On Monday, March 15th, members of the Switchbacks FC 2022 team headed to Gibberson Elementary School of District Two to join a group of third grade classes as they celebrated Reading Across America Day.
Reading Across America Day, nationally celebrated this year on March 2nd, was created by the NEA in 1998 as an initiative to help get children and students excited about reading. Two players from our roster, Cam Lindley and Jeff Caldwell, volunteered their time to spend a few hours on Monday reading to the young students, and answering questions about how learning had a positive impact on their ability to be successful athletes. The students and players also spent some time coming up with creative ways to make learning more fun. One student asked why athletes should care about school when they’re already good at something else, and both Lindley and Caldwell remarked on how reading has allowed them to learn everything they could about they different cities they traveled to for play, and how knowing about where they were going and who they were competing against allowed them to be better soccer players.
The afternoon ended the way all very good days should: an impromptu lesson in soccer at recess time. Lindley and Caldwell led the children through several activities, and showed the students different moves, like how to pass the ball to someone who was open, and how to shoot towards the net.
The Switchbacks will continue to celebrate learning and diversity this Saturday at their Women’s Empowerment Night, as the Switchbacks FC take on Monterey Bay Union. Tickets for that are available HERE.
