Williams spreading joy with SistaSoccer
Former Hopewell Valley star created non-profit to bring soccer to urban youths
Colleen Williams will always be grateful to what soccer has done for her. It is almost as if the sport chose her to be one of its messengers to help underprivileged children find hope and comfort in the world’s most popular sport.
A Hopewell Valley Central High graduate, Williams is the founder and president of SistaSoccer, Inc., an 8-month old nonprofit organization whose mission is to donate gently used soccer clothing and gear to children who can’t afford it, while also running clinics for those same kids.
She is joined by former FC Bucks Club teammates Julie Oberholtzer (vice-president) and Alysha Mallon (business development director), while her mom, Terry, is treasurer and friend Sharon Persinski is a board member. They have dedicated to program to the late FC Bucks coach, Eddie Leigh.
So far, programs have been implemented in Thailand, Trenton, Hawaii, Hartford, Conn. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
What started as a masters thesis, has turned into a passion that was sparked by memories of Williams’ youth.
“The three of us who started it were not the most well behaved teenagers,” she said. “All three of us had that angel-devil on our shoulders. The angel was soccer, that’s what kept us going down the semi-correct path. I wasn’t even that interested in college. I went because I would have college paid for because I could play soccer.
“We want to use SistaSoccer as
that same vehicle. If we can get one kid to get off the street and on to the field, because soccer sounds better to them than doing whatever they do after dark, then that’s the goal.”
It is the best way Williams knows to keep herself involved with the love of her life. A standout player at Hopewell Valley, she went on to an All-Conference career at the University of Dayton and played for the U-23 National Team and the NWSL’s Washington Spirit before injuries curtailed her career.
Williams became a graduate assistant coach at the University of Hawaii Pacific, where she received a Masters Degree in Communications. It was on the island of Honolulu that SistaSoccer’s roots were planted.
“I was on the field one day coaching and I was thinking ‘Oh my God, this is my last time I’ll be around soccer ever; after this, it’s get a normal job, sit in an office,’” Williams said. “Then I was like ‘No I want to travel, I want to play soccer, I love kids.’ It all made sense to put this together.”
Williams had the choice of doing a paper or project for her thesis and chose her project while enjoying a Happy Hour session with Oberholtzer and Mallon while visiting home last winter. Sitting with her two best friends, she discussed how she needed a board of directors, and they immediately got on board.
“I run it as my full-time thing but they run it as a second job and they’re extremely supportive,” Williams said. “I lucked out with that.”
The first step was to gain 501c3 nonprofit status, which meant SistaSoccer would not be taxed and those donating would have a tax write-off. Once that was done, the second part of the thesis (which she passed) was to implement a program and put the organization to work.
After seeing a Hawaii-Pacific professor on campus promoting a trip to take students to Thailand, Williams began discussing the country’s poor villages with him and decided that would be her launching point. After calling all around the country, she found an extremely helpful travel agent who set up transportation and the entire agenda, all for free.
“She found two schools for me, she was my wing lady,” Williams said. “She found out what I was doing and just wanted to help. She didn’t charge anything.”
Armed with 10 duffle bags of soccer gear collected from the Hawaiian Islands, Williams took the 17-hour flight — getting a layover in China and walking the Great Wall — and paid for it with her own money.
“My eyes were bigger than my wallet,” she said with a laugh. “A lot of people fundraise before they start their program to get their expense money. But I don’t dip my toe in, I just dive in and figure it out later.”
The naming of SistaSoccer was two-fold — one was to indicate the sisterhood between the three friends; the other was to supply equipment for their young sisters in soccer. Its original intent was just to aid females. But ...
“All the little boys were thrilled, they were smiling ear to ear when they saw the cleats coming out of
the bag,” Williams said. “It melted my heart. I was like ‘I can’t not give to them.’ We changed it right then and there.”
Following the success of that initial trip, there was no turning back. Williams got the program going in Hawaii and moved back to the states to live with her parents in Waretown last June. The three programs on the mainland — which were started with the help of the city’s Boys and Girls clubs — are just a start. Aside from the board members, Williams gets help from other friends. Oberholzer lives in Hartford and handles things up there, while her brother Brian and former Pennington standout Kaitlyn Kerr help out with Trenton.
Each program consists
of 12 sessions. By the end of those sessions every player will have received a soccer ball, shirt, shorts, socks, shin guards and a pair of cleats. They also receive a journal and participate in a training session each month. Everything is donated and Williams goes through it all to make sure it’s usable.
“If I won’t wear it, I won’t donate it, and I’m hardly the Queen of Fashion,” she said with a laugh.
Williams is starting to receive funding as the word spreads but is still spending out of her own pocket. Her goal is to have programs in all 50 states and hopes to do that by getting college interns from men’s or women’s soccer teams in various cities to lay the groundwork.
Bulldogs soccer coach John McGinley is not surprised to see what Williams is doing.
“You always saw that Colleen had a huge heart, which
is part of what made her special,” McGinley said. “When she was at Dayton she did a fundraiser, Willy’s Wish, so you saw it for the first time there. Soccer is the universal game. With all that is going on in the world at times, the game itself can bring people together. Colleen’s organization can help bring people from around the world together.
“Also, soccer has become such a suburban sport, and has left the urban areas behind. I know that is part of the goal of (Trenton’s) Mooch Soccer and, hopefully, her program can help promote soccer in the urban areas of our country as well.”
Williams plans on sticking with the program and getting it to grow. She would love to make it her actual job and knows it will always be a passion. But she needs help, and any donations are welcome, be it tax-deductible
gear or monetary donation to help ship the equipment, pay for the journal printing; and defer the cost of Williams’ travel.
To sum up what one would be donating to, Williams said, “We base it off of mind, body and soul. We try to make it educational at the same time. Enhancing your mind, we want you to have more confidence in yourself, show more respect to yourself and your teammates. For body, we provide nutritional tips each month. And the soul is soccer. Soccer makes our soul happy, so we do a different skill each month.”
In doing so, youngsters who would otherwise not have such an opportunity, are getting their own little angel on their shoulder.