In Socorro Independent School District’s Volunteer Sports Program (VSP), some students go the extra mile to support the players in their favorite sport. During the 2022-23 VSP season, a few student volunteers, such as second-grader Giovanny Campuzano, stood on the sidelines, coaching their teams to victory.
“It sounded really fun and exciting to be a coach,” said Campuzano, a Purple Heart Elementary student who led his school’s VSP Pre-K soccer team to the finals in December. The team was fourth in the 2022-23 VSP Pre-K soccer championships.
“I like how we get to celebrate when we win and just how fun it is to coach because (the players are) just so sweet and cute, and they’re really nice,” he added.
VSP is an intramural sports program that offers SISD students in Pre-K through sixth grade an opportunity to participate in friendly competitions in soccer, track and field and cheer squads.
The soccer season, which started in September and ran through December, welcomed more than 2,000 students and 755 volunteers, including parents, community members, SISD employees, and students who served as coaches and referees.
SISD VSP Coordinator Liza Ruvalcaba said students who take advantage of VSP’s coaching and referee opportunities learn valuable skills they can apply on the field and in the classroom.
“Our students benefit in multiple ways,” Ruvalcaba said. “We range from students that serve in the capacity as coaches, gaining leadership, sports knowledge, and communication skills throughout the season.”
Ruvalcaba said the program partners with UIL to help students who are 17 years old to become certified as referees and get paid for their services.
However, VSP volunteer coaches and referees can be as young as seven years of age.
As one of the program’s soccer referees, Scarlett Ortiz, a fifth-grader at Dr. Sue A. Shook Elementary School, would ensure that players followed the rules, displayed good sportsmanship, and were safe on the field.
“The thing I like most about it is that I could help kids to tell them what they’re doing wrong in soccer, so they could learn what not to do when they play their next game,” said Ortiz, who also played soccer for Dr. Sue A. Shook’s Rattlers and the VSP program.
For Socorro High School sophomore Abimael Veliz, coaching Ernesto Serna Fine Arts Academy’s sixth-grade VSP soccer team allowed him to develop leadership skills and give back to the community.
“I thank the district a lot and the program for letting young students participate in activities like these so they can get experience,” Veliz said. He ran players through drills and paired them up so they could gain confidence working as a team. “It’s really good for young teens to do extracurricular activities with others and keep working as a team,” he added.
The district is seeking athletes, coaches, referees, and volunteers for the upcoming track and field season. Registration starts in January, and the season will begin in February. Please visit www.sisd.net/vsp for a schedule of the track and field orientation meetings or @RuvalcabaVSP on X (formerly Twitter) for more information about the program.