LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — A Lancaster County soccer club is helping kids achieve their soccer dreams while uniting diverse cultures in their community. Alloy Soccer Club is a free professional development program that gives aspiring players a chance to play and reach their soccer dreams.
“What we’re seeing is what makes the beautiful game, the beautiful game,” said Josiah Groff, executive director for Big Picture Soccer, the non-profit organization that formed Alloy Soccer Club. “You can have guys that don’t even speak the same language coming together [and] forming a brotherhood around this game, where they can all be encouraging each other, not just to be better at soccer, but to be better young men.”
It’s an initiative that is uniting its community through the beautiful game.
“We want to have a positive impact on communities [and] on youth that are in underserved areas that are struggling,” said Groff. “What I love about soccer is that you’re connecting with kids over something, they’re already passionate about [and] something they love.”
Many of the players come from immigrant or refugee families. More than 15 different countries are represented on a roster that shares one common bond, the love for soccer.
“It is a common language for all these people,” said John Reagan Moore, the club’s Head Coach. “To see the people from all these different cultural backgrounds come together and find a home here, doing something like love with people that you know, have the same desires, the same goals as then and like build a community, it’s pretty rewarding.”
Mohammed Abdul Rahman is one of those players. He was born and raised in Iraq, moved to Jordan, then came to the US as a refugee with his family in 2010.
He says Alloy Soccer Club was instrumental in helping him and his foreign teammates adjust to their new home country.
“When I first came here, it was so hard to connect with them. So connecting through soccer is really easy,” said Abdul Rahman. “ln a couple words, you don’t even have to speak the full the full language, couple of words and we understand each other.”
A connection the club strives for, reflected in their Alloy name. An impact they already see taking shape in under the two years they’ve been in existence.
“Seeing that all mesh together really speaks to what this club was based off of; the name Alloy’s Soccer Club. An alloy, when you combine the properties of multiple medals, you get something stronger than the original,” said Groff.
While finding success both on and off the field for the players they develop.
“We really shoot for both. So we’re shooting for excellence on the field, as well as developing excellent young men off of the field,” said Groff. “That’s the win for us. We want to play good soccer and have a great brand of soccer but we want to see young men developing into better parts of the community.”
Alloy Soccer Club competes in the Delaware River Conference of the Eastern Premier Soccer League. On Saturday, with a 3-2 victory over Kensington, they locked up the top spot and are heading into the conference playoffs as the number one seed.
For more information on Alloy Soccer Club and how to participate, head to their website here.
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