Elizabethtown YSA has added TOPSoccer or The Outreach Program Soccer to it's soccer program for the benefit of children ages 3-18 in Hardin County and the surrounding areas with any mental or physical challenge.

As a parent of a 3 year old with Down Syndrome I wanted to give my son an opportunity to play soccer like his brothers and sister. I knew we could put him in EYSA's regular program once he turned 4, but there might come a day when he would no longer be able to keep up.

Click here for a photo album of an Etown TOPS soccer practice/game night

And once we reached that day, there wasn’t much else out there to keep him physically active. This made me realize that this is true for other challenged children in our area.

Last spring we ran a pilot program at Mike Carroll Soccer Complex for 3 weeks at the end of the Spring Soccer Season to see if there would be an interest in the program.

We gained 8 athletes and 13 buddies for the 3 week trial period, all the athletes and most of the buddies are returning this fall to play again.

TOPSoccer provides physical development and coordination, social development, cognitive thinking, an opportunity for some children to play on a team sport for the first time in their lives, and just plain old fun. TOPSoccer allows an opportunity for these athletes parents to be a "soccer mom" or a "soccer dad" and cheer their child on from the sidelines, possibly for the first time.

We encourage anyone who wants to be involved with TOPSoccer either by volunteering to be a buddy, or an Athlete wanting to play, or to donate to the program to please contact Christi Scovel at (270) 352-0017, vcscovel64@msn.com or HardinTOPSoccer@msn.com