Street Soccer USA, a national nonprofit that uses soccer as a conduit for social change for underserved communities, is relaunching its brand and naming its first national board as it heads into its slate of summer tournaments.
The organization, which was founded in 2009, will have its board chaired by NBC Sports soccer analyst Kyle Martino, who will be joined by former NBA star Steve Nash, U.S. men’s national team player Tim Howard, Relevent Sports Chairman Charlie Stillitano, and BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, as well as 11 others.
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Street Soccer USA hosted the first tournament of its summer schedule this past weekend in New York City’s Times Square. Later this month, it will host one in San Francisco’s Union Square, as well as in Los Angeles at L.A. Live in August in conjunction with the LA Galaxy. The organization generates money through hosting leagues and tournaments, as well as via donations and sponsors. It supports soccer programs geared toward youth and young adult players in less fortunate areas of the U.S. In total, more than 15,000 soccer players have been part of its programs, and it has relationships with 14 cities across the U.S.
Martino, who ran for U.S. Soccer president earlier this year, said the importance of a program like this is critical for the sport, especially as the country begins its run-up to hosting the 2026 World Cup, in addition to the social good it does.
“If you look at the enormous community of kids that are priced out of the game of soccer in a competitive sense, an organization like this couldn’t be more important,” Martino said. “That is such a great consolation of the much more important mission here, which is about the social fabric of communities, helping to create a network and simply being a conduit to bring social services and opportunities to people who need it.”
Founder and CEO Lawrence Cann said that with the new brand identity and national board, the organization is looking to build out its scale.
“We feel like that while we’ve had great success in a number of different areas, we want to open up very humbly and get more people involved and take advantage of this great community and soccer culture that is growing,” he said.
