Case for Community Day

by Annie Altenau '11 (nursing major from Cincinnati, OH)

On September 25, 2009 the women’s soccer team participated in the 7^th annual Case for Community Day. The day gives students and faculty the opportunity to connect with and improve our Greater Cleveland community. There were over 50 projects set up including Pennies for Peace, painting, landscaping, and athletic activities.

The athletic portion of the day was run by CASA (Case Association of Student Athletes). Each sport was responsible for running a station for the neighborhood school children to teach them how to play their sport and improve on their existing skills. The kids were split up into several small groups that rotated through the stations. The kids would stay at the station for about 40 minutes before moving on to the next sport.

When the kids arrived at the soccer station, we attempted to take the kids through a short warm up consisting of jogging, skipping, star jumps, and a few stretches. Several of the kids were just too excited to play soccer that it was nearly impossible to get them to line up on the line. They all had so much energy and all they wanted to do was get a soccer ball and shoot on goal. This resulted in fifteen kids shooting at the same time on the same goal.

Once the majority of the kids went through a warm up, we moved on to other games. We had the kids shoot, play sharks and minnows, race each other, juggle, pass, and even do head balls. By far, the favorite “game” of all of the kids was to see how high we could kick the ball in the air. They were all amazed that the ball could go that high, and would attempt to imitate us.

Most of the kids that came to our station seemed to attach themselves to one of us or a group of us. They had us playing whatever they wanted to play by their rules, which kept us laughing. One second grade boy that I was playing with wanted to scrimmage 1 vs. 1. While playing, he decided that he was allowed to get a different ball to play with at any time. Other kids had us racing them, showing them tricks, and playing keep away.

We all had a blast at Case for Community Day, and we look forward to participating again next year.