Continuing to serve as ambassadors for Colorado College and the sport they love, a pair of former CC women's soccer All-Americans traveled halfway around the globe recently to help run training clinics for young female athletes in Indonesia.
Janine Szpara and Karen Willoughby, four-year teammates with the Tigers before graduating in 1989, were among four American coaches who spent the first week of January in the cities of Jakarta, Surabaya, and Pontianak.
They were chosen by the International Center's Sports Corps program to represent the United States in conjunction with a U.S. government program – “The Indonesia America Soccer Exchange.”
Szpara served as head coach for the program. After an impressive NCAA and professional playing career, the four-time All-America goalkeeper owns a “A” level U.S. Soccer Federation license and has coached at the nation's highest youth and NCAA tiers. She also has coaching experience in Japan and Malaysia.
Willoughby, who earned All-America honors as a sophomore in 1986 and scored 21 goals during her four seasons (1985-88) as a forward at CC, is the International Center Sports Corps program director.
"The ability for sports to bridge the cultural, gender, and religious gap between people is simply amazing," she said. "With the universal language of soccer to connect us, we could have an instant meaningful dialogue between the American coaches and Indonesian players."
The exchange program is possible thanks to a grant from the SportsUnited Division of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. Its mission is to improve understanding between the people of Indonesia and the United States through the medium of youth sports.
The 2011 version consists of two main components. The first – which took place Jan. 3-7, included a series of three one-day training clinics for approximately 200-300 female athletes and 30 coaches. The second features an 8-10 day visit to the United States for a smaller group of Indonesian coaches and athletes in the summer of 2011.
"The Indonesian women do not have many opportunities to play sports, much less be coached by other women coaches," said Willoughby. "They were grateful in a way that American youth can not understand; we take the freedom to play and enjoy sports as our birthright."
Officials hope that the “Indonesia America Soccer Exchange” will be enhanced by strong participation on the part of the U.S. private sector, and look forward to working closely with American companies to further develop the program. For more information, please contact Willoughby <karenWilloughby9@gmail.com> or Robert Schiffer <schifferrl@hotmail.com>.
