VCU news

By Blake Birdwell

This June, 14 youth soccer coaches and administrators from South Africa will become Virginia Commonwealth University Rams for 14 days. The visit is part of the U.S. State Department’s Sports United Program, which aims to improve cultural understanding between the United States and other nations. 

“This is the third of the state department’s grants that [the Center for Sport Leadership] has won,” said Carrie LeCrom, executive director of the CSL. “This is probably the most comprehensive and challenging grants that we will do. The first two focused primarily on coaching, but with this one the goal is social change and the medium is coaching.” 

Of the seven grant-winning entities, only one — VCU — is a university. The CSL aligns well with the mission of the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which focuses on cultural understanding. CSL takes to the field to achieve social change through sport. 

The interim Rams will hit the ground running with on-field activities hosted by the Richmond Strikers, a close partner of CSL, followed by classroom discussions on integrating good decision-making skills into both sports drills and life.

“In soccer we have to decide who we want to pass the ball to and, similarly, we have a decision to decide what we want to do outside of school time,” LeCrom said. 

The Sports United Program allows each organization to choose a partner from one of 20 countries. 

“We chose South Africa for a variety of reasons,” LeCrom said. “First, South Africa is a country of high interest to the U.S. Department of State. Additionally, there are so many social needs in that country, and the country loves sport, as evidenced by hosting the 2010 World Cup. Finally, VCU has a partner university in South Africa in the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, and we knew that VCU wanted to foster that. The existing partnership would show our organizational capacity to carry out the grant.”

Although similar concerns exist stateside, the youth of South Africa are at high risk to fall victim to issues such as HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, gang violence and school dropouts. Some of the most influential people in their lives are these visiting coaches.

LeCrom fell in love with the idea of “sport for change” in 2007 when a friend running a sport development program for Johns Hopkins University asked her to partner on a grant that took them to Ethiopia. 

“As soon as I took that first trip and saw all the great work we were able to do using sport as a medium, I was hooked,” she said. “It wasn't long before we decided to go for our next grant. Now we're on our third and planning the next one. 

“I think we're selling ourselves short when we are so insular in our views. My husband is French, and we try to integrate many of the cultural traditions of France into our home and our children's lives. The more we travel, the more we learn about others. The differences are what make the world so interesting, and I think it's fascinating.” 

In January 2016, LeCrom will go abroad once more when she and the CSL team travel to South Africa to follow up and observe their tactics in practice.

Subscribe for free to the weekly VCU News email newsletter at http://newsletter.news.vcu.edu/ and receive a selection of stories, videos, photos, news clips and event listings in your inbox every Thursday. VCU students, faculty and staff automatically receive the newsletter.