Website Manager

Manalapan Soccer Club

Manalapan Soccer Club

MSC Buddies Program

The MSC Buddies Program: Season Two

The MSC Buddies Program recently wrapped up its second season.  Building on the success of last year’s first run of the program, year two was even better!  Working with Alan Goldstein from the Challenger Sport Program and with the Manalapan Soccer Club, we ran a set of training sessions over a six week period in October and November.

Each week, 20-25 players from the Challenger Program came to the Manalapan Recreation Center ready to play soccer, to learn more about the game, and to have fun.  Travel players from the club came to volunteer as “buddies” each week, with over 70 volunteers joining in the event.  A big thank you has to go out to Brian Grimm, for running the training sessions each week.

The training sessions focused on different skills, helping the players learn the basics of dribbling, trapping, passing, shooting, all while making it fun for them to learn.  The volunteers were by their sides, helping them with their newly learned abilities, cheering them on, and giving high-fives!

This year, the players all got a special surprise when Sean Davis from the New York Red Bulls came to one of the training sessions.  Sean grew up in Holmdel, played soccer at Holmdel High School, and attended Duke University before joining the Red Bulls.  Sean talked to the players, signed autographs, took pictures, and even jumped in goal to try to save some shots.  It was a great night for all the kids involved.

This program will continue to look at ways to expand each year.  For next season, we will look into growing to allow more boys and girls with special needs to be involved in the training, and more volunteers as well.  We will also be talking to the Red Bulls organization about additional involvement at future sessions, or maybe even planning to go to a Red Bulls game.

Thanks to Alan Goldstein and the Manalapan Soccer Club for helping to make this wonderful program happen.

Spencer, Austin & Logan Volk

 

Copyright © 2024 Manalapan Soccer Club  |  Privacy Statement |  Terms Of Use |  License Agreement |  Children's Privacy Policy  Log In