Aug. 19, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s soccer team will open its 2010 exhibition slate at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on Monday (Aug. 23) against the University of Illinois-Chicago at Alumni Stadium. All proceeds from the match will benefit Grassroot Soccer, an international AIDS awareness and education organization that reaches youth in Africa through soccer clinics.
Admission to the contest is a $1 donation to Grassroot Soccer and further donations are welcome. Donations will be accepted at the gate of Alumni Stadium as well as during the game.
Monday evening’s match will mark the seventh straight year that Notre Dame has held an exhibition game with all proceeds going to benefit Grassroot Soccer. The cause is very important to Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark since his oldest son, Tommy, is the founder and CEO of the organization. Clark and the Notre Dame men’s soccer camp will match the donations dollar-for-dollar.
The Irish will wear Grassroot Soccer t-shirts during warm-ups prior to Monday’s match.
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“Grassroot Soccer is a very worthwhile cause and it’s an organization that uses sport to educate young and uninformed people at a vital age in their development,” says the Irish head coach. “Quite a few other schools are now starting to have Grassroot games. I think we were the first to do that. Anything we can do to raise money is great. Soccer is a worldwide game, but this organization has sprung up here in this country and nearly all the interns that go to sub-Saharan Africa to help run the program are from America. It shows that soccer is alive and well here and not just from a playing aspect, but also in doing good things like Grassroot.”
For more information on Grassroot Soccer, please log onto grassrootsoccer.org.
“I hope a lot of people come out to the game on Monday,” adds Clark. “I hope the fans are able to see a good game and see what our team is going to look like for this coming season. But most importantly, I hope they contribute to a very worthwhile cause.”
Notre Dame will open the regular season against No. 8 UCLA on Friday, Sept. 3 at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic in Bloomington, Ind. Game time is slated for 5:00 p.m. (ET). The Irish will open their regular-season home schedule against California at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, Sept. 5 at Alumni Stadium. That match also is part of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic.
Last season, Notre Dame posted an 11-8-4 record the Irish were runners-up in the BIG EAST Blue Division with an 8-3 mark. The Fighting Irish also were finalists at the BIG EAST Championship. Notre Dame defeated Green Bay, 2-1, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling at Northwestern, 3-1, in the second round. That marked Notre Dame’s ninth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
As a reminder to Fighting Irish fans, the Notre Dame men’s and women’s soccer teams will hold the 2010 “Meet The Teams” barbecue and fan appreciation event from 4-6 p.m. (ET) on Aug. 21 at old Alumni Field, the former home of the Fighting Irish soccer programs located on Twyckenham Drive along the southeast side of campus.
This annual event, which has become a favorite of fans and teams alike, will feature free food for the first 500 persons in attendance, courtesy of Famous Dave’s BBQ. In addition, members of both teams will be on hand to sign autographs and take pictures, and some of the student-athletes will even be available to compete in pick-up games with interested fans. There also will be face painting and t-shirt painting, and fans may sign up for guided tours of Alumni Stadium.
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