Disabilities Can't Hold These Soccer Players Back

Jane Cashin admits her son, Sam, is a bit of a sports fanatic. His favorite to play might be whichever is in season.

So in the summer, there’s no doubt the 18-year-old Edina resident thinks about his weekly soccer game non-stop.

“He looks forward to it all day on Sunday—it’s all we talk about,” Jane Cashin said. “We’d never miss it unless there was something major going on.”

Sam plays for the Blues TOPSoccer team, a community-based soccer program for children and adults above the age of 8 with physical and/or mental disabilities.

Each week from early-June to mid-August, eight teams from five TOPSoccer locations near the metro meet at the Lexington-Diffley Athletic Fields in Eagan to play a game or two. The Blues squad draw 43 players from the Southwest Metro, including Edina, and breaks into three teams each week to compete.

The Blues’ final game of the summer was Sunday.

The program allows kids and adults of all ages to compete, have fun and exercise weekly on the pitch.

“The joy of sitting outside in the summer and watching these kids run around instead of being in a confined area, it’s huge,” Jane Cashin said. “The physical activity for these kids is so necessary. Being in the gym doesn’t do it for these kids during the summer.”

Approximately 120 players in the Twin Cities area compete for TOPSoccer teams, including Coon Rapids, Stillwater/Lakeland, Northfield, the South Metro RAVE and the Blues.

TOPSoccer is not affiliated with Special Olympics Minnesota. Instead, it is run through the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association and gives individuals with disabilities a chance to play soccer throughout the summer.

For Blues coach Jeff Mueller, who has coached through TOPSoccer and Special Olympics Minnesota for 12 years, the laid-back program is an ideal way to spend a Sunday evening.

It’s a group that simply enjoys playing with each other—wins and losses come secondary. Some nights, a team lends some of its players to the opposition so the kids can get more playing time.

“It’s just one big happy group,” Mueller said. “We cheer for both sides.”

Mueller and his assistant coaches are what help make the program so fun, according to Cashin.

The coaches don’t have children who are on the team. They’re involved because they want to be.

“They’re not all excited about it because it’s for their child,” she said. “They’re excited for it because it’s our child. That gets a parent excited.”