ReVision 99B
South Texas Youth Soccer is excited to share an incredible story!! A couple months ago, ReVision 99B team manager contacted us with some exciting news; ReVision 99B had been selected as the 2017 Dick's Sporting Goods Sports Matter team. For more information regarding Dick's Sporting Goods Sports Matter program please visit www.sportsmatter.org.
The story of ReVision 99B is best told by their team manager, Rachel.
"Following the aftermath of Harvey, the team members of reVision 99B, like many here in the Houston area, were heavily impacted. Most of our players already were coping with the challenges of being refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. Most were either born or raised in refugee camps in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Most of the team members are food insecure, meaning their families often do not have enough food and the players have often skipped meals. When we formed this team, we took on all the costs associated with that, including feeding the players every time we had practice, games, or any other gatherings, putting a significant cost on reVision as an organization, even with sponsorship from St. Luke’s. We transport everyone together to games on vans, provide uniforms and all our equipment.
We came to the attention of Dick’s Sporting Goods and their Sports Matter campaign, and they selected us as the team they wanted to support and feature for Sports Matter. [In early November,] they followed us around all over the place, including filming several of our games.
For the team as a whole, Dick’s redecorated our team room at the reVision headquarters. Each player has his own locker, and there is new furniture and new video games, including the FIFA soccer game. Each player was provided with a full soccer kit too - jerseys with our logo and the St. Luke’s logo, shorts, warm ups, etc., including cleats! The final “reveal” was given as a handwritten note to our head coach, Charles, announcing a substantial financial gift to help us support the team with the costs of the team - registration (player, Cup, tournament), food, transportation, lodging for out of town tournaments, equipment, etc. [Overall,] this was an incredible experience for the guys. Incredible"
ReVision 99B played in the 19U bracket of the Dynamo Dash League, finishing 3rd overall, after a 3 way tie for second was broken by head to head match ups. ReVision finished with a 9-0-2 record, only losing to the 1st and 2nd place teams in close 1-0 games. We hope to see this team return during STYSA Spring Cups.
Please take a second and watch this heartwarming short film released by Dick's Sporting Goods earlier this week, capturing the team and their remarkable journey.