SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Arturo Alvarez visited the practice of youth team De Anza Force 97 Boys Blue in Cupertino on Thursday July 9. Alvarez acted as the celebrity coach for the day, coaching along side head coach Chris Stott at Faria Elementary School.
The practice got underway after Stott introduced Alvarez to the boys, ages 10-13. Beginning with a few warm up drills, Alvarez took the team through some ball skill exercises. Each exercise Alvarez and Stott introduced became increasingly more difficult, ending in a specialty trick demonstrated by Alvarez. The boys struggled with it at first but after a few more demos, and one-on-one help from Alvarez, the team began to pick it up.
For the majority of the practice the young team played 7-on-7 scrimmages with both Alvarez and Stott leading the opposing teams. Being an exemplary captain, Alvarez stressed team work and passing as often as possible.
The 5'9" Texas native wrapped up the practice session with a short talk, encouraging the boys to respect not only each other, but their coaches, parents, and women in their lives. He then opened up to a short Q&A session to answer any question the boys had about the team, the season, and ways Alvarez shows he respects others. To conclude the day Alvarez and front office staff passed out posters, player cards, and Verizon Wireless water bottles to the team, and signed autographs as well as posed for photo ops.
The Verizon Wireless Adopt-A-Team program is a program created by both the San Jose Earthquakes and Verizon Wireless to reach out to Bay Area youth soccer teams. This year, 16 local teams will be adopted by an Earthquakes Soccer player. The player will stand in as the celebrity coach and mentor for the team, and participate in at least one practice or game for their adopted team.
The Adopt-A-Team program is also an effort to prevent relationship abuse by engaging coaches to talk with their athletes about respect and non-violence. Coaches are poised to help their athletes build healthy relationships by positively influencing how they think and behave both on and off the field. The head coach of each team selected participated in a one-hour informational class, led by the Family Violence Prevention Fund, that addressed the prevalence of domestic violence and the many opportunities coaches have to impart their philosophies of respect, integrity, and non violence upon their athletes.
The program is an extension of Verizon Wireless' HopeLine® program. Through HopeLine, Verizon Wireless collects no-longer used wireless phones, batteries and accessories from any wireless service provider at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores nationwide. HopeLine puts the nation's most reliable wireless network to work in our communities by turning these unused wireless phones into support for domestic violence survivors.
