Children get a sporting chance.
By Justin Rodriguez
The Times Herald-Record
jrodriguez@th-record.com
Circleville: The soccer program allows special-needs kids to experience success and have fun.
When Jennifer Stewart arrived to her car in the parking lot at Otisville Elementary School, a group of parents were surrounding it. Some were laughing. Stewart said she heard another parent say "isn't that pathetic." So what caused all the commotion? The parents were looking at a few bumper stickers on Stewart's car, promoting autism awareness.
Her son, Jacob, who is 6 years old, is autistic. "A woman turned and grinned at me," Stewart said. "I didn't even acknowledge it, I just went to the car. I think she almost fell out of her seat when she realized I was getting in the car. I turned to her and said, 'Jacob is in your daughter's class, it's not pathetic, it's part of my life.' " Stewart has plenty of similar stories. One time, a parent at a T-ball game told Stewart her son shouldn't be playing with the rest of the children.
Nobody will ever tell Stewart that at the Town of Wallkill Soccer Challenger Program. The program is designed for special-needs children to learn and play the game. It's the first soccer program of its kind in the area. Stewart's son is one of 40 children playing in the program. "It feels good to be able to get this going," said Town of Wallkill Soccer Club president Jay Anthony. "We had the backing of the town, the facilities, and the club is behind it 200 percent. I would like to get more people in the area involved."
Anthony first contemplated starting the league two years ago. His son, Brett, 9, is autistic and didn't have the attention span to play in the Town of Wallkill's other soccer leagues. But there was one problem. Anthony feared insurance rates for special-needs children would be much higher. That wasn't the case.
So in January, Anthony began spreading the word about the Challenger program. He received help from SUNY Orange men's coach John Hogan, who teaches special education at Orange/Ulster BOCES in Goshen. The league started on Sept. 8. Children ages 5-16 with disabilities ranging from Down's syndrome to attention deficit disorder, will meet every Saturday until Oct. 27 at Circleville Park to learn soccer skills. Each session lasts an hour.
LaGrange, in Dutchess County, is the only other town in the mid-Hudson to offer such a soccer program. Nadine Briggs of Chester was happy to find the program. Her daughter, Samantha, 8, has global delays and seizure disorder. "I think (Samantha) will do better in soccer than Challenger baseball," Briggs said. "We chose not to put her into a mainstream environment. She couldn't keep up. The kids would make fun of her. It just wasn't good for her self-esteem. I wasn't comfortable." Briggs' worst fear was having her daughter on the sidelines watching others compete. That isn't an issue anymore. The Challenger softball program helped her daughter's coordination and social skills. She expects the same from the soccer sessions.
Anthony relies on volunteers to run the sessions. Recently, Hogan and most of the SUNY Orange men's team helped run beginner drills. Players from Minisink Valley, Pine Bush and Valley Central are expected to volunteer.
Volunteers need to be patient. Many children have low attention spans and may wander off. To discourage that, Anthony uses yellow soccer balls and puts directional arrows on the field. No games are played. No scores are kept.
The point is to give special-needs children the same chance on the soccer field as others. Most children in the program couldn't express their excitement about that opportunity.
But Jacob Stewart's brother, Alexander, 9, could. His younger brother has watched him play soccer without being able to participate for years. "When I started playing, I looked over at Jacob," Alexander Stewart said. "He had a sad face on because he wanted to play. Now he can. It's really cool."
 
 
 
About this article:
The article to the left is not presented to evoke sympathy for families affected by autism or other children with special needs.
 
It serves to raise awarenesss about how people sometimes perceive children with special needs. It relates what the families of these children can and must do to give them some social balance, fulfillment, and a sense of personal achievement.