Union County High School soccer program

Hi, my name is Andrew Trammell, and I'm the head coach of the Union County High School soccer team. Union County is in the Appalachian Region of Tennessee and struggles with most of the difficulties associated with our area of the country, including drugs, cyclical poverty, and a lack of access to job opportunities. A new issue we're beginning to face is cultural conflict, as our county is experiencing an influx of hispanic migrants still fighting to be fully embraced by the locals.

One way in which I'm striving to combat these issues is by building a vibrant soccer program. I feel that if I'm able to create such a program, migrants will have an avenue by which to join the community at large. They will be able to make connections with longtime citizens, and maybe some of the gaps between cultures might be bridged.

Soccer is also a great way to give our hispanic students a familiar school activity to be a part of. It's well known that athletic participation consistently leads to better academic outcomes, and Union County High School desparately needs whatever tools possible to improve the educational accomplishments of our student population.

For this drive, I'm looking to raise $2000, which will likely be the money we have coming in for next year. It's unfortunate, but the attendence at our games is so low right now that we often lose money with home games because our ticket sales fail to even cover the cost of referees.

Outside funding will allow us to uses busses to get to the games, which is important because Union County is rural, and many of my players cannot afford to travel the long distances to our away games. One of our district opponents, for example, is sixty miles away. At that distance, even I (a teacher) struggle to pay the bills!

We would use the remaining funds to replace many of our uniforms, which are often torn or lost over the course of the season. Our assistant coach told me the other day that we only have ten pairs of shorts right now, as many of our players failed to return them at the end of the season. I'm hoping that they'll still have them when we start next spring, but I learned long ago that expecting a high school boy to keep track of anything is often futile.

After we cover those two bases, my goal will be to work towards community outreach through game promotions. This might mean free concessions and discounted/free ticket prices.

Anyway, if you think this is a laudable goal, please donate. If you look on MaxPreps, you'll see that our team needs help from top to bottom, and it's an unfortunate fact that the most high school athletic programs can only improve with financial support. Can we count on yours?

The beneficiary is listed as Tabitha Young, our school's book keeper. Any questions regarding how the funds are handled can be directed to her. GoFundMe won't let me put her email address here, but you can find it on the school's website.