TOP Soccer

TOP Soccer Program for Special Needs Athletes

EMFC is pleased to offer the TOPSoccer Program, which provides a series of weekly soccer clinics for kids with disabilities. These clinics happen in the winter each year and last for seven weeks.

Check out this great video by US Youth Soccer to learn more about TOP Soccer.

Upcoming Fall/Winter Indoor Session for TOP Soccer

EMFC will run its TOP Soccer program at Kick City this winter. The sessions will be one hour long. If you have children with disabilities and would like more information, please contact Mackenzie Kier at aguayokier.m@gmail.com

Register NOW

Mackenzie grew up in Stayton, OR where she attended Stayton High School and began playing soccer her sophomore year. She played for the varsity girls soccer team all three years and was on the varsity track & field team as a thrower for 4 years. After high school, Mackenzie furthered her education at Chemeketa Community College and played for the women’s soccer program for two seasons before transferring to Oregon State University. At OSU, she extended her playing career through the Women’s Club Soccer team for two seasons and graduated with a Bachelors in Kinesiology. Mackenzie currently works at Corvallis High School as an educational assistant in Life Skills. She also coaches the JV girl’s soccer team as well as the throwers in Track and Field. Mackenzie enjoys volunteering her free time to the unified programs in Corvallis High School and also the Special Olympics of Oregon.

Soccer Buddies

We are looking for EMFC soccer players to volunteer as EMFC TOPSoccer buddies. US Youth Soccer TOP Soccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) is a community based program for young athletes with disabilities. The program is designed to bring the opportunity of learning and playing soccer to any boy or girl, who has a mental or physical disability. Volunteering as a TOPSoccer buddy is a fantastic opportunity to give back to the community and earn volunteer hours to help with college applications and resume building.

The program will run on the following Mondays at Kick City in Springfield:

Wednesday October 23, 30, 2024 and November 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2024

All of those sessions will be from 5pm to 6pm.

If you are interested in being a volunteer Soccer Buddy fill out the form below.

EMFC TOP Soccer Buddy Fall/Winter 24

EMFC Sponsors for TOP Soccer 2023-24

Background

Mac Wilson and Barry Kosoris, former owner of Kick City Indoor Soccer Arena, created the TOP Soccer program in Eugene/Springfield in 1999. These weekly soccer clinics for kids with special needs have been offered every winter for ten sessions, starting in late November each year.

Mac has been the Coordinator and Head Coach for this fine program since its inception. His skills as a Special Education Teacher have been invaluable as this program has grown each year to a total of 25 participants this year. Mac’s connections to the special educators in this community have enabled this program to become well publicized and available to a variety of participants.

Beginning in 2009, Jeremy Flores has succeeded Mac Wilson as the Coordinator and Head Coach of the TOP Soccer program for EMFC. In 2014, EMFC staff coach Robin Bostwick joins the TOP Soccer program as the Co-Coordinator. Nice article in the October Newsletter.

In 2015, Sebastian Trickett took over the program and has run and expanded the program significantly. Seb is working with our older players in the club to have mentors for the TOP Soccer program. Oregon Youth Soccer Association and its member have awarded our TOP Soccer director Sebastian Trickett the TOP Soccer award in 2016. Sebastian has been coaching in our club for the last 4 years. He has excelled as a coach in the Development Academy and our U11-18 program. He also took on the TOP Soccer program the last two years and has done a fantastic job with this important program. See the article on his award on Page 18/19 of Goal lines magazine.
The TOP Soccer program is an important part of our club and we are extremely proud of Seb’s accomplishment in earning this award.

In 2023, after a 2 year break because of the COVID Pandemic, we are excited to bring this extremely valuable and important program back. Mackenzie grew up in Stayton, OR where she attended Stayton High School and began playing soccer her sophomore year. She played for the varsity girls soccer team all three years and was on the varsity track & field team as a thrower for 4 years. After high school, Mackenzie furthered her education at Chemeketa Community College and played for the women’s soccer program for two seasons before transferring to Oregon State University. At OSU, she extended her playing career through the Women’s Club Soccer team for two seasons and graduated with a Bachelors in Kinesiology. Mackenzie currently works at Corvallis High School as an educational assistant in Life Skills. She also coaches the JV girl’s soccer team as well as the throwers in Track and Field. Mackenzie enjoys volunteering her free time to the unified programs in Corvallis High School and also the Special Olympics of Oregon.

Volunteers and donations

Volunteers or buddies have been recruited annually from the local middle and high schools and have been offered community service credit as an incentive.

Private and corporate donations have and will continue to provide the financial means to create a top-notch program for these deserving soccer players.

Learn more

For more information about TOP Soccer, please contact Mackenzie Kier directly at mackenziekier@gmail.com