Thursday, April 30, 2009

Sports Envoys in Bolivia

Former U.S. Women’s National Team player Amanda Cromwell and former U.S. Under-17 Men's National Team coach Jay Miller traveled to Bolivia for a series of soccer clinics around the South American country as part of the first Sports Envoy program of 2009. Cromwell and Miller departed for South America last week, before returning stateside earlier this week.
Launched in 2006, the Sports Envoy program pairs U.S. Soccer with the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs on a sports initiative that sends players and coaches from U.S. Soccer’s National Teams as State Department Sports Envoys to conduct clinics and spark a dialogue with local children around the world. Each program includes one male and one female Sports Envoy.
Cromwell and Miller arrived in La Paz, conducting clinics with local boys and girls in the Bolivian capital for four days. After working with historic clubs, including Boliva and the Strongest, Cromwel and Miller headed to Santa Cruz, the largest city in the country. The coaches conducted a few more clincs with local children at various soccer academies before coming back to the U.S. yesterday. Check out more information from the trip by visiting the embassy's Facebook page.