Buddy soccer program gives everybody a chance to play

By MAC BANKS

Staff Writer

What started as just a class project has become something much more meaningful.

USC Aiken soccer player Timothy Costanzo and USCA alum Brittni Everhardt have started the Buddy Soccer program for children with special needs. The program is aimed at getting all special needs children, including those in wheelchairs and walkers, involved in team sports. It is also gives the parents a chance to see their children physically active and having fun. The goal is to teach the players the game of soccer as well as give them the opportunity to make new friends.

Costanzo first got the idea to start the Buddy Soccer program when he took the idea he recalled from his mother's involvement while they lived in Virginia. Costanzo's mother, a physical therapist, used sports to help children with special needs as part of their therapy.

"I've see the impact this has had on families," Costanzo said.

A senior at USC, Costanzo took his mother's idea when given an assignment in his technical writing class and decided to try it locally. He contacted the City of Aiken and ran the idea past its staff. The city backed the idea, as long as there was interest from the community.

"It was something I wanted to start for sometime," Costanzo said.

That is where Everhardt came in. Everhardt used her communication major skills, and the two of them posted flyers and started spreading the idea through word of mouth.

"Anyone I knew, I told about Buddy Soccer," Everhardt said. "We struggled at first because we wanted it to be a lot bigger than it is, but once families see what type of program it is, we think it will take off."

Currently there are just 12 kids involved in the program and 15 "buddies," who volunteer their time. The kids have a six game season and are halfway through that schedule, which lasts about a month and a half.

The program is open for children from 5-15 years old and is open to participants with all types of special needs. The majority of the athletes in the program have been diagnosed with either Autism or Down Syndrome, but there are children who have participated who are blind, deaf, quadriplegic and who have cerebral palsy.

"Anything you can name, we have had," Costanzo said. "The hardest thing we are dealing with is getting the word out that kids in wheelchairs can play."

In its first year of hosting Buddy Soccer, Costanzo and Everhardt have recruited members of the USCA soccer team, along with brothers and sisters of the participants, to partner with the Buddy Soccer athletes as they learn the game of soccer. The City of Aiken Parks and Recreation Department played a role providing a schedule, a field to play on and jerseys for the players.

But Costanzo said he would like to see more than just soccer for special needs children.

"The more popularity we have with this, the more we can open it too all sports," he said.

Costanzo also credited the USCA athletic department for its help in the program as well. For associated athletic director Tim Hall, the program hits close to home. Hall has a 6-year-old son named Jordan, who has Down Syndrome.

"It makes you feel really good when your student athletes do this, especially when it's close to you like this," he said. "It give him (Jordan) a chance to run around and interact with other children. It gives him a little bit of exercise, and it makes me feel good to get him out and involved."

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