Adam Rousmaniere showing off his foot skills featured prominently in the Times' sports section.

Christian Aviza and David Williams, two other members of the CaC team working in Malawi, were both interviewed after their two undefeated Streetfootball matches at Blantyre Market last Sunday morning and appeared on prime time news on the nationally broadcast Malawi Television Network. They were asked about their impressions of Malawian football and their thoughts on youth development in the country.

Malawi Journal Entry #1

July 9, 2009

Blantyre, Malawi

After almost two years consulting for enormous federal government agencies and multimillion dollar private organizations, working with PLAY SOCCER Malawi has been extremely refreshing. With a minimum of financial resources, the staff and volunteers here in the city of Blantyre have created an extremely impressive organization. Harnessing this small African nation’s love for the beautiful game, with very little funding and mostly volunteer labor, PLAY SOCCER Malawi has become an engine for social change.

Working with the organization Coaches across Continents has provided me the opportunity to bring my perspectives as both a soccer educator and strategic management consultant to the aid of an organization that shares a vision of using the game of soccer/football to improve individual lives and communities. I have traded cubicles and conference rooms for dusty, dirt fields and power ties and pin-striped suits for sweat pants, balls and cones. And although driving my own personal car through the streets of metropolitan DC was a bit more comfortable than cramming into mini-buses with a dozen other passengers in Blantyre, I have never been happier with an assignment.

Visiting PLAY SOCCER’s three programs in the neighborhoods of Chigimula, Bangwe and Ndirande was exhilarating. The energy radiating from the young players and volunteer coaches was palpable and their enthusiasm was infectious. Hundreds of children ranging from ages 4 to 15 played games, sang songs, listened to lessons about health, hygiene, and social development, and participated in soccer drills. Many of the children played with ill-fitting shoes or went barefoot. One little girl, not much older than 5 or 6, actually participated in games and drills with her infant brother wrapped to her back. Although balls and other equipment were scarce and some coaches had to look after over a hundred players, there were no complaints. All the children were well behaved and smiles and laughter were in abundance.

All the programs currently take place after school in play spaces and fields provided by local primary schools. Speaking with the head mistresses of these schools gave me even further insight into how powerfully PLAY SOCCER has affected these communities. Absenteeism has decreased and school attendance has steadily risen at each location since the programs’ introductions at each site. Student behavior has also improved. The theft and vandalism that previously took place on school grounds appears to be a thing of the past. The older teenagers and young men that used to intimidate the children and takeover their fields have left. PLAY SOCCER has created a safe haven for local kids, providing a healthy after-school outlet that encourages physical, mental, and social well-being and development. And every session additional children overcome their shyness and approach the coaches to find out how they can register and take part in the fun.

But this success also brings new challenges. Popularity and new registrants outpace resources and the young volunteers often find themselves in need of fresh ideas and coaching methods. Now that I have seen the on the ground reality of PLAY SOCCER’s wonderful work in Blantyre, I am even more excited to help the program reach further toward its full potential. My colleagues and I from Coaches across Continents have already learned so much from our Malawian partners and we are extremely eager to impart our knowledge, expertise, and analysis in ways that will help spread PLAY SOCCER’S mission throughout Malawi, empowering local coaches and players through a shared love of sport and learning, and in the process developing a new generation of leaders ready and able to change their communities for the better.

David A. Williams

"Beyond Sport" Award for Coaches across Continents

Coaches across Continents received the Best New Project Award at the prestigious Beyond Sport Awards held in London on July 9th. Personalities from the world of business, politics and sport made up the room of 500 people including Sir Tony Blair, Desmond Tutu, Sir Michael Parkinson, Ian Thorpe and Michael Johnson. Coaches across Continents was chosen from entries from organizations from 80 countries around the world.

Nick Gates, Global Strategist for Coaches across Continents was in attendance to accept the award. "It's an amazing honor and we are delighted to become part of the Beyond Sport network. It is a reflection of all the hard work of our boards, our coaches and our partners in the field. The work of Nicolaus Pota in Kigoma allowed us to pilot our first Hat-Trick Initiative in 2008 and this award is in part due to his amazing enthusiasm and dedication to helping his teachers and children. We would like to also thank Beyond Sport for their amazing work in promoting sport for development all around the world and for bringing the business and sports NGO bodies together in one room."

Alumni Profile: David A. Williams

David Williams ('07), a member of the 2006 Ivy League champion Harvard Men's soccer team, is spending his summer with Coaches across Continents in Malawi before starting back in Cambridge for grad school. He is hoping to use the experience he gained as a management consultant in Washington, DC, while in East Africa.

Playing experience: USYSA U-18 National Champion with the Michigan Wolves Soccer Club, Michigan State and Midwest Regional Olympic Development Programs, competed in international tournaments in Brazil, trained at the Middlesbrough Football Club academy, 4-year member of the Harvard University varsity soccer team and 2006 Ivy-League champion.

Coaching/Educational Experience: PLAY SOCCER camps, various New England coaching camps, international teaching experience in Costa Rica

Favorite Movie: Victory (starring Sylvester Stallone and Pele), Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai
Favorite Music: John Coltrane, Chester French, Outkast
Favorite Soccer Teams: The US National Team, The Nigerian National Team, Esporte Clube Bahia (Salvador, Brazil), Barcelona and Arsenal
Favorite Soccer Player: Jay Jay Okocha

"I can't wait to share my love for the beautiful game with players, coaches, and educators dedicated to making the world a better place."

Check back soon for more updates on David's experiences in Malawi and as he endeavors to become the Crimson's most dedicated fan during the 2009 season.

Player Profile: Sophie Legros

Sophie Legros, a current member of the Harvard Women's soccer team, is participating in the Goals4Leaders inaugural development initiative in Blantyre, Malawi, assisting PLAY SOCCER Malawi in its local female empowerment efforts.


Hometown: Brussels, Belgium
Playing Experience: F.C. White Star (Boys youth teams), Femina White Star (Division 1
Belgium), in 2005 entered CNFE Clairefontaine in France the national
residential training program of the French soccer federation, played with the
CNFE then Hénin-Beaumont in the French DIvision 1 league. Also played on the Belgian U15 national team and on the French U17 and U19 national teams.
Favorite Movie: Man on Fire and Peaceful Warrior.
Favorite Team: I don't really have a favorite football team except the French national team
Coaching experience: Clinics with America Scores (with Harvard) and PLAY SOCCER USA
Hopes/thoughts for working in Africa: Very happy to set foot in Africa and look forward to this unique experience. Excited to work with Coaches Across Continents to help in developing countries through the combination of soccer and education.

"Sophie is an amazing woman and her coaching skills and personality will have a great impact as a role model for the girls in Malawi." - Seamus Malin, Coaches across Continents Board of Directors.

To help support Sophie, please visit: http://coachesacrosscontinents.com/Donations/index_E.html

And check back soon for updates about Sophie's work in Malawi and the upcoming 2009 Harvard Women's soccer season!

Player Profile: Adam Rousmaniere

Adam Rousmaniere, a rising senior on the Harvard Men's Soccer team, will be spending 5weeks working with Coaches across Continents in Blantyre, Malawi, supporting the organization PLAY SOCCER Malawi in the Harvard Soccer Goals4Leaders campaign's inaugural project.


Hometown: Andover, Massachusetts
Coaching Experience: Coached for 3 summers, including Andover High School Girls Varsity and Wakefield High School Boys Varsity and trained with PLAY SOCCER USA.
Favorite Soccer Team: Manchester United
Favorite Player: Kaka
Best Soccer Memory: Winning Class A New England Championship at Brooks School.
Idol: John Packard (High School soccer coach and mentor)
Favorite Music: Anything
Favorite Movie: Braveheart
Playing Experience: Harvard University Varsity soccer player for 3
years. Brooks School Varsity Soccer player for 4 years. 3 times All-League in high school, with 3 league championships and 1 New England Championship. 4 times state champions with Inter SC Boston and Juventus USA.

Thoughts on coaching in Africa: I am looking forward to working hard and learning more about myself. I hope that my efforts and experience will have a positive impact on the communities that I visit.

To support Adam's work in Malawi, please visit: http://www.firstgiving.com/harvardsoccerseniors

Check back soon for updates from Adam on his experiences in Malawi and on the upcoming 2009 Harvard Men's soccer season!