Sometimes there are stories you go to the trouble of covering because a voice inside you says there’s a message to be told. It’s not a topic or a story that will make headlines in the morning newspaper, and the chances are the television trucks won’t bother with it either. When you are talking about Univ. Dayton sports other than mens basketball or football, the only way to reach the media is when something goes wrong. That’s the way it is. That’s why we go to the trouble of highlighting the athletes and coaches you’d otherwise never know about. That’s why the teams receive us so well. There aren’t enough fingers on the hands to count the number of times they’ve said thanks for going the extra mile when everyone else turns a cheek. Sometimes the players say it, sometimes the coaches. Maybe it’s standing in tornado-like conditions to write a soccer recap or spotlighting a specific player who deserves recognition or giving the coaches a chance to speak their mind. Whatever the case may be, I knew the likelihood of anyone else covering Sunday’s TopSoccer Clinic for children with disabilities at Forest Field Park in Centerville was slim, which is why I did to make sure the message wouldn’t go untold.

TopsSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) is a national program that offers disabled children a chance to learn soccer in an easy-going environment. Funded in part by US Soccer, the program is carried out by local volunteers to give those kids an empowering shot in the arm that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to step on the soccer field with college coaches or star players. By my calculations, at least 150 kids attended.

When I arrived with a dog leash in one hand and camera in the other, kids, coaches, and players were spread out among three or four miniature soccer fields conducting clinics on passing, shooting, throw-ins, and everything else soccer specific. There were kids with trouble walking, kids in wheelchairs, and one unforgettable young man — perhaps 11 or 12 — who would leave the soccer drill and run after my German Shepherd only to be tackled by his guardians. “He loves Dogs!” they said. I’d never seen a bigger smile on the face of a youngster. But it was heaven for all of them, including the Dayton soccer players. At times it seemed like they were having just as much fun as the kids, and after a while the boundaries that typically cross between the fortunate and less fortunate were torn down and nonexistent.

The message from the coaches and players to the kids in attendance was apparent. Doing your best really is good enough and having fun along the way is what it’s all about. Whether it was Beth McHugh talking one-on-one, Mike Nsien coaching a youngster on shooting, or womens soccer Head Coach Mike Tucker jogging up and down the sidelines demanding high-fives all around, the UD representatives offered nothing but red carpet treatment. UD coaches and assistant coaches went out of their way to make everyone feel like the star player, and the Flyer athletes made sure no one felt left out. Parents sitting in lawn chairs around the soccer fields were equally touched and seeing their children hamming it up with the best soccer players in Ohio left all of them smiling from ear to ear.

For over an hour on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the Flyers put aside their agendas and caravanned to the south suburbs to hang out with real heroes battling disabilities that make the rest of our afflictions seem trivial. While the rest of us complain about the summer heat, rush hour traffic, fluctuating gas prices, or the pros and cons of the middle class tax cut, there are bigger hurdles in life and oftentimes children are the ones wearing the red badge of courage and handing out the real lessons in life. That’s a message we all get.

As great as Sunday was, there are many others like it you’ll probably never know about. Unless a practice is missed or an ACL is torn, chances are only the bad and the ugly are ripe enough to satisfy the interest of the person who buys a newspaper or turns on the evening news. It’s the good that too often gets buried or fails to get noticed at all, but it’s out there and it’s happening all around us. It will happen again and hopefully we’ll be the ones telling the story or passing along the message. When the 2001 soccer season starts and you’re at Baujan Field rooting for the Flyers, you’re really cheering for a lot more than just soccer. You’re cheering for the empowerment of student athletes, the empowerment of children facing disabilities, and the chance to bring both of them together so everyone goes home a winner.