Soccer Without Borders Nicaragua

T.E.A.M. Granada

Quick Links: http://swbnicaragua.blogspot.com, http://soccerwithoutbordersgranada.blogspot.com/

Project Partners: Nicaraguan Football Federation, Nicaraguan Institute for Sport

Project Summary:  T.E.A.M. Granada aims to empower girls through soccer opportunities and life-skills education to meet their potential personally, athletically and in their communities. 

Background Information: Due to a commonly held cultural perspective that sports are for men, few opportunities and even fewer resources exist for girls to play. Without role models, encouraging coaches, parents, or proper equipment, most girls lose interest in sports at a time in their development when the physical, mental, and social benefits would be most powerful.

The Nicaraguan Football Federation officially recognized the Women’s National League for the first time in 2008, due in large part to the hard work of Dailia Lopez, a former player and strong female figure. Still, even at the highest level of women’s soccer in the country, players lack appropriate footwear and clothing, coaches are untrained or unpaid, teams practice with a single ball, and games are canceled for lack of resources to travel. While these financial obstacles are common on the men’s side as well, there is a distinct gap between what is available to men versus women.

Not surprisingly, at the girls youth level there are hardly any opportunities to speak of. Most girls do not own any shoes apart from sandals and their leather school shoes, and do not own clothing that is comfortable to run in.

Project History: T.E.A.M. Granada was formally founded on March 14, 2009 after operating for 13 months informally as SWB outreach. Since its launch, through organizing and providing support for the first-ever Granada girls’ youth soccer league, teaching gym classes, hosting tournaments, running an annual camp, T.E.A.M. Granada has reached nearly 2,000 youth. In addition to soccer programming, our annual T.E.A.M. camp also features two coaching courses, one designed for coaching youth and one for more advanced coaches. T.E.A.M. Granada has provided equipment support to the U-20 Women’s National team of Nicaragua, and has sponsored Granada’s only member of that team, so that she has the means to continue playing at the highest level.

With the help of a year-round volunteer presence, we now operate an office space that houses all activities, provides a safe space for girls and creates a stronger presence in the community. In addition, 10 youth coaches from the community have joined the SWB team, or Futbol Sin Fronteras, as it known in Nicaragua. These coaches, alongside our US volunteers, lead four weekly office events (Girls' night, Homework/English class night, Fun night, and Movie night), and three weekly soccer events (Friday night advanced girls practice, Saturday open girls practice, Sunday Futsal game). Twice per year, we also run a girls' youth league that runs for 6-8 weeks, and these youth leaders act as coaches and referees for the various teams. Over the next year, SWB hopes to build on the success of this program by expanding its membership and continuing to reach out to girls around Granada. 

Project Vision:

The objectives of Soccer Without Borders in Nicaragua are the following: 

    * Create and sustain opportunities for girls’ soccer

    * Train coaches

    * Run life-skills sessions with youth soccer players

    * Provide soccer equipment to the community

    * Develop partnerships with other key actors 

    * Provide employment opportunities for local youth