WHO WE ARE: Contender #11- San Francisco

The city of San Francisco will be represented again this year at the Street Soccer USA Cup. This year they will organized by a different service provider; Glide Memorial Church. Glide was founded forty years ago by philanthropist Lizzie Glide and has since grown it one of the largest providers in San Francisco. Glide's mission is to break the cycles of multi-generational dependency, poverty, and low self worth by providing a spiritual home.


The street soccer team is run by the Youth build program which focuses on youth and community development. The program focuses on guiding young men and women toward a productive future. The combination of Youth build and Street Soccer have already helped these young athletes towards their goals.

19-year old Josue, who aspires to be a social worker for children is working hard to make the soccer team for the City College in San Francisco as well as the Glide team. Jaime, a former heavy drinker is now practices with the team three times a week, and twice on his own. Since joining the team he has stopped drinking and spends most of his time on the soccer field. One recent graduate of the program, Daniel, had never played soccer but was interested in the possibility has made the team, while another player, Johnny, is working hard to obtain his GED.



The team, which is coached by former semi-player David E. Rodriguez, was recently covered by local a KTVU news. Click here to see the news report.