Navy Women’s Soccer active in community service

Members of the Naval Academy’s women’s soccer team recently conducted a pair of community service events over the past two weeks. The Mids held a free soccer clinic at Washington, D.C.’s Excel Academy and also spoke to a group of 40 boys and girls from the KIPP NYC College Prep High School at the Naval Academy.

At the Excel Academy, the team split the kindergarten and first-grade children into a number of groups and focused on teaching a number of different techniques and also held a scrimmage. The team spent four hours with the children at the clinic.

“We all were exhausted at the end of the day but had so much fun,” Navy defender Stephanie Strine said. “The girls had non-stop energy and kept us laughing all day long. They loved that we were in college and they didn’t want us to leave. They wished that we would be at school with them every day!

“It was truly a blast and an honor to spend time in the community with these bright and inspiring girls of the Excel Academy and my teammates. Hopefully the Excel Academy girls learned more about the game of soccer, the Naval Academy, and the sisterhood of NWS.”

Last week head coach Carin Gabarra and a group of five women’s soccer players addressed the group from the KIPP school, which was touring the Naval Academy. The team spoke about the values of college athletics and properly preparing for college while in high school. The time spent with the women’s soccer team left a lasting impression on the KIPP students, who walked away speaking of being inspired to develop more leadership experience to strengthen their own college applications.