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Seattle

SSSeattle Program Director: Dave Nibley

SSSeattle Volunteer Coaches: Dylan Peterson, Taso Lagos, Westin Goetz, Josh Horton, Roger Levesque

About the Program

Street Soccer Seattle began when Taso Lagos, professor at the University of Washington, saw the Greek team practicing for the 2009 Homeless World Cup. Impressed by the program, he returned to Seattle determined to start a program in the area. Over the next few years Street Soccer Seattle aimed to create a city-wide league as well as a mentoring program. This unique form of mentoring will bring the mentor and mentee together on the soccer pitch, and haven for both parties.

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Street Soccer Seattle's main purpose is to build a supportive community for our players to belong to. Homelessness and poverty can be very isolating situations. Our goal is to reconnect our players with the community they live in. We provide a safe environment for our players to enjoy life and build trust in their teammates, coaches, and volunteers. This trust and renewed excitement for life that we see in our players then extends to other aspects of their lives and community.

With a supportive community in place, Street Soccer Seattle feels that soccer is an amazing format to empower individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness. The team name we use for local rec-leagues is Momentum FC. We emphasize that small, persistent effort in a consistent direction leads to great results and success. Rome was not built in a day and Messi did not become the world's greatest soccer player all at once. Both achievement took hard work and consistent effort - and this is the message that we stress to our players each day.

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Street Soccer Seattle at a Sounders Game!

Street Soccer Seattle has a few goals to continue building momentum as a program in its third year. We hope to add a mentoring component to what we provide currently. We would love to add a women's team this year. Also, because economic plays a role in every program, we are negotiating with local businesses on sponsoring opportunities.

For more informationabout the team, visit their website at http://streetsoccerseattle.org.

In The Media

The end of 2011 has been an exciting time for Street Soccer Seattle. Roger Levesque, midfielder for the Seattle Sounders, has been coming to team practices! Roger was with the Sounders as they transitioned from the USL to the MLS and is a favorite of local soccer fans. He has been excellent with the Street Soccer players, jumping right in with helping out and reinforcing program goals. He is an extremely friendly guy who enjoys chatting with our players and has really helped the team feel value.