Play Where You Stay Competitive Teams

In Shelby County, children and their families are often challenged to find soccer training due to proximity and cost. Play Where You Stay keeps families and players invested in the communities where they live by eliminating economic and transportation barriers to youth soccer participation. 

This project supports our competitive teams for boys and girls ages 12-18. Our program supplements middle and high school team soccer with skilled club play training for over 450 youth.

We will effectively recruit and train coaches and players from all over the city of Memphis to ensure that everyone gets to play the game of soccer.

Globally, soccer is played in both rural and urban areas by youth across the socioeconomic spectrum. In most countries, all that’s needed to play soccer is a ball and some open space. Middle and high-income families in the United States have built barriers to soccer participation by concentrating soccer facilities in the suburbs, requiring expensive specialized equipment to play, and charging high fees to join teams. These barriers to participation, which continue today, have reduced soccer access among low-income, immigrant, and Black youth and reserved opportunities in the sport for high-income families.