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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Under 66-degree sun on Friday afternoon, 75 second graders raced across the fields of Mount Vernon Community School, dribbling through cones and lining up to high-five semi-pro players in red.
Watching from the sideline was Johnatan Nunez, the Alexandria Soccer Association's outreach and school programs manager — and a Mount Vernon alum. He attended the school from kindergarten through fifth grade, and his parents still live down the road.
"It's really nice to be back at a school that gave me so much growing up," Nunez told The Alexandria Brief.
Friday's session marked the second-to-last stop in the inaugural year of Soccer IN School, an ASA program that, over the past school year, reached every second grader in Alexandria City Public Schools — 1,360 students in all. Each child received a free recreational jersey, ball and take-home toolkit. Mount Vernon was the 13th of 14 schools to host the program, with MacArthur Elementary set to close out the year next week.
The program is funded by U.S. Soccer's Innovate to Grow grant, awarded to ASA in partnership with the Virginia Youth Soccer Association, and locks in three full years of programming. Cohort two — currently first graders across the district — will rotate in next school year.
Nunez told The Alexandria Brief the year-one response was "a lot of excitement, a lot of new opportunities for us to grow," but he was careful to frame it as a beginning, not a finish line. "We've recognized that this is only the start."
ASA Executive Director Tommy Park, who emceed Friday's celebration, used the milestone to lay out a larger ambition. By ASA's tally, roughly 47% of Alexandria children played on a sports team last year. The Washington-based Aspen Institute has set a national goal of 63% youth sports participation by 2030.
"I think the city of Alexandria, we can get to 70%," Park said. "Let's continue to push it and be the model nationwide."
Park said school leaders have also reported a quieter benefit of the program: lower absenteeism on soccer days. Nunez framed it in his prepared remarks as "giving students another reason to show up, stay engaged and feel connected to their community."
The curriculum runs inside the regular PE block and is built around Virginia's grade-two Standards of Learning, including eye-foot coordination, dribbling with control and passing to a stationary target. Friday's session sent students through three 10-minute stations: a dribbling game called "Stuck in the Mud," a 2-on-1 passing and shooting drill, and a small-sided scrimmage played alongside Alexandria Reds players from the city's semi-pro club. As part of the program, every ACPS PE teacher was trained and certified as a U.S. Soccer grassroots coach.
Park credited ACPS Director of Physical Education Kristin Donley — who was not present Friday — with opening the door to integration with the school day.
"She is a rock star. She is a hero," Park said. "She opened the door and worked with Johnatan and Martine and Jim on the curriculum to make sure that it fit."
The celebration drew a long roster of stakeholders. Alexandria School Board Chair Michelle Rief and members Tim Beaty and Ryan Reyna attended, along with City Council members Jacinta Greene and Canek Aguirre and staff from Alexandria Parks and Recreation. Representatives from VYSA, U.S. Soccer, the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association and D.C. United joined them. D.C. United mascot Talon worked the sideline. Four Alexandria Reds players took part in the scrimmage station.
Mel Radke, head of membership at U.S. Soccer, flew in from the federation's new $250 million national team training center in Atlanta to attend.
"We want U.S. Soccer to be everywhere, in every community, and programs like this are making that possible," Radke said. The Innovate to Grow program, founded in 2017, was designed in part to surface community models that, in Radke's words, "can be taken to other areas and replicated."
Paul Shaw of the Virginia Youth Soccer Association told attendees the Alexandria pilot is already echoing beyond city lines.
"This project started as an idea, then as a plan, then as a proposal," Shaw said. "You've established a legacy not only for the community, but quite frankly for Virginia. We're using this and it's starting to echo."
Rebecca Gore, senior manager for community impact at D.C. United and an Alexandria resident, said her team sees the program as a natural fit for the club's youth outreach.
"A lot of our community initiatives have to do with educating, equipping and inspiring young people on and off the field," Gore said. "This initiative is very aligned with that."
ASA plans to track how many Soccer IN School participants go on to join a team — in soccer or any other sport — over the program's three-year run. After Friday's formal program, ASA staff stayed on for a "PE Takeover" clinic that opened the field to every other grade in the school.
For Nunez, the metric was simpler.
"Smiles," he said, when The Alexandria Brief asked what he wanted students to leave with. "I want everyone to leave this field happy."
