First Round Winners

My name is Gary Enoch, and I am the boys soccer coach at Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction, Oregon. IVHS is a small, rural school in the remote southwest part of Oregon. At one time, our community was healthy and growing, but that has all changed. Where 21 lumber mills once stood, there is now only one. A community that used to provide a decent income for it's residents has been taken over by poverty and a sense of dispair. It all began when much of the forest land that surrounds our community was set aside as a Federal wilderness area, but the recent downturn in the economy has made the situation even more difficult.

Because of the high unemployment rate, many families have left in search of jobs. As a result, the enrollment at the school has dropped from 550, when I first started teaching there 8 years ago, to just a little over 300 today. Many of the students who attend the school come from low-income families. Over 80-percent of our students are living at or below the poverty level. Nearly 100 percent of them qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. In 2009, 45-percent of our graduates came from single-parent households, or were being supported by foster parents, grand parents or other relatives.

Because of funding issues, the school district does not provide any money for our soccer program. We are considered a club sport. As the coach, I donate hundreds of hours every year because there is no salary for coaches. We do fund-raising to cover the costs of uniforms, equipment, referee fees, player fees, transportation and insurance. As the economy in our community has worsened, it has become more and more difficult to raise the funds necessary to keep our program running.

At the present time we are using old uniforms, some of which have been around for over 15 years. The numbers are peeling off, the colors are faded and many have been stitched and re-stitched by mothers and grandmothers. It became apparent to me this year that, with an influx of a large number of young players, we need to buy new uniforms because we don't have enough to equip every player. The ones we have are mismatched because when we do replace jerseys or shorts, we often find that the styles have been discontinued. Our situation was made even more desperate recently when someone broke into the equipment shed and stole some of our uniforms and gear bags. It left me feeling heartbroken and frustrated.

My hope is that we would qualify for the grant and be able to buy my guys a new set of uniforms so that they will have a solid self-image when they step onto the field. Several years ago, I saw how new equipment impacts the way my players feel about themselves when we bought some new gear bags. Prior to that, they had been carrying their gear in plastic shopping bags or backbacks, while all of our opponents were equiped with matching uniforms and gear bags. At the first game when my guys stepped onto the field with their new bags, I could see that they held their heads a little higher and had more lift in their step.

I hope you will find us worthy of this grant and help us buy some new uniforms. Thanks for your consideration. It would be appreciated more than you will ever know.