Patriot soccer players collecting shoes for Costa Rica

St. Catharine College is in the midst of growing sports teams, sports fields and coaches.

Yet even with numerous changes around campus, the soccer players at the school have a goal to help Costa Rica by collecting shoes to help pay for clean water.

“We will have at least a group of 15 players going (to Costa Rica in May 2012), but we hope to have a lot more,” said senior Jonathan Engstrom. “It is good to get the freshmen involved as they haven’t had the chance to do service projects yet. Community service is something the campus in general has been doing but now athletics is really getting involved. We hope this type of trip will set a precedent. The soccer team is trying to raise the bar for community service.”

The soccer team will work in partnership with Edge Outreach to collect different types of shoes for recycle efforts to help pay for water purification systems. In a recent letter from the Head Soccer Coach, Tim Wolz, he explains his reasoning and passion behind the project.

“The players and I are very passionate about not only being great soccer players but great people as well,” said Wolz.

In addition to the shoe collection effort, according to Wolz, the soccer team plans to also “help repair houses or put on soccer clinics for the orphans” during the trip to Costa Rica. They will also will get a chance to put their best foot forward with a soccer match against a local club in the area.

In Wolz’s letter, he explained about the area his team is hoping to improve. Costa Rica falls under an alarming statistic in our world where “a child dies every 15 seconds due to water- related illness and 80% of all sickness in the world is attributable to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation.”

Sheldon Lucas, a junior on the team, knows the environment that Edge Outreach is hoping to help with water purification.

“My dad is from Guyana so I am aware of the conditions in many of the Central American and South American countries,” said Lucas. “It will probably not be as big a shock to me as it will to some of the other players.”

Thus, this season, SCC soccer is aiming high on the field and in service toward others.

Said Wolz (in his letter): “This is our little way of improving the world.”