CP SOCCER GOES GLOBAL
Saturday May 16th 2020 09:00 EST
Six continents, 18 countries, over 100 global athletes live online, over 500 global athletes training together, reaching over 5,000 viewers, CP Soccer Goes Global brought together the CP community for an historic FIRST online soccer training session on May 16th, 2020
Shea Hammond, aged 18 is the youngest member of the U.S. Para 7-a-side National Team, Shea has Cerebral Palsy. Shea hosts 30-40 challenged athletes every day Monday-Friday in an online training session from all over the US. He has been doing this for since April 6th and lights up these disability players day, day after day.
Shea and CP Soccer hosted players from EVERY habitable continent. Teams and players from Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Brazil, Chile, Botswana, South Africa, Egypt, Jordan, Bangladesh and Australia be joined the training.
In addition we had 50+ junior and senior Para players from across the USA from 25+ States in the USA.
The U.S. Para 7-a-side National Team Head Coach Stuart Sharp opened the event and we had have a fantastic training session and a bucket challenge before introducing our special guest for the day, Cindy Parlow-Cone, President of US Soccer.
Over 2,200 people tuned into our Facebook live stream that morning, and in subsequent shares, the video reached over 5.500 people with over 1,200 engagements.
Read our Co-founder and Coaching Director Ashley Hammond’s write up of that special day below.
Thursday May 14th, 10.00am
“I don't have a ball” - Siyabonga Ndlova - Durban, South Africa on messenger with me.
As we drew close to Saturday the CP Soccer team had covered all of the bases and we were pretty much set.
Our friend from South Africa threw me for a loop. I immediately called three sports stores in Durban, but apparently the South African government have taken soccer balls off the list of things that can be purchased at the moment. Frustrated, I tried Amazon.... 4-5 days.
Friday May 15th 11.00am
Stuart Sharp (US Mens Para 7-a-side Head Coach) calls. I am ready to throw my phone at something because I cant persuade a very nice lady in another sports store in Durban to sell me a soccer ball.
Stuart - “Just checking in to see if you are all set”
Ash - “No, I am so frustrated. I have a player in South Africa who does not have a ball and I cant seem to get him one, they wont sell me one in Durban”
Stuart - “Durban? I got this..... leave that to me, take that off your to do list”
Friday 3.30pm A great training session with Jake Kaplan
Friday 5.00pm Conference call with Shea, Gage, Mallory, Eli, Leah and Jacqueline - all systems go.
Friday 7.00pm Ash, Shea and Leah do local news paper interview
Friday 8.30pm - Schedules printed, guests confirmed, Glaser’s set, Starbucks for the morning ordered, Shea going to bed early, phones and iPads charged, back up chargers packed, CP shirts laid out, Gage and Ash synch phones. Sleep!
Saturday May 16th
Saturday May 16th - 6.00am - Cant sleep, so excited - make Meg a cup of tea - shoot, no milk, so no coffee for me - ahh Starbucks ordered, Glaser’s have that covered.
Saturday 7.15am - Wake boys and head to facility - set field, tidy cones, set shooting balls, re-read speech, get tables ready, re-read speech again.
Saturday 8.01am/USA 2.01pm SA time - Unbeknownst to me two new soccer balls have started a journey across Durban headed to Siyabonga. 1 hour before CP Soccer goes Global begins.
Saturday 8.05 Coffee, Glaser’s and boys arrive - issues with zoom, call Jordan Wade, compromise made with zoom.
Saturday 8.15am People lining up for the meeting - final check, SDA Clifton is ready
Saturday 8.29am - Open Zoom - WOW, we built it and they came!
Saturday 8.30am USA TIME - And so it begins
Was it the Belgiums in their “World Cup” attire, hats, face paint and flags?
Was it the the signs and flags from our USA family, Syd - Welcome, Atlanta USA, Donnie in California - CP Soccer Rocks, James in Princeton with the Stars and Stripes on the goal and SO many more?
Was it the Chilean flags that adorned every fence or room behind everyone of our South American friends playing areas?
Was it the Australians who strung up floodlights in their gardens to join us in the dark of night in East and Western Australia and have the coolest name “Para Roos”?
Was it our little man in Brazil whose vivid blue and blue shirt, showed that he may one day get one for real for Brazil with that skill?
Was it our perfectly dressed and brilliantly Orange, uniformed friends from Syngenta Juveniles CP FC, Scotland who played so well?
Was it the smile on Precious face, our new friend, alone with her mum on a playground at an empty school in Trinidad?
Was it our friends in my homeland, England that waved the St Georges cross relentlessly and proudly across those typically pristine English gardens?
Was it the beautiful desert scene from our new friends in Amman, Jordan?
Was it our friend's from the land of the Pharaohs who used waste paper baskets in their bedrooms and offices for the bucket challenge?
Was it our surprise, but now definite friends from Singapore, Argentina and Tunisia on facebook who showed up and sent beautiful messages of support?
Was it the Zebras from Botswana who gathered together, led by a diligent coaching corp that studied our program all week and wanted to be prepared?
Was it our new found friends in Bangladesh who also had coaches scribing all week and preparing for their welcome to the CP Football world?
Was it our friends from the Emerald Isle who like Scotland were totally uniformed and had the best buckets... someone (Rachel) prepared them!
Was it our Dutch friends who also so proudly displayed the Orange and live for their football?
Or was it our new friend Siyabonga Ndlovu in South Africa?
2.30pm / 8.30am (30 minutes before CP Soccer Goes Global begins) Durban, South Africa - Siyabonga Ndlovu says to Anne Slatter
“Thank you I-Care for my new ball, I miss soccer, now I can now represent my country, South Africa in the International CP game”
That will stick in your mind the most?
Saturday 2.30pm South Africa Time/ 8.30am USA time -
Anne Slatter from www.icare.co.za a children’s charity in South Africa arrives at the home of Siyabonga in Durban and delivers two brand new soccer balls with 30 minutes to spare.
Immediately Siyabonga joined the Facebook group and represented South Africa in CP Soccer Goes Global.
I was unaware that 12 hours earlier Stuart had actually managed to get a message to his friend in Durban and everything swung into action based on the address that we had for our friend in South Africa.
Thank you I-Care and Anne Slatter, an unknown, beautiful face who belongs on the mosaic that was our day of screens on the zoom feed, making for a most colorful and amazing, historic day.
There are so many more beautiful memories from our historic 90 minutes together. For an hour and a half the troubles in the world disappeared. Football again put similes on everyone’s face.......
Dr Skye Arthur-Banning from Clemson University actually pulled on a referee shirt for the bucket challenge. Stuart and Skye roared as goals poured in.
The volleys, the shots, the toe taps, the dribbling, the moves, the ladder, the circles the turns and the goals....
All of this and then.......
A World Cup Winner, double Olympic gold medalist, and newly anointed President of US Soccer joins the party. Actually Cindy Parlow-Cone joined very early and enjoyed watching the festivities well before speaking. Yet another example of how lucky we are to have US Soccer behind us.
With the poise, elegance and grace that one would expect from such an accomplished athlete, we were all enthralled with the words and answers to some great questions from our legendary guest.
What an honor to be the President of US Soccer... NOBODY cared... they wanted the stuff on the athlete, the player that made the 158 appearances for the USA, who scored 75 + international goals and who will undoubtedly go down as one of the best ever for the US.
Sorry Cindy, I was actually taken with the presidency thing as well, but our charges showed who they are. Competitors, players, fighters, brilliant little footballers and ultimately like most of us just lovers of the beautiful game.
There are so many people to thank and I would miss some if I tried so instead I will say thank you to the most important people today. Our US and one Ireland player have lifted Shea and I for six weeks.
Shea is a member of the US Para 7-a-side Mens National team has worked tirelessly with our incredible family for six weeks. He never misses and he never gives anything less than 100% because every day he knows he must model the behavior that he learned from Josh Brunais, Seth Jahn, Nick Mayhugh, Kevin Hensley, Keith Johnson and so many more Para guys for whom the USA crest means so much.
Thank you Shea and thank you to the hundreds of players that joined us today and hopefully learned the behavior that Leah and Shea showed them in our small corner of the world in Clifton New Jersey.
Up to 110 people were on zoom but 2,200 people were on the live feed.
“There is no traffic jam on the extra mile” - Ash - courtesy of Dr. Rob Gilbert
I leave you with the simplicity, yet brilliance of the President of US Soccer - Cindy Parlow-Cone
“Just have fun, always have fun”
and what ever you do
“Enjoy the journey”
CP Soccer Goes Global was made possible because of the efforts of Eli, Levi, Leah, Alisha, Jonathan, Gage, Jacqueline, Mallory, Lacey, Valerie, Shea, Skye, Stuart, Josh, Cindy, Sam, Tom, Evan, Anne, Jordan our numerous CP Soccer US city leaders and volunteers and so many incredible coaches, managers and parents from around the USA and WORLD that love our now world famous CP Football players!
Thank you one and all and I cant wait to see you all again soon on the pitch.
Monday we will have a new set of codes for our training. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we have lined up some incredible guests and cant wait to get back to work after a day off tomorrow!
Sincerely
Ashley Hammond
Director of Coaching CP Soccer US