36-year-old J.T. Dorsey thrilled to be running a youth program in Coatesville
By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times
Former soccer standout J.T. Dorsey encourages fancy footwork as kids return the balls after a workout.
Surrounded by dozens of pint-sized whirling dervishes with soccer balls, the organizer of the controlled chaos smiled broadly.
”She wouldn’t even touch the ball when we first started,” said J.T. Dorsey, pointing to one girl enthusiastically dribbling it across a parking lot doubling as a practice field.
Dorsey, 36, a top mid-fielder at Coatesville High and went on to play professional soccer, said when the U.S. Soccer Foundation wanted to expand its youth development program into the Philadelphia area and sought his help, he was happy to oblige – on one condition.
“I wanted the Philadelphia area to include Coatesville,” said Dorsey, who who led his CASH team to the second round of the Class AAA District 1 playoffs. “I didn’t want to bypass my hometown.”
The J.T. Dorsey Foundation’s “Soccer for Success” program was established in the spring and is now serving 200 children at five regional sites, one of which is in Coatesville.
Coatesville Community Police Officer Rodger Ollis, who assists with the program, unfolds a t-shirt that is eagerly awaited by Damari Stephens.
As established by the U.S. Soccer Foundation, the grant-funded program uses soccer as a tool to combat childhood obesity, promote healthy lifestyles for children in under-resourced urban communities, and provide them with free after-school programming throughout the academic year.
Dorsey said he reached out to the Coatesville school district to find participants. It connected him with Crystal Lowery, the ebullient recreation director at the Regency Park Apartments, who offered a venue and a partnership that literally hit home for Dorsey.
“I used to live right there,” he said, pointing to a building across the street from the parking lot as more than 30 children from kindergarten through fifth grade gleefully squealed behind him.
He said participants play soccer for 90-minutes stretches three times a week under the tutelage of Amy O’Grady, an instructor recommended by Lowery. Dorsey said the program uses soccer as a tool to effect social change, providing children with resources ranging from structured activities to role models.
“It’s really cool to be able to do this,” said Dorsey, who now lives in Harrisburg. “I can identify with some of the struggles these kids have … I can say, ‘Hey, I lived in Regency, too.’”
At 6-foot-1, Dorsey, who said he was too short to pursue basketball, possesses star stature for the aspiring soccer players.
Dorsey said he relocated to the state capital after he was picked up in 1998 by the Hershey Wildcats, a professional soccer team based in Hershey. He ended up staying in that area after he retired in 2006 from the Harrisburg City Islanders. But his heart – and a host of relatives, including a sister and her three children – remain in Coatesville.
Until she died last month, Dorsey’s mother, Robin M. Dorsey, a minister and community activist, also lived in Coatesville. Dorsey said he realized before high school that even though he loved basketball, he was “better at soccer,” a decision that got his mother’s unabashed support.
He said his mother never learned the rules of the game; she was always too busy cheering for him and his teammates. “She was so encouraging that one guy got upset when he learned she couldn’t be at a game, telling me: ‘I play so much better when your mom is out there yelling.’”
Dorsey, who studied elementary and special education at Loyola University, said he knew he eventually wanted to work with children while he was at CASH, where he participated in the Future Teachers Club.
The idea for the foundation grew out of a torn ACL he sustained in Hershey. “I had never been injured before,” he said. “It helped me realize I needed to have an exit strategy.”
After stints in teaching and coaching, Dorsey said the foundation enabled him to “mix education and soccer, putting my two passions together.”
The “Soccer for Success” program is but one component of the foundation, which also has a leadership program inspired by Dorsey’s mother and recently renamed the Robin M. Dorsey Future Leaders Program. Dorsey said he hopes to encourage others to take a similar career path – from playing soccer to mentoring youngsters.
Right now, Dorsey spends much time shuttling from Harrisburg to Philadelphia – and making sure that his Coatesville stops allow time for family visits.
When he’s in Harrisburg, he is sometimes accompanied to programs by his 4-year-old daughter. Asked if she inherited a soccer gene, he paused and grinned. “Right now, she plays by default,” he said. “The kids let her kick the ball around.”
A video look at some action from “Soccer for Success”:
