May 10, 2006

PHILADELPHIA - The Saint Joseph's women's soccer team along with other members of City 6 Soccer Teams (Drexel, La Salle, Penn, Temple and Villanova) raised over $1,000 for Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia Oncology Unit at a clinic for young girls on April 23.

Student-athletes and coaches from all six squads gathered at Finnesey Field for the first ever event involving all six programs. The following are recaps of the event through the eyes of the student-athletes.

Laura Adams - Saint Joseph's
The Hawks hosted the City 6 Clinic on Finnesey Field Sunday evening. This new fundraiser brought together the six Philadelphia schools: Saint Joseph's, Drexel, La Salle, Penn Temple and Villanova. The girls, ages ranging from 6 to 15, arrived around 4:30 pm to begin warming up and meet all the teams. Introductions began at 5 pm and the clinic started shortly after. There were six stations set up, one for each school and each with a different topic: finishing, defending, coervers and 1v1's, possession, passing and receiving, long balls and receiving air balls. St. Joe's was in charge of defending so as each group arrived at our station we tried to incorporate different drills related to defending and also some fun games to get to know each of the girls. After the station work the girls played small-sided games against each other. At closing ceremonies several awards were given out to the participants. The weather turned out to be a perfect day for soccer and every one that participated seemed to have a great time. We ended up raising over $1,000 that will go towards the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Oncology Unit. The clinic was a huge success and a start to something great that will hopefully continue throughout the years.

Kelly McNamara - Drexel
In collaboration with the other Philadelphia Divison-I universities women's soccer programs we had the honored opportunity to participate in a youth soccer clinic hosted by Saint Joseph's with all proceeds going to the CHOP Oncology Unit. As a team, we were responsible for the "possession station", in which we got to incorporate two of our favorite games: Prison and Handball; we even got the chance to play along with the players in attendance which gave them an opportunity to "strut their stuff" against us. We thank St. Joe's for including us in such a cause, in which we all thoroughly enjoyed and gave us a much needed break from our "Sunday evening study sessions." We hope to make this event an annual City 6 tradition.

Jenna Rankin - Temple
On Sunday April 23, the Temple University Women's Soccer Team helped run a clinic for young, female athletes at Saint Joseph's University. While Drexel, La Salle, St. Joe's, UPenn, and Villanova worked on specific tactics of the game, Temple worked on one versus one skills. It was important to us to teach the young athletes while at the same time making the clinic fun. One of our fellow teammates was challenged to a race with one of the young girls, and when the little girl won her face lit up instantly. We hoped to have had a positive influence on the young girls, as working with them had an impact on us. It was a great way to spend our Sunday evening!

Natalie Capuano - Penn
I think the clinic was a great opportunity for the teams of the Big 5 to come together and give back to the community. It was a rewarding experience to interact with these kids and teach them some fundamentals about the game.