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Back to Main Press Page - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Project GOAL Finds Success, But Has Need
Date: 01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, May 26, 2007
Contact: Darius Shirzadi, Executive Director Providence, RI Providence Journal Sports Writer When Project GOAL co-founder Darius Shirzadi talks about the state of his program, he is proud to list all the positives that have been achieved by PG students this year: the improvement in grades, the acceptance letters from top private schools, the five scholarships for a summer leadership academy in Philadelphia, the near-weekly help they receive from student-athletes at nearby colleges. As Shirzadi winds up the list, he sighs. "There's always something, but there's a lot of good stuff." But there's something in his voice, something akin to fear: the fear that it could stop if more donors aren't found, if funding is lost. Project GOAL ‹ Greater Opportunities for Athletes to Learn ‹ has had great success in just a few years. The program uses soccer as a reward for participants who can adhere to the standards set forth: go to school, maintain solid grades, and stay out of trouble. At no cost to the students or their parents, program members are bussed twice a week from their middle schools in Pawtucket, Central Falls and Providence to Moses Brown, where they have 90 minutes of classroom work with four teachers hired by PG. After classwork, students who have met the requirements that week get 90 minutes of soccer, often with local college players and even professionals. At the end of each marking quarter, they get to compete in tournaments, and 21 of the 35 student-athletes are part of the state's Olympic Development Program for top players. Grades have gone up; students who once struggled now excel with the extra attention they receive. And three more PG members will be attending private schools come this fall ‹ two at Rocky Hill and one at Bishop Hendricken. PG founders were faced with the loss of financing before their first year got started, in 2005. Last year, there were problems when the City of Providence closed Nathan Bishop Middle School; that is where the classroom work was done, with the students getting use of the school's gym in the cold months, and use of a field across the street in the warmer ones. Donors have made it possible to keep the program going, and Central Falls' Calcutt Middle School and Moses Brown stepped up to offer facilities this year. For Shirzadi and fellow program founders Javier Centeno and Peter Whealton, running Project GOAL is a second full-time job, one that takes up as much time as their regular 9-to-5s. Shirzadi is in the sales and marketing department at Cooley, Centeno is a social worker with Blackstone Valley Community Action Program, and Whealton is CEO of CORE Business Technologies in East Providence. With more financing, they might be able to dedicate all their time to expanding the program. Currently, they have 35 boys because that is as far as they feel they can stretch things, but received 150 applications for just 10 openings at the start of the school year. Last September, the PG staff was invited to U.S. Soccer's Urban Soccer Collaborative conference, where they met other program leaders. They heard stories about corporate sponsors ‹ adidas, Pepsi, Starbucks ‹ giving tens of thousands of dollars, of programs that were able to employ full-time staff. Project GOAL was asked yet again to apply for a grant from the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and for the fourth time they were denied. It's enough to make Shirzadi, Centeno and Whealton wonder, "Why not us?" "A lot of (the other programs) are bigger than us, but then again, in talking to all of them, none of them do what we do," Shirzadi said. "Nobody else is putting kids into private schools, working with the state association through the Olympic Development Program, (yet) these groups have major funding. "We're doing good stuff, and if we had some full-time people and real funding, God knows how many more kids we could be helping out. It's frustrating but it also motivates us as well. We're certainly not going to stop it, we just want to help more kids." Children such as Eric and Miguel Lara and Luis Navas. Eric Lara and Navas have received full scholarships to attend Rocky Hill, where they will be reunited with fellow PG success story Servi Barrientos, who is completing his first year at the East Greenwich school (John Olivo is a student at Moses Brown and Edward Gonzales attends Providence Country Day). Miguel Lara has been accepted at Hendricken, but has been raising the funds on his own to try and bridge the gap between his scholarship money and the cost of tuition at the high school. Miguel Lara has big dreams, and knows that Hendricken will help him achieve them. "He's going to be my lawyer," Whealton says of Miguel. "He tells me, 'I'm only going to charge you when I have to, and I'm going to buy you a truck.' He's been asking everyone he meets (if they can help). He's willing to pay it back, too. He wants this more than anything in the world." For more information on Project GOAL or to help, call (401) 258-2300 or e-mail:
Darius Shirzadi:
darius@projectgoal.org smanza@projo.com: smanza@projo.com: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
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