Back in September, the Indiana State soccer team along with head coach Vernon Croft invited the local youth community to attend “L.A.C.E.S Day,” where they were encouraged to wear team jerseys or bring an old soccer ball to donate to commemorate a program called L.A.C.E.S (Life and Change Experienced Thru Sports). Croft will be taking the soccer balls and gear that was donated that day across seas with him when he travels to Liberia on February 16-23.
L.A.C.E.S is a non-profit organization that creates mentorship-based soccer leagues to benefit approximately 400 impoverished children and war-affected youth in Liberia, West Africa every year. Ending in 2003, the fourteen-year Liberian Civil War led to a human catastrophe of dramatic proportion. An estimated 15,000 children fought in this war and a quarter of a million people were killed.
The children in Liberia have been scarred by war and violence and face severe social challenges growing up in their broken and poverty-stricken communities. These children have been victims of social injustice for 14 years of their lives and L.A.C.E.S wants to provide them with an avenue for restoration.
Croft will be travelling to Liberia for the first time. He became involved with the L.A.C.E.S organization this past spring and in October was named the technical director. He will reside in a place that has very limited running water or electricity. He will subject himself to extremely high HIV/AIDS infection rates and other transmittable diseases such as malaria. Eighty percent of the population that he will be surrounded by lives on less than a dollar a day. Why then, might you ask, would Coach Croft travel more than 5,000 miles to live in such brutal, unsafe conditions?
“I have always had a desire to help kids in general learn to love the game of soccer the way I have grown up loving it,” said Croft. “I saw this as not just an opportunity to do that, but to help a country who has been devastated by war where the kids were the soldiers.”
Croft continued, “This will be an incredible way for me to not just help, but to have an impact on many kids, adults, and even the city in the continued development of the league.”
Croft will spend his days working with coaches and kids as well as a professional team on one day. Besides coaching, Croft will also assist with preparing and maintaining the field so that these kids can have a chance to play on safe conditions.
“To be honest, it's not ever something I thought I would do,” said Croft. “I never thought I would fall in love with something like this, but I became attached to wanting to help kids I've never even met.”
A blog will be setup so that Croft can update those who are interested with the daily happenings of life in Liberia for the week he resides there. This blog can be accessed at GoSycamores.com and going to the ISU women's soccer homepage and clicking on “Vernon's Blog while in Liberia.”
More information on the L.A.C.E.S organization can be found by accessing their website at www.lacesport.org. If anyone is interested in donating equipment or finances to help L.A.C.E.S please contact head coach Vernon Croft by emailing him at wsoccer@indstate.edu or by calling 1-812-237-7738.
