SCSU Soccer's Sally Nelson makes local youth soccer clinic a reality
10/9/2020 11:18:00 AM | Women's Soccer
The COVID pandemic has unfortunately placed a hold on athletic events at St. Cloud State University in 2020. Despite the void of playing time, SCSU women's soccer senior captain midfielder Sally Nelson (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview H.S.) has still been able to make a major impact on the pitch this fall.
As an intern at the Greater St. Cloud Public Safety Foundation's Rotary Community Outpost House this semester, Nelson has been the driving force behind a highly successful soccer clinic for kids in the neighborhood surrounding the Community Outpost on St. Cloud's south side.
The Community OutPost team collaborates with residents, community groups, businesses, and St. Cloud State University, to assess community needs; build and maintain relationships; and improve access to needed health, wellness, and other services. Area health and social services have designated space in the facility, which is located a few blocks west of the SCSU campus.
A criminal justice major with a double minor in psychology and forensic science at SCSU, Nelson is working on the six credit internship during the fall of 2020 at SCSU. On the first day of her work at the Community Outpost, Nelson was asked to help create a youth soccer clinic since they knew she plays soccer for the Huskies.
An All-Region and Academic All-Region selection in 2019, Nelson has been a three-year play making standout in the midfield for the Huskies and helped them chart an impressive 12-5-3, 10-3-2 NSIC record last year. Nelson has also received SCSU's Presidential Award, the Kimberly Ritsche Award, Joseph Plant Award and the Kim Corbin Family Soccer Award during her tenure on campus.
"I was excited to accept the challenge of putting together the clinic since I love to volunteer and help with the community…and play soccer," Nelson said.
She essentially built the youth clinic from the ground up. This included all pre-planning, creating promotional fliers and advertising, arranging for people to help serve as clinicians and creating an event program and drills used in the clinic.
The clinic received a major boost after The Sanneh Foundation heard about the upcoming event and offered to supply 100 free soccer balls to hand out to the clinic participants. Former professional soccer player Tony Sanneh established The Sanneh Foundation in 2003 to support community-based organizations and to assemble a supportive network within the community that provides positive environments for urban youth to become productive adults. Sanneh created his foundation to leverage what he saw as soccer's unique potential to create positive social change for kids.
The community connections continued as St. Cloud's CentraCare stepped up to arrange a soccer cleat drive with some help from Dick's Sporting Goods. This connection provided a pair of free soccer cleats to all of the clinic participants. The Community Outpost also provided free clinic t-shirts for the kids along with snacks and drinks during the event.
Nelson added to the inspiring story by arranging for her teammates to serve as instructors during the two sessions of the clinic, which was held on Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 at Haws Park in St. Cloud - just adjacent to the Community Outpost.
"The clinic has really been a total effort by our community," Nelson said. "We have had a lot of groups and people working together to make this a success."
An ironic twist to the story is that Nelson's internship at the Community Outpost House almost did not happen since two of her internships opportunities that she arranged for this fall fell through due to the COVID pandemic.
"My first two internships were canceled, but my internship at the Community Outpost House was available and it has been awesome," Nelson said. "With the way things worked out, I guess it was just meant to be."
Nelson had learned about the Community Outpost House internship from some of her classmates, who had worked there in the past. The internship provides direct hands-on work in the field of community outreach during the semester. She helps supervise the Community Outpost House's activities, which also includes things such as free dental check-ups, handing out snacks and ice cream to the kids when they get off the bus after school, knitting and sewing workshops, the Homework Helpers tutoring program, backpack drive for school supplies along with the soccer program.
"The Community Outpost House definitely provides programs that help build trust between the police and the community, and allows the community to access needs that may not be easily available to them." Nelson said.
"I definitely wanted my teammates here at SCSU to volunteer as coaches at the clinic. If the kids see myself and my teammates at the clinic, I think that will help inspire them to continue playing the sport and aspire to play at the college level and get a college degree."
The success of the clinic in its first year has not gone unnoticed as The Sanneh Foundation has expressed interest in helping make the clinic an annual event at the Community Outpost House, and it has the potential to grow with the possibility of The Sanneh Foundation helping bring in pro soccer players to visit the clinic to teach skills and sign autographs in the future.
"This will become an annual event and it will give the kids of St. Cloud something to look forward to each year."
As mentioned at the top of the story, COVID has placed a hold on the Huskies' season in 2020, but Nelson's work with the clinic and at the Community Outpost House has helped ease some of the pain of not being able to play intercollegiate soccer this fall.
"Seeing the kids smile and play soccer is just as rewarding as playing the game myself," Nelson said.
