Three friends. A shared love of soccer. A free X-block. A desire to do something important. Inspired by Newton South High School’s program, seniors Santi Sierra and Travis Applebaum and junior Jeffrey Dong brought the Freekick Initiative to BHS.
The Freekick Initiative is a student-run, non-profit organization that hosts free clinics to make soccer accessible to children. Despite the challenge of promoting and organizing clinics, the club has fostered a strong community and inspired the youth through its efforts.
Co-founder Sierra said that he and the two other co-founders did a lot of outreach and planning to establish the club. They worked relentlessly with around 15 club members to organize their first clinic.
“I feel like we put a lot of work in,” Sierra said. “It was almost eight months, maybe a little more, leading up to that first clinic, and there was a lot of talking, a lot of hard work and getting everything to work so that it would be able to work for one day at the clinic.”
Co-director and junior Adan Spivak said that planning the clinics takes more preparation than one would think.
“On the surface, it’s a group of kids from grades three to seven showing up to the field. We have some coaches there, we give them a great time, but it’s a lot of planning required. We have to get a permit from the town, we have to raise money for insurance, the cost of equipment and all that,” Spivak said.
Their efforts paid off, as the number of participants they had from the first to the second clinic tripled. Spivak said a game-changer was getting parents to know about the free clinics and sign their kids up.
“We reached out to the leader of town soccer, and then parents of kids that we know and siblings,” Spivak said. “So a bunch of it is word of mouth. For the first clinic, it was a smaller group, but I think the kids had a great time, and they told their friends about it. And because of that, we were able to retain a lot of the kids and gain so many new ones.”
Appelbaum said he knows he’s had an impact when a player remembers him from a previous clinic.
“One of the best parts is seeing a little kid that you’ve coached before come back and point you out to his parents,” Appelbaum said.
Spivak said as the organization scales up, it’s crucial to coordinate and have clear goals.
“I’ve definitely been taught the struggles that come with planning a bigger event and the importance of being able to communicate effectively to team members,” Spivak said. “At times it’s easy to get lost in where we want to take the club, but when we’re all on task, all focused and all want to make an effort, it’s very productive and fulfilling.”
Sierra said using soccer to create a community and connect with younger kids has been a rewarding way to give back and be a part of something bigger.
“I hope they are able to get inspired and work hard to be able to be on the [high school] team as well,” Sierra said. “Our team has a really good community and BHS is a really good community.”
Appelbaum said he started playing soccer at a young age and was coached by high school students. Now that he’s the coach, he said it has been a full-circle moment that he’s enjoyed.
Spivak said they’ve acquired and kept so many members because the club is full of people who have been surrounded by soccer their whole lives and are looking for a greater sense of fulfillment by giving back to the community that raised them and taught them to love soccer.
“Our motto is ‘one town, one team,’” Spivak said. “We’re all in it together and want to give these kids great memories and experiences that they can remember for the rest of their lives.”
