With FIFA World Cup matches taking place in Vancouver, Surrey students from across the district were granted the opportunity to take part in FIFA’s Player Escort Program, walking alongside the world’s best soccer players as they accompanied each team onto the field at BC Place.
Surrey Schools shares that this opportunity came about through the Surrey Schools’ Community-Schools Partnership (CSP) department and its ongoing work with Canada SCORES, which is said to deliver inclusive soccer programming each year to underserved students within the district.
An international youth soccer organization called Common Goal teamed up with Canada SCORES to help run the World Cup escort program, which attracted the likes of Surrey students who were the first in line to make this wish a reality.
“We were very fortunate with that,” Program facilitator with CSP James Daniels told Surrey Schools. “Any students already in the program got priority, and so already being with Canada SCORES, we were able to send as many kids as we could, which ended up being around 95.”
Those 95 students that were selected came from several Surrey schools, all in which came from programs that serve students and families who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to take part in team sports.
“The excitement from the kids and their families has been amazing,” said Daniels. “With this program, we’re usually able to take kids to the Whitecaps games, but this is on a whole other level.”
Surrey Schools says this experience started early on match days, when students were bussed directly from Surrey to BC Place. The students spent the hours before kickoff in their own green room stocked with food, drinks and video game consoles running the latest FIFA game.
After students walked hand-in-hand onto the pitch with the player, they had the chance to watch the match from the lower bowl.
Surrey Schools says students participated in six of the seven matches being held in Vancouver for this year’s World Cup. This included Canada’s historic match against Qatar on June 18, where the Canadian men’s team secured its first-ever World Cup win.
Daniels told Surrey Schools that whenever organizers could they would try to pair students with matches that would mean the most to them.
“For the Egypt vs. New Zealand game, we really pushed for Hjorth Road Elementary to take part in that because there’s a large Egyptian population at that school,” explained Daniels. “So those kids got to walk out with Egypt and Mohamed Salah, for their historic first-win match as well.”
Daniels tells Surrey Schools that he hopes these are the moments that will stay with the students long after the tournament leaves Vancouver.
“We’re just so thankful to Canada SCORES and Common Goal for these opportunities,” he said. “These experiences will be lifetime memories for these children. They got to participate in historic sporting events, and you can never put a price on that kind of experience.”