For WPS Players, Community Involvement is a Part of the Game

A cacophony of noise and laughter can be seen from the playgrounds amidst the high rises in San Francisco’s rough-and-tumble Tenderloin district.  Kids sprint across the hard asphalt with balls launched at them in a game that could be considered as a hybrid between kickball and dodgeball.

“First, it’s about enjoying yourself–having fun–and then it’s about expressing yourself as an individual with the ball on the field, and third it’s about being with your friends and working together as teammates,” 1999 World Cup champion and FC Gold Pride forward Tiffeny Milbrett said when asked about the benefits soccer can give to anyone.

In a league where celebrity stardom and big paychecks are trumped by a simple love of playing the game and exposing the sport for what it is, Women’s Professional Soccer's grassroots benefits to the local community have become an important part of its mission and overall growth.

Players in WPS feel a genuine responsibility to become part of the fabric of their local communities. For many, it’s because they also live in their communities without any fancy chauffeured cars or gated McMansions.

The Boston Breakers make an annual trip to the Children’s wing at Shriners Hospital in Boston, playing on the Nintendo Wii with kids and giving away autographed gear. One young girl was so inspired by the Breakers—and, in turn, so inspiring to the players for her courage of overcoming 30% burns on her body—that she was invited to do a ceremonial first kick at a match at Harvard Stadium during the regular season.

The Chicago Red Stars spent a day in late May at the Ronald McDonald House, impressing underprivileged kids with their cooking skills on the barbecue and their ballhandling skills on the field.

Two members of the Washington Freedom, Abby Wambach and Sonia Bompastor, made a visit to the Coast Guard station in Washington, D.C., learning about the station’s Response Boats while discussing the FIFA 2010 World Cup with stationed officers.

And earlier last week in San Francisco—two days before Milbrett would step on the field and help her FC Gold Pride team to the 2010 WPS Championship, to be exact—Milbrett was showing the kids how the game is played at the Citi Soccer Kids Clinic at Redding Elementary School in Redding, California.

“To have Citi organize something like this for a big group of kids is just amazing,” Milbrett said. “Kids in the city might know about basketball or football or even baseball, but soccer is more of a suburban sport and the more that we can expose kids to it, the better for our sport.

"There are just so many things a young person can learn from the game.”

Citi also brought groups of inner-city kids to Sunday’s WPS Championship at Pioneer Stadium, on the campus of California State University East Bay, and their Citi Soccer Kids program enabled groups of young boys and girls to attend WPS games across the country over the course of the season.

“You see the smiles on their faces and you know it’s just fun for them,” Milbrett added.

Chicago Red Stars defender and Citi Sportswoman of the Year Natalie Spilger also attended the clinic and said that the clinic is not just a way to expose children to soccer as a sport, but to educate them on other things as well.

“As an athlete, we can use our platforms to engage and educate our communities,” said Spilger, who started the non-profit www.Greenlaces.org, which promotes environmental protection and energy conservation at the local level by using professional athletes as messengers.

Greenlaces.org has recruited over 100 athletes to sign the pledge to conserve, reduce waste and recycle. Last year, Spilger was recognized by the United Nations as an “Athlete for Change” before winning the 2010 Citi Sportswoman of the Year Award in WPS.

“Everybody should be their own shade of green,” Spilger says while giving individuals suggestions on how to become more environmentally responsible. “There’s no one rule when it comes to helping the environment, but on the top of my lists are reusable water bottles, shorter showers and adjusting the thermostat with the seasons. Wear a sweater in the winter and wear a t-shirt indoors in the summer.

"It’s little things that you can do and it’s as simple as that.”

And to have kids running around on a playground with each other, kicking a few balls here and there—that teaches everyone about life, about having fun, about being yourself and working as a team. It’s as simple as that.

Roberto Littbarski contributed to this report.