Coaches Across Continents

Coaches Across Continents is a UK and US based NGO aimed at improving the quality of life in low-income countries through soccer for social development.

What Coaches Across Continents Does

Coaches Across Continents is a soccer organization dedicated to improving the lives of young children in poor areas through soccer. From the United Kingdom, the team of coaches all over the world is led by Nick Gates. set up soccer drills and games to educate young players about health and wellness, HIV and other STDs, leadership, how to solve conflicts outside of soccer, and feminism. They work globally to teach these players in order to change the course of their lives for the better. Coaches Across Continents works with local programs (“Hat Trick Initiatives”), offering sessions that last from a couple weeks a year, depending on each program’s needs. These sessions are specifically tailored to the region they take place in. Due to the global reach of the organization, sessions vary based on culture, religion, and the general demographics of that specific area. Varying these sessions is a necessity because CAC needs to be able to adapt to different environments they are coaching in. Different countries have different traditions, values, and ways of life. In order to make the greatest impact on the children they teach, coaches must alter and tweak the curriculum to fit their needs. The partner programs, which often take place after school, run all the time, usually having a few practices a week, with Coaches Across Continents doing additional online mentoring on top of everything else.

Events

Typical Coaches Across Continents days have two/three-hour sessions, with 1,000 kids or more there. Coaches Across Continents’ coaches hold educational games to both the children and to the local coaches. These coaches and volunteers sign up and receive training, and can travel to different countries. The coaches then utilize what is learned from these sessions and make similar games into their own soccer programs. These sessions are very important for the children because it fills in gaps in their scholarly education. Many children don’t go to school because they need to help support their family. Those who do go very rarely, so these training sessions with Coaches Across Continents are valuable time to learn about what they can’t in school. These coaches focus on many issues in the regions they travel to. According to the area they are in, lessons may vary. There is a heavy focus on teaching about childhood education, especially for young girls, as well as stereotyping and common gender roles. Through these soccer sessions, coaches train the children to work with different problems that they may face in the future. They teach the kids how to learn on their own and get around obstacles. They also learn a lot about staying healthy and active.

Example of games played

An example of one of the games is “Condom tag”. This teaches students about the risk of unsafe sex and contagiousness of HIV. In the game, if a player gets tagged, then he or she has HIV. The only way the other players can protect themselves from the STDs is to “make good choices,” by holding onto “condoms” who are specially assigned players in the game. In a conflict resolution game, teams of five try to put a soccer ball on top of a cone, without speaking to one another or using their hands or feet. The game requires teamwork and an understanding of the plan from every teammate, which can aid with cooperation involving tasks outside the sport. This and many other games that Coaches Across Continents utilizes are necessary teaching tools. Through these games, children learn about valuable life skills. They learn the importance of safe sex as well as the importance of being active, continuing their education, and equal rights. In third-world countries and low-income communities, society is very different than first-world countries. There is not as much momentum for social change and views on equality are very behind in comparison to those of many European countries or America. For Coaches Across Continents, spreading feminism starts by including girls in every part of training. This means that every game, scrimmage, and activity are all co-ed in attempts to show the kids the importance of gender equality. Better knowledge about this and similar topics can impact how they learn in the classroom and in life. Kids grow up with a greater understanding of women’s rights and it will help girls gain critical leadership roles as well as other jobs. There are multiple programs based around female power in Africa and other low-income countries. It is very common for girls to not attend school because they have to help their family or are given to a suitor for marriage. These programs are designed to specifically help these girls and gain the confidence and power they need to survive in their country.

Expansion

Coaches Across Continents started out operated in the United Kingdom. In the organization’s first year in 2010, there were only three thousand kids. The next year, the organization grew to have as many as thirty thousand kids. Since then, the organizations has attempted to expand to other countries like Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, and its first out of continent country, Haiti. Coaches Across Continents has been expanding ever since. They compiled research about children’s quality of life in over fifty countries. Nick Gates, the founder of Coaches Across Continents, started his organization in Kampala, Uganda . Soon, he had expanded to almost ninety countries and operates on six continents. The most important expansion was the one to Africa. This changed Gates’ views on soccer, as he noticed it could be used as global connection. Now, all over the world, children are learning social issues and global problems because of Coaches Across Continents. The organization has been nominated for multiple awards, including an honor from the Beyond Sports Awards and won Best New Project out of over two hundred fifty other nominations.

Reasons for starting the organization

Nike Gates grew up playing soccer in England, falling in love with the sport. As a youth player he was extremely gifted and had the opportunity to play for the youth national team where he was able to play soccer in other countries and experience some of the culture there. He also played sweeper for the men’s soccer team at Harvard University class of 1991. After he graduated, he traveled to over sixty countries around the world, including countries in Asia, South America, and Australia. He visited impoverished towns and poor countries, and noticed an important common denominator: soccer. Before traveling around the world, he founded an organization that held camps throughout the northeast and New England area called Play Soccer. Gates wanted to make a difference, and playing soccer all his life, he knew just what to do. He wanted the sport to be more than a source of entertainment. Gates wanted to make an impact on the lives of children and people who have nothing. Gates turned the sport into a channel in which to teach athletic and life skills. During the 2010 World Cup, Nick Gates was in South Africa, but he wasn’t watching the tournament. He was taking Coaches Across Continents to Africa. He was teaching kids to play soccer without shoes and to learn without classrooms. Since spreading the organization’s influence to the continent of Africa, Nick Gates’ life and the organization transformed. Being able to influence and impact so many children in need was a huge turning point in Gates’ career. He brought lessons with him - and not only ones about how to score a goal.

Awards

2010 Featured Finalist Global Sports Forum Football for Education in Barcelona.[1]

2009, the project won the Best New Project for Sport and Development at the inaugural Beyond Sport Awards in London. [2]

Finalist for the 2009 SCORE4africa Football for Diversity Award [3]

References

Daley, John. Soccer and Survival. Harvard Magazine.
Coaches Across Continents.
Cuttone, Charles. Sights on Africa. New England Soccer News.
Bradley, Jeff. This is Africa. ESPN The Magazine.
10 in 2010. Kick For Hope.
Our 2010 Vision, Mission and Values: Creating locally owned, sustainable programs. Coaches Across Continents.
Coaches across Continents Hat-Trick Initiatives Beyond Sport.
Coaches across Continents Hat-Trick Initiatives Beyond Sport.
Score4Africa Press Release 10-30-2009 Score4Africa.
Nominees Global Sports Forum.
http://changingthegameproject.com/the-awesome-power-of-sport/
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2010/07/soccer-and-survival
http://www.streetfootballworld.org/network-member/coaches-across-continents

Further Information