Extensive Travel.

To participate in high-level youth soccer competitions, extensive travel outside of DC is required for the young men and women we support on local club teams. One player we help to bridge that gap is Axel, whose must travel hundreds of miles every season just to compete in regular season games with his Washington Capital United 2005 team. These traditional pay-to-play soccer models were simply too far away from the local communities of our players and families.

Lack of Access.

When we took a closer look at where high-level youth soccer clubs were operating in the DC area, compared to where the players we served actually lived, we found that the inaccessibility to practices and home matches was yet another ongoing obstacle they faced. A 15-20 minute drive across town is impossible without reliable transportation, or for parents who have to work evenings. Accessible, local training sessions within walking distance of public transportation are a big part of why DCFC is an impactful model.

High Costs.

The price-tag for our most talented players to compete on a travel soccer team was thousands of dollars per year. When scholarships were offered to players from low-income families, they often covered less than 50% of the overall costs. For our top players like Ariana and Precious, the hidden costs included equipment, travel, lodging, meals, tournaments, and camps, which easily exceeded $5,000 annually. Check out the diagrams above to see a detailed look at the data.

Player Identification.

We first saw Precious play on May 24, 2016, in a DC SCORES game at Capital City Charter School. She was competing against Chavez Prep and her good friend, Ariana Reyes. From her very first touch, we could see that she had incredible talent and instincts to play the game. Precious needed the challenge of higher level soccer to ensure she continued to grow and improve.

Travel Team Play.

To introduce the idea of playing club soccer, we met with Precious and her mother, Dorothy, in the summer of 2016 (see photo at left). Dorothy does not have a car and works in the evenings, so it was impossible for Precious to get to practice and games without significant support. That’s where we stepped in to bridge the gap. As Precious embarked on her club soccer career, we coordinated travel, logistics, and covered all expenses related to her playing experience.

Precious started playing with DC Stoddert and Coach Mohan Telfer in the Fall of 2016. She immediately established herself as one of the top players on her team (see photo to bottom left). After playing with DC Stoddert for her opening season, we realized that Precious needed a level of competition that matched her growing abilities. After seeking out an opportunity for her, we coordinated a tryout for Precious with McLean’s Elite Clubs National League team, one of the top girls’ youth soccer programs in the country. Precious made the team and began playing in competitions around the country with McLean ECNL (see photo to right).

After a little more than a year of playing travel soccer, Precious was identified to compete in the exclusive, invite-only US Club Soccer ID2 camp, which provides elite training to a select group of players and is used to identify players for the US National pool teams (see photo above).

Reaching the Next Level.

Just four years since she began to compete on formal travel soccer teams, Precious is now on track to be our second Open Goal Project player to continue her career as a student athlete at a Division 1 college or university.

Over the past 18 months, Precious has been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA while battling through an ACL surgery and a long rehab process, and she has still come back to be recruited by several top programs. Her story is a testament to not only her character, drive and talent, but also to the ability of players from our community to overcome adversity and persevere.

Summer Camps and Clinics

High-level soccer camps and clinics over the summer and on weekends cost hundreds of dollars for players, disposable income that low-income families just don't have. We began offering completely free camps and clinics within walking distance of public transportation, led by professional coaches, to provide our young men and women a positive environment to grow as players and as people when they are outside of school.

DC College ID Camps

In 2018, we launched our DC College ID camp program. By hosting our ID clinics within walking distance of public transportation, bringing together coaches from local colleges and universities, providing participants with student-athlete resource packets, and offering the opportunity completely free of charge, we empowered our players to take a first step towards thinking about what it takes to continue their athletic and academic journeys at the next level.

Chevron Soccer Academy

Using our method to engage players from underserved communities, we were able to remove obstacles and empower hundreds of boys and girls from underserved communities in California to access the opportunity of a lifetime in the form of a series of professionally coached, completely free, accessible soccer clinics in partnership with Chevron, and California-based professional teams Los Angeles Football Club and the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer and Fresno FC of the United Soccer League.