National Recogntion for Ann Arbor: PORT's Street Soccer Team!

High time for kudos to the fantastic performance of Ann Arbor's soccer team -SSPORT- in the Homeless Soccer USA Cup in Washington DC, June 27th through the 29th! The team, taking the name SSPORT for the Street Project Outreach Team, placed fourth out of 12 teams! SSPORT is made up of people who are homeless or have been homeless in the past year.

See the great USA Street Soccer blog about this national tournament.

The SSPORT program and team, founded and coached by PORT's Sara Silvennoinen, is now acknowledged to be the most developed street soccer program in the country outside of Charlotte, North Carloina - where the idea of street soccer originated. 

SSPORT also won two prestigious awards.  The Washington Kastles Trophy -awarded to the Best Female Athlete in the trournament - went to Ann Arbor's Jordyn Starr. Jordyn was the only female player on the SSPORT team.  Mark Ein, who hosted the street soccer tournament at his World Team Tennis Stadium in DC, presented the award -named after the Washington Kastles coed tennis team, encouraging the inclusion of women in sports and coed competition.  

The other award, the Kevin Carroll Katalyst Trophy was presented to "the coach who best embodies and encourages Kevin Carroll’s mantra, 'A ball can change your life' by his or her work with players on and off the soccer field."  That coach was SSPORT's Sara Silvennoinen, who has also been asked to coach the 2008 United States National Team at the Homeless World Cup taking place in Melbourne, Australia in December!

Congratulations to all for putting Ann Arbor on the international map and for proving, again, that being homeless "doesn't mean you're on the sidelines of life."