EAST LONGMEADOW – On the turf at the East Longmeadow High School, 18 girls crouched down in two long lines facing each other with a soccer ball between them. A volunteer called out, “Knees! Shoulders! Head!” as the young athletes followed along, touching each body part. Finally, the volunteer called out, “Ball!” and hands swooped down to grab the soccer ball before their opponent could. No matter who got the ball, all the girls laughed and shouted.

The exercise was part of the Inspire Soccer Clinic, a project created and run by 17-year-old Avery Izzo of Wilbraham. “We had a really fun, competitive afternoon,” she said.

Izzo worked with the East Longmeadow Recreation Department to organize and spread the word about the clinic, which offered girls 10-14 years of age the opportunity to work on soccer skills for free.

Soccer can be an expensive sport. “I realized the financial limitations of clinics,” Izzo said. She wanted to reach out to kids at the age when many girls stop playing sports. “You have to start early to keep kids engaged and having fun. Their minds are so open,” she added.

Izzo started playing sports at an early age and said her family has had a significant impact on her love of athletics. She comes from a baseball family; her father played professionally for a couple of years and her siblings played the game. Izzo played when she was younger, as well. But then came soccer.

“I found soccer on my own,” Izzo said, adding that it was something she could do with her friends. “I loved that it was my own thing.”

The six volunteers who helped with the clinic are friends and high school students who Izzo said have committed to play soccer for various Division I colleges. Izzo said she had never had a female sports mentor while she was a child. “My hope is to be a mentor for young girls in sport,” she said.

The clinic was Izzo’s first taste of coaching. “I’ve always wanted to be a coach. This is like the groundwork for me for what I want to do with my life,” she said.

After conducting her first clinic, Izzo said the main take-away for her was that “we need other people to succeed.” Despite the sentiment feeling fairly basic, she said she was struck by how many people supported her while she tried to get the clinic off the ground, including her father, the East Longmeadow Recreation Department and her school, Deerfield Academy, which awarded her a “generous” grant to pay for t-shirts.

Izzo plans to host more clinics and said the experience was a good one.
“It’s nice to give these girls a community,” Izzo said, adding that her goal was to, “keep it positive, build relationships between kids and inspire them.”