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Top-level women soccer players join Goals for Girls 2007

Goals for Girls is excited to announce the addition of two top level women soccer players to the team! Jessica Cates-Bristol and Alice Keeney have accepted invitations to be official Goals for Girls coaches for the June/July 2007 trip to South Africa. Jessi and Alice are two incredible women who bring important skills to the Goals for Girls project.

Jessi Cates-Bristol
Jess started playing soccer in rural Maryland when she was five. Before she knew she was involved with various travel teams, settling with a Potomac Club in WAGS during high school. Jess finally decided on University of Miami to start her college career. For a year, she enjoyed the privileges of being a ‘Cane and playing soccer in the Big East, however after her freshman year she decided to try something different and traveled to Kenya with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for a semester. After returning to the U.S., Jess finished school at Stetson University in Florida where she played soccer until graduating in the spring of 2003.

Jess graduated with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Spanish from Stetson, though for the past three years she has found herself continuously working with children in various educational settings. For a while she was a substitute teacher in special education classrooms throughout Montgomery County, then she traveled to Barcelona, Spain and taught English to children and adults. She then worked with children diagnosed as emotionally disturbed and autistic at the non-profit, special education Lourie Center School. During her stint at the school, Jess was offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to Africa with Grassroot Soccer as an African Teaching Intern. She accepted and in the fall of 2005 she traveled to Zambia and where she worked with youth educating them about HIV/AIDS, as well as pioneered a project that integrated street children as pupils. Grassroot Soccer was an amazing experience for Jess. The best part of her experience is that she felt that the Zambian children she worked with gained so much more from the program than just knowledge about HIV; they learned valuable life-skills, augmented their self-confidence, and learned from priceless culture exchanges.

Over the years Jess has volunteered to help coach soccer and basketball for various age groups and skill levels. She currently lives in Northwest D.C. and continues to play soccer on several coed, adult recreation teams. Jess works in Maryland for an organization called Maryland Choices, a non-profit, social service agency that works with at risk youth in Montgomery County providing wrap-around services. The fall of 2007, Jess anticipates attending a graduate school program for social work, and pursuing a clinical licensure when she’d like to work as a therapist for children and adolescents.

Alice Keeney
Alice returned to Charleston, South Carolina in the fall of 2005 after completing a year abroad at Speos Photographic Institute in Paris, France, where she focused on digital photography and photojournalism. While in Paris, she was awarded First and Third Prize in two competitions held by the French Federation of Fencing for the images she produced in the Challenge Monal and the Challenge International de Paris, respectively. Alice’s work from the tournaments was displayed in Escrime Magazine, as well as on the Federation’s Website.

Since returning to Charleston, Alice has been working for the Associated Press, The Center for Photography, Grassroot Soccer, Oblique Magazine and pursuing various freelance projects in the area.

Keeney's work has been displayed in numerous shows in South Carolina, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and is on permanent display at the Kudu Coffee House in Charleston. In May 2006, Keeney was named one of the Lowcountry’s Top 10 up and coming “Under the Radar” artists and was featured in the May 2006 issue of Charleston Magazine.

Alice Kenney, a native of Rhode Island, graduated from the College of Charleston in 2004, where she balanced her time playing Division I soccer, while earning a B.A. in English.

Alice has spent a great deal of time in Africa in recent years photographing the children who participate in soccer-based health programs. Alice Keeney is generously donating not only her time and expertise as a Goals for Girls coach, but also several of her beautiful photographs to help Goals for Girls raise money for the project. See http://www.alicekeeneyphotography.com.