Jeremy Logan
The Communicator
There will be two World Cups held this year. The most recognized cup taking place in Brazil in October, and then there will be the Amputee (Amp) World Cup, which will be held in Mexico in November.
While little is heard about Amp Soccer, its popularity is growing. Amp Soccers’ roots can be traced right back to our neighbors in Seattle, where Don Bennett, the first amputee to ever climb Mt. Rainier, stumbled upon it by accident in an effort to keep him and his skiing friends fit through the summer.
According to AmpSoccer.org, “the very first international competitive tournament for Amputee Soccer took place in Seattle in 1984, and now there are 30 countries involved in international play, and more on the horizon.”
The World Cup for Amputee Soccer will host 24 of the best teams, from five continents, in a 73 game showdown, with one decided World Champion.
While the sport is gaining attention and popularity, fund raising is still a very important part of the program.
The athletes travel across country regularly to put on clinics for wounded veterans, children and other amputees, not only to find comradare and give hope to those who may have little left, but also in an effort to raise awareness of the sport and gain the attention of potential sponsors.
With all of its efforts and charities the athletes of Amp Soccer are still responsible for a lot of their own travel expenses, and training, which can be costly.
On March 8th, SFCC’s Henry Sunday, US National Amp Soccer starting left guard, will be participating in an open clinic in San Antonio to help raise awareness of the sport and hopefully attract sponsors for the US Amp Soccer team’s trip to the upcoming World Cup.
Sunday is enrolled in the Prosthetics and Orthotics program on campus.
Sunday said, “Budweiser is supposed to be there and may sponsor the team,” but while the team may gain sponsorship, each individual on the Amp soccer team is held responsible for their own training and the cost of making the trip themselves.
In an effort to raise money so that he may participate in this years World Cup, Sunday must raise 7 thousand dollars from donors. He has started a campain at gofundme.com/72v5jc and will be seeking sponsorship locally here in Spokane.
It’s been a long road for Sunday but he believes in not making excuses for yourself and has faith that he will be able to make the trip and represent the United States internationally in the world cup.
Along with The World Cup, Amp soccer will be making its Olympic debut in the Paralympics in 2020 to be held in Tokyo.
The sport seems to be rising out of the ashes of wounded men, whose dreams were seemingly crushed due to amputations that left them limited in what they were told they would be capable of and created new hopes, dreams, and limitless possibilities.