Soccer Shepherds

New York

Our goal is to shepherd talented young soccer players in inner city New York throughout the trials and tribulations of youth and young adulthood while using the sport of soccer to motivate and guide them towards a better life.

Using the connections and resources available to us, our specific aim is to make a positive difference in the local communities of upper Manhattan and the South Bronx by providing aid and support to soccer playing boys from these areas. Whether via professional soccer or higher education, the end game for those that come through the Soccer Shepherds program is to achieve balance, happiness, and financial stability in adulthood through one's talent with a soccer ball.

"Now reminiscing about my whole career, I have a whole different appreciation for the game itself. It has evolved to be more than just a game. It's been a teacher of life."

- Michael Jordan

The opportunities are out there; the world is waiting for you. Fulfill your potential.

We are based in Harlem, NY.

Soccer Shepherds is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that appreciates any contribution you can make to aid its cause, be that in financial donations, soccer gear, medical help, connections to local government agencies, soccer clubs, or higher education officials, or any other contribution you wish to make.

 

As an organization, SSNY takes it upon itself to do anything in our power to improve the situations of talented young soccer players in difficult life circumstances. Our focus is on Harlem and the surrounding areas because this part of the city was both the inspiration and location of our genesis, and because the people living here need our help the most. Your financial donations will be used for expenses such as: tutors and coaches, medical help for injured players, transportation for activities such as games, practices, college visits, and professional trials, team travel, gear for players that lack the means to acquire their own, legal aid for players, equipment for recording games and making highlight videos, day to day costs for handling players’ situations, and the numerous costs incurred and associated with owning and operating the teams that we use as platforms and incubators to display players' talent. Soccer Shepherds strives to be a full service organization for players in need of assistance. We are looking for as many connections and friends as possible, including access to low-income housing and employment agencies. When there is a problem, we seek to fix it. It is impossible to solve all the world's sadness, but we can at least address the issues facing a specific set of individuals: high level soccer players from inner city New York whose lives could be completely changed with just a little help and good fortune. One day, those that have received help may in turn find themselves in a position where they can give back to this city too.

 

"The saddest thing in life is wasted talent," and there is no larger concentrated amount of wasted talent than the talent graveyard that is the urban soccer scene of New York City.

For many years in New York there has been an epidemic of the city’s elite talent going unseen on the national level, let alone the global level. The New York metropolis is one of the world’s largest and most diverse urban areas, with ideal conditions for the production of world class soccer players. But, year after year, generation after generation, we fail to replicate the quality and depth of the talent pools emerging from areas such as Sao Paulo, Paris, London, or even Rome. There are many reasons for this failure, but one that urgently needs to be addressed is our society’s inability to provide opportunities and support for much of the city’s most talented soccer playing youth. It is quite difficult to make the grade as a professional soccer player, but it is truly impossible for young men who in some cases lack: proper citizenship documentation, basic healthcare, any living family at all in this country, basic housing situations, full mastery of the English language, high school diplomas, college eligibility, money to pay for positions in high level club teams, or even just the requisite amount of free time to hone their talents due to financial and living constraints.

Soccer Shepherds seeks to use the beautiful game to promote hope and socioeconomic growth throughout some of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods, often ripe with talent but painfully lacking in the necessary conditions for that talent to flourish. The path to professional soccer within the United States revolves around an expensive pay-to-play youth soccer system and the need for college eligibility, unlike every other country in the world. The ability to maintain college eligibility for a young man age 17-20 who may live alone, work to support himself, not fully speak the language, or have health insurance to deal with injuries, is an impossible task. These problems are exacerbated within the soccer playing population of inner city America as opposed to even the football or basketball playing populations of our country’s poorest urban neighborhoods because football and basketball are American sports. For the most part, disadvantaged young men playing basketball or football are at least US citizens, speak fluent English, and have families. The urban soccer scene of New York City is littered with talents from around the world that cannot even boast those most basic “advantages”.