Working with communities in developing countries may well be the most amazing coaching experience of your life!
Starting 2011 Application Process on August 1st, 2010
Meet some of the 2009 Coaches across Continents:
My name is Adam Rousmaniere. Just 8 weeks ago, I was an aspiring senior at Harvard who decided to do something a bit different for a summer. I had gained a place with Coaches across Continents and had a plane ticket to Malawi to teach and coach soccer to local coaches and kids. At the time, I didn’t understand how soccer could change the way people relate to the world. For those that know me, you know that I’m a guy that is not easily shaken by things. Over the past 2 months, I saw a 6-year-old girl participate in a session with her little brother on her back. I saw an orphaned 7-year-old boy, Isaac, speak to someone for the first time in weeks. I saw 800 aspiring young children jumping up and down in unison singing a song. I talked with local coaches and taught them games for HIV awareness. To say the least, I was shaken, many times. Two things are certain: 1) The experience has fundamentally changed my outlook on the world and 2) Coaches across Continents is making a real difference in the communities that we are working. Now I’m asking for the support of the soccer community to help change lives in developing communities.
Coaches Name: Sophie Legros Hometown:Brussels, Belgium Played: F.C. White Star (Boys youth teams), Femina White Star (Division 1 Belgium), in 2005 entered CNFE Clairefontaine in France the national
residential training program of the French soccer federation, played with the
CNFE then Hénin-Beaumont in the French DIvision 1 league.
Also played on the Belgian U15 national team and on the French U17 and U19
national teams. Favorite Movie: Man on Fire and Peaceful Warrior. Favorite Team: I don’t really have a favorite football team except the French national team Coaching experience: Clinics with America Scores (with Harvard) and PLAY SOCCER USA Hopes/thoughts for working in Africa: Very happy to set foot in Africa and look forward to this unique experience.
Excited to work with Coaches Across Continents to help in developing
countries through the combination of soccer and education.
My name is David Williams. After almost two years consulting for enormous federal government agencies and multimillion dollar private organizations, working with PLAY SOCCER Malawi has been extremely refreshing. With a minimum of financial resources, the staff and volunteers here in the city of Blantyre have created an extremely impressive organization. Harnessing this small African nation’s love for the beautiful game, with very little funding and mostly volunteer labor, PLAY SOCCER Malawi has become an engine for social change.
Working with the organization Coaches across Continents has provided me the opportunity to bring my perspectives as both a soccer educator and strategic management consultant to the aid of an organization that shares a vision of using the game of soccer/football to improve individual lives and communities. I have traded cubicles and conference rooms for dusty, dirt fields and power ties and pin-striped suits for sweat pants, balls and cones. And although driving my own personal car through the streets of metropolitan DC was a bit more comfortable than cramming into mini-buses with a dozen other passengers in Blantyre, I have never been happier with an assignment.
Playing/Coaching History: Christian Aviza grew up playing soccer in Framingham, Massachusetts with his six siblings. From an early age, he played on Olympic Development Program teams and played in international tournaments in such countries as Canada, Denmark (Dana Cup) and England (playing against various Premier League youth sides with extended training with Luton’ Towns junior team). Christian began coaching at the age of 14 when he coached a Framingham United U-12 side. Christian continued playing and after capturing Massachusetts state titles for his High School and town teams, he attended Georgetown University and played 4 years of Div. 1 soccer gaining NSCAA/adidas Scholar Athlete Regional All-America recognition in 1993. While obtaining a graduate degree at Boston College, Christian played for numerous Boston-area soccer teams including various teams in the semi-pro LASA league. Currently, he enjoys recreational soccer and assists with coaching the Framingham Red Raiders and PLAY SOCCER camps.
Hometown: Watertown, Massachusetts
Favorite Soccer Team: Juventus
Favorite MLS Team: New England Revolution
Favorite Soccer Player: Michael Ballack
Favorite US player: Benny Feilhaber/Clint Dempsey
Favorite Movie: Usual Suspects
Favorite Musical Artist: The Avett Brothers
Best Soccer Memory: Winning match in Bahia Blanca, Argentina
Idol: Parents -- for limitless love and care
Goals for Africa: Bring a positive attitude, tinged with humor, to the application of Coaches across Continents curriculum while selfishly gaining a rich and culturally diverse experience. And, see lots of smiles, just not on a lion.
As the plane touched down on the orange dirt path that was used as a runway I was excited and ready to work with the people of Kigoma. Before leaving for Africa I prepared the best I could; I read the lonely planet for Tanzania, I learned a couple of phrases in Swahili, I watched some documentaries on Africa etc… However for an American girl who has never traveled outside of North America my efforts to be ready wasn’t enough to prepare me for the emotion packed adventure I was about to take.
Our schedule was set and very full once we arrived, working with teachers in the morning and children in the evening. The first morning we arrived at what looked like to me an abandoned stadium but as we entered I learned that this stadium wasn’t abandoned at all. People called this home. Children who lived at this stadium were there, all smiles, wanting to know what we were doing. As the children sat by watching along came huge crowds of adults, we began to set up for the first session.
Sam writes, "As soon as I graduated, I left the UK and moved to the USA where I have worked for 15 months. Over this period I have had a wide experience of coaching boys and girls from age two to age eighteen. I have decided I would like to carry on travelling the world and interacting with new cultures. After building up a good experience of coaching I believe that my most valuable asset is to improve peoples’ lives in different continents so I would love the opportunity to explore this". Sam will be working in Zambia in September-December2009 establishing Hat-Trick Initiative Programs alongside our Corporate Social Responsibility Partners in the UK and USA.
Please support Sam and his program in Zambia by donating using the button below:
Bill, his dad, made a few bob from football and millions from sports shops. Judith, his mum, became a leading educationalist on both sides of the Atlantic.
We talk to Bill and Judith over lunch in a pub near Durham, to Nick over the telephone to Malawi. “There are no wires,” he says; cheeky sod.
His charity’s called Coaches Across Continents, designed not just to teach football but through it everything from HIV education to leadership and what Nick calls female empowerment.
“Social development,” he says, but he’s also very keen just to make kids laugh.
Though presently centred on Africa, in the past year they’ve had requests for information from 83 different countries. Next Thursday he’ll learn if CAC has won a Beyond Sport award, at the end of a three-day event attended by everyone from Tony Blair to Richard Branson, Archbishop Tutu to Prince Faisal al Hussein of Jordan.
He’d left Malawi, by bus, on Thursday morning. “I don’t particularly enjoy all the travelling, but I love getting dirty with the kids and seeing what a difference all this makes,” he says.
My name is Adam Rousmaniere. Just 8 weeks ago, I was an aspiring senior at Harvard who decided to do something a bit different for a summer. I had gained a place with Coaches across Continents and had a plane ticket to Malawi to teach and coach soccer to local coaches and kids. At the time, I didn’t understand how soccer could change the way people relate to the world. For those that know me, you know that I’m a guy that is not easily shaken by things. Over the past 2 months, I saw a 6-year-old girl participate in a session with her little brother on her back. I saw an orphaned 7-year-old boy, Isaac, speak to someone for the first time in weeks. I saw 800 aspiring young children jumping up and down in unison singing a song. I talked with local coaches and taught them games for HIV awareness. To say the least, I was shaken, many times. Two things are certain: 1) The experience has fundamentally changed my outlook on the world and 2) Coaches across Continents is making a real difference in the communities that we are working. Now I’m asking for the support of the soccer community to help change lives in developing communities. 
My name is David Williams. After almost two years consulting for enormous federal government agencies and multimillion dollar private organizations, working with PLAY SOCCER Malawi has been extremely refreshing. With a minimum of financial resources, the staff and volunteers here in the city of Blantyre have created an extremely impressive organization. Harnessing this small African nation’s love for the beautiful game, with very little funding and mostly volunteer labor, PLAY SOCCER Malawi has become an engine for social change. 
on Olympic Development Program teams and played in international tournaments in such countries as Canada, Denmark (Dana Cup) and England (playing against various Premier League youth sides with extended training with Luton’ Towns junior team). Christian began coaching at the age of 14 when he coached a Framingham United U-12 side. Christian continued playing and after capturing Massachusetts state titles for his High School and town teams, he attended Georgetown University and played 4 years of Div. 1 soccer gaining NSCAA/adidas Scholar Athlete Regional All-America recognition in 1993. While obtaining a graduate degree at Boston College, Christian played for numerous Boston-area soccer teams including various teams in the semi-pro LASA league. Currently, he enjoys recreational soccer and assists with coaching the Framingham Red Raiders and PLAY SOCCER camps. 
As the plane touched down on the orange dirt path that was used as a runway I was excited and ready to work with the people of Kigoma. Before leaving for Africa I prepared the best I could; I read the lonely planet for Tanzania, I learned a couple of phrases in Swahili, I watched some documentaries on Africa etc… However for an American girl who has never traveled outside of North America my efforts to be ready wasn’t enough to prepare me for the emotion packed adventure I was about to take. 
