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The mission of Ball Project is to help children play. Ball Project was born from the idea that children who play together are less likely to fight each other when they grow up.
Ball Project helps children play by getting balls & sports equipment to coaches & community leaders around the world. We are 100% volunteer led!
Ball Project has amazing partners working week in & week out to positively impact communities & help children play.
In 2002 we were asked to do a “backyard soccer camp” for a little girl’s birthday party. She was turning 7 and wanted to play soccer with her friends for her birthday.
I was 24, my fiancé Erin was 23. We didn’t really have a lot of experience coaching, but we knew wanted to make soccer fun for this little girl and her 5 friends while teaching them some skills. After the “camp” we realized it was easier said than done!
If you’ve ever tried running a soccer practice for your child’s team or coached kids at all, you know how much work it takes to get them to play “real soccer.”
Sometimes it can feel more like babysitting than coaching! Kids are amazing at creating their own agenda and it doesn’t always align with ours. If they weren’t so adorable it would be impossible!
As we grew Redwine Soccer from that small backyard camp, we also grew a lot as coaches. We earned our USSF licenses, coached at the biggest premier soccer clubs in Seattle, and Erin was the head coach of the Northwest University women’s soccer team for 7 years. Yes, we were coaching, “real soccer” players now that could play “real soccer.”
During those years it was hard for me to see what I understand now.
Play is sacred.
At the end of the day soccer is play…it is why say we are “playing soccer” and describe it as “the beautiful game.” It is a game to be played, not a measuring stick to determine the value of a human being.
What makes something sacred though? Or better yet, who makes something sacred? We do. We decide what is sacred and what isn’t. It is the beauty of our free will in action to define and hold up something as sacred. It is a response to something deep within us.
As a coach, I’m committed to the sacredness of play. When we as coaches hold play as sacred there are things that happen in the heart, mind, soul, and body of a child that can only be described as sacred.
It is why we are so honored to support the Ball Project – they understands the sacredness of play better than anyone I know and I’m thankful for their influence in my life and Ball Project’s work around the world.
These photos might just look like kids having fun at a soccer camp, but what we’re really doing when we create these moments is saying to the heart of a child, “you’re safe, you’re valued, you’re loved” and in those moments the sacred dances.
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Dan and Erin Redwine founded Redwine Soccer in 2002. They focus on creating sacred moments through soccer for children ages 3 to 11 years old in the Seattle area. They have four daughters and a dog named Charlie.
Here is a long but fun update on Ultimate Frisbee development in Eurasia!
Our work is oriented on creating sports teams in Eurasia. We are forming sport teams in different sport directions. We hold sport conferences. We had one conference and a leader returned to his native town and started to play Ultimate Frisbee with some youth. And in short period of time, a team was formed. They appealed to the local government and asked for sports field for training. The government saw the presentation of a new kind of sport and agreed. Due to this presentation of Ultimate Frisbee, a new team in another town was formed. The local government gave a permission to visit local educational institutions to invite youth to come and learn how to play Ultimate Frisbee.
When the team from another country went back home, they decided to go on a trip to visit another city, in the South of their country. 5 leaders of the team went along, and for three days they are going out to Central Park to get acquainted with local youth and to learn how to play Ultimate Frisbee. From that trip, another sport team was formed in this town.
We were able to have another conference. There were three teams in Ultimate Frisbee from three different cities. There were 30 young men. They got acquainted with each other, played matches in Ultimate Frisbee, made plans, formed common vision and ways of development of sports in the country.
Thanks to Ball Project, we were able to buy most needed equipment for trainings in those towns where teams were formed (active and newly formed). We bought practice jerseys, cones, bibs, disks. 8 teams from 3 countries received training sets.
Ball Project is thankful for our partners working around the world to help in sports development, build community & help children play!
