About 50 young athletes took part in the Rochester City Soccer League's Champions of Change Summit this weekend.
The summit's goal, according to league CEO and founder Nicole Hercules, is to bring awareness to the challenges that marginalized communities face in sports accessibility and equity.
Through working with local and national leaders and community members, Hercules hopes that the league can serve as a grassroots hub to provide youths in these communities with the tools and resources to reach their full potential within the sports ecosystem.
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For more information about the league, go to rochestercitysoccerleague.org.
“Nationwide, we're recognizing that there's gaps in kids who are marginalized, who are historically excluded for the game," Hercules said. "And we're really trying to get to the bottom of really making sure that there's a change nationwide, and that's going to start right here in Rochester.”
She founded the league eight years ago, for youths ages 4 to 14, and she said it's grown rapidly, from serving 200 kids to 2,000.
Hercules said she wants Rochester to become a national model for grassroots soccer excellence and believes it starts with summits and clinics like the one held this weekend to show the community and leaders what can happen when people invest and give young people the right tools to succeed.
Hercules is advocating for salaried roles in youth soccer and sports development, federal and state infrastructure investments, such as a year-round dome, and equitable access to high-quality play for all youths.
“We also have grown out of the spaces that we have," she said. "We have to put the fields in so that the kids can have a league. But that's an investment that we make, because it's an investment we want for our kids."
FIFA World Cup Coach of the Year Hue Menzies served as a coach for the summit, which was held at the Rochester Community Sports Complex. He agrees that investing in soccer and strengthening Rochester’s sports community can create a trickle-down effect in addressing the problems that young people here face.
“It's so important for these kids to be involved," Menzies said. "And especially in the inner city and the community, we need to find something to keep them together, keep them stable, keep them on the right track."
Menzies said creating avenues for young people, through promoting soccer and sports engagement, is key to fighting youth adversity and the challenges that marginalized communities face.
And to him, the game has an advantage in being universal.
“The game has its own language," he said. "You don't have to know how to speak English, Spanish. I can go anywhere in the world and coach, because the game has its language."
Cuauhtemoc Sierra, who played in Sunday's clinic, has been playing soccer since he was 2. He said he has found many people to look up to through this league, who have helped him on his soccer journey.
“There are a lot of role models. My coach is one of them. It's all my teammates, I guess, with all their strategies and ways to play, they are really admirable, too," Cuauhtemoc said. "My mom played soccer. My dad played soccer. I know a lot of people that have helped me through soccer, a lot of coaches, and it's all due to them.”
Avery Warren, another participant in the clinic, began playing soccer with his friends. He said he's learning new skills through the league — and like Cuautemoc, Avery has peers who he admires. He said there is an older youth in the league who he looks up to.
"He's older than me and he's better than me, and I want to be as good as him someday," he said.
Avery said playing soccer with his friends is a great feeling:
“I don't really know the best word to describe it, but just happy, free.”