Adversity was on the program every week for the South Los Angeles Legends, a girl's football team aged 11 and 12, many of whom grew up in poorly served communities.
“We were trying to navigate a payment system that had essentially exceeded our community,” said Lashon Wooldridge, team leader and single mother of his goalkeeper.
It was not the only thing that made the legends, well, legendary. In what is largely a white suburban sport, in particular at the level of young people, the list of legends was entirely made up of young blacks in the south of Los Angeles, girls who had to fight for access and equality Before they get closer to a playground.
However, they did not lose a match, without having undefeated in 96 games en route to an Ayso national championship.
It was five years ago and these pioneers the size of a pint became high school elders. For most of them, the skills, insurance and success they have developed during this magical summer in the field followed them in class, where they continued to excel and challenge expectations.
“It certainly gave me confidence,” said Ameerah Kolleff, 17, a fee student who also plays football at the Academy Academy of Academic University Leadership, the only public school in Girls Stem in California. “It showed me that if we are fighting strong enough, we can get what we want.”
Football also opens doors and opportunities for Sidney Wooldridge, Kolleff club teammate, 17, in Socut United, who is also a student in honor to the Gala, where she won two Los Angeles championships.
“I think it started my trip and gave me the idea that I want to continue football at university,” she said. “Having this support system around me, the same people who were there in 2019, having the same people who have now reassured me that I can do it.”
To pass this success to the next level, the two girls have expanded their support systems to include Access uA non -profit foundation that provides students with the Malries communities who stand out in football and academics with the resources and advice they need to negotiate the recruitment process of the college. The Foundation was created in 2016 by Joaquin Escoto, now executive vice-president of the MLS Expansion Club San Diego FC, and Brad Rothenberg, son of Alan Rothenberg, former president of American football and the man behind the 1994 World Cup, only hold in the United States
The program is not designed to transform young players into pros. Rothenberg said few children currently in the program have the skill or the desire to earn a living by playing football. But many, like Kolleff and Wooldridge, are good enough to obtain a university scholarship and that alone can change your life.
“I am perfectly happy to help them go to university. So I really think as an education program that filters through socio-economic challenges and find children, “he said. “By simply helping them to link the points to the coaches and university scholarships … These children go to the elite schools they did not know were within their reach.”
And they will graduate from these schools with little or no debt.
Before launching Access U, Rothenberg was co-founder of Alianza de Futbol, a national program focused on the creation of football opportunities for young Hispanics, who have often found their entry into the game blocked by the same payment system which frustrated the legends of South Los Angeles.
“Dampering with equity in football with passion”, reads the biography on the Rothenberg LinkedIn page.
Access U provides its students athletes up to 80 hours of individual tutoring, a 10-week presentation course and university consulting services for free. Some players are also sent to “identification camps”, which can be a crucial element of the recruitment process, because they offer a competitive environment so that players discover what the college looks like while giving them entry to coaches and schools.
To be admitted to access U, players must have at least an average of 3.2 points and be good enough to compete at the college level, but not necessarily beyond that.
Rothenberg tells the story of Noel Ortega to illustrate the influence that his program can have. An excellent student and the player of the year of the city section in Birmingham High, Ortega was heading for Cal State Northridge before access intervened and helps him a scholarship in Cornell. He started 11 games in three seasons, marking only once, but he won an all-Ivy League academic prize before spending a job as an analyst at Goldman Sachs.
“We have two children in Harvard, one on the way to Penn,” said Rothenberg. “For these children, it is importance. It is a curriculum vitae for them. ”
There is a record of 66 football players – including 62 girls – currently in the program, said Rothenberg, who would like this number to reach four times more by 2026. To do this, he says that the $ 500,000 budget he had this year will have to triple.
“I went to an Ivy League school,” said Rothenberg, a graduate of Brown “and many of my friends have done very well for themselves. They know that I come after. They hide but I come to look for them.”
Kolleff hopes that his CV finally includes a diploma from Howard University, a historically black college that recently replaced Stanford as the first choice.
“I wanted to be part of a team that looked like me,” she said.
Wooldridge's mother said her daughter was considering the University of Chicago, the University of Greenville and Texas Southern, among other schools.
“I am a student before I was athlete. So, to succeed in the field, I must now succeed in school, “said Sidney Wooldridge, whose club football obligations include not only excellent ratings but also hours of community service.
“They placed the high bar for the generation of young girls who are following them,” said Lashon Wooldridge.
Access graduates will have little influence on the world of elite football that Rothenberg's father has long moved. However, this can have an impact that changes their life on families of people like Ortega, Kolleff and Wooldridge. And the value of this has not escaped the elder Rothenberg, who has the most successful World Cup in the history of his CV.
But his son, he said, could do a more important job.
“He provided intelligent and talented children the possibility of receiving college studies without debt,” he said. “I have always felt that organized football has left so much delays because of the economy, the payment system. Access u fills this gap.
“Needless to say, as Brad's father, I have an immense pride of what he devoted his life.”
