By Sarah Musson

Many Arvada residents are familiar with the flurry of activity that happens each weekend during soccer season at Stenger Soccer Complex. If you drive by with your window open, you can often hear the cheers after a great play or a goal is scored and you might even see the occasional high-five between players - all pretty typical behavior for any given game on any given field. However, if you were to visit fields 4, 5 and 6 on Saturday starting at 4 p.m., you would be in for an unexpected special treat. You would see some soccer games where the players, parents and spectators all walk away as winners. The kind of smile that almost hurts would come across your face and a feeling that words can't describe would wash over you. And, you might just walk away looking at things a bit differently than before.

What you will see on fields 4, 5, and 6 is a program known as TOPSoccer, The Outreach Program for Soccer. 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. The goal is to enable the thousands of young athletes with disabilities to become valued and successful members of the US Youth Soccer family. The program was formed to perpetuate the US Youth Soccer mission statement, which is, in part, "to foster the physical, mental and emotional growth and development of America's youth through the sport of soccer at all levels of age and competition." Players are placed on teams based more on ability and size than age. TOPSoccer programs can be found nationwide, but each program is community based and run through individual youth soccer associations. While some grants are available, to get a TOPSoccer program started you need to have an association with enough resources and motivation to answer the call to put it into action.

Fifteen years ago, Edge Soccer Club answered that call. The program had a very modest beginning but through the years it has grown to be the largest TOPSoccer program in the state of Colorado. The club is proud to completely support this extremely valuable program by offering a small, but optional, registration fee for the players, and it provides the uniforms at no cost for all of the participants in the program. The program depends on community support and help from volunteers and it needs to have several important pieces in place to be successful.

The first important piece needed is extremely dedicated coaches. Bobbie Jo Beeble and Jill Polito have been a huge part of the program for seven years. Stacy and Joe Hyde have just joined the program this year. All four are amazing. According to Ann Lynch, whose son, Alex, has been participating in the program for about nine years, "These coaches are phenomenal. They should get an award." Watching the coaches interact with the players and parents, you can easily see the true connections they have. High-fives, hugs and smiles are everywhere even before the game of soccer begins. The extreme love and dedication within these coaches is crystal clear.

Other necessary supporters are the peer coaches that help give the TOPSoccer players the opportunity to play soccer as a part of a team. The peer coaches work one-on-one with players helping with passing, dribbling and other soccer skills weekly during the Friday practice and then again during the game on Saturday. The coaches truly enjoy watching the interactions that happen on the field between the peer coaches and the special needs players. Those interactions have led to lasting friendships, and several of the peer coaches continue to return year after year. The peer coaches describe their work as "extremely rewarding knowing that they make a difference in the lives of these players."

Another important piece to the program is providing teams for the special needs players to play against. While there are a few other TOPSoccer clubs around the state, the program depends on teams from within the club to help out with this task. Teams from the competitive side of the club are asked come to play the "Big" kids, and the "Medium" and "Little" groups generally play a variety of age groups. Before the games start on Saturday, Bobbie Jo gives some important guidance to the players who arrive to play. "Don't just stand there. Move around and make the players work. Your job is to help the special needs players learn soccer, be successful and have fun."

Edge's TOPSoccer program definitely has all the necessary pieces in place for a successful program and has over 40 players participating in the program. The players range in age from 6 through the mid 20s and have varying disabilities. However, every participant is the same in at least one way - their smiles. The unexpected special treat you get when you watch this program in action is all the smiles - they are contagious. The players are smiling, the helpers are smiling and the parents and spectators are smiling. Then there are the hugs and the high-fives - they are everywhere. Pure joy and happiness abounds and it surrounds you and you can't help but feel the same. Players who arrive to play "against" the special needs players sense the feeling, too. Maddie Schroeder, a player from the EDGE U10 team The Pink Panthers, said of the feeling, "This is fun. It is so great to see the kids smile and dance even if they only kick the ball a few inches." Matthew, one of the "little" TOPSoccer players, scored a goal and did a dance and sang out loud, "I scored a goal, I scored a goal, I scored a goal. Did you see it?" Players on the "big" team rush over to their teammates after goals are scored to give high-fives and some even hug each other. Watching all the camaraderie between the players and the parents, you can't help but cheer a little louder than usual. You find yourself smiling uncontrollably and you might even need a tissue or two for all those tears of joy. You understand that this is different than any other experience at Stenger Soccer Complex.

After witnessing the program and talking with the players and parents, you come to realize that TOPSoccer is about so much more than just playing soccer. It is about kids helping kids. It is about learning to work together. It is about parents finding support and learning from each other. It is about having FUN. It helps build a better community. And, all this is accomplished because people with good hearts are willing to help make a difference. Coach Bobbie Jo feels that for the volunteers in the program, the most valuable benefit is knowing that you are important in the lives of the special needs players. There should be no doubt, though, that the TOPSoccer players are equally important (possibly more) to the lives of the volunteers and even to those just going out to watch. Arvada is lucky to have such an incredible program and everyone should take the opportunity to go out and support such a deserving effort.