Chattanooga Football Club members want to inspire kids to get active, so much so that they brought a German soccer legend to the Shepherd Youth and Family Development Center last week to inspire them as part of CFC’s Operation Get Active. The grassroots initiative aims to spread the popularity of the sport to students who might otherwise never have played.
Marcel Schafer, a former player for the German national team and current player for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, visited the center to teach its 9- to 12-year-old Get Active participants about soccer.
“It’s a new generation with PlayStation, iPads, cellphones and all, so it’s always good to get [kids] outside or in a gym to have fun together and work as a team,” Schafer said.
Operation Get Active is involved in 10 schools and youth development centers across Chattanooga, offering seven-week sessions in the spring, summer and fall, said Operation Get Active Director Peter Woolcock.
During the sessions, participants learn about the sport from volunteer coaches – including some CFC team members – and attend a CFC game.