It’s all about being a team at Buddy Soccer

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — A little Red Light, Green Light has all the makings of a fun-filled day at Buddy Soccer.

For years, founder Shannon Pelfrey was hoping to find an activity that her now-10-year-old son Sylas, who is autistic, could take part in.

A conversation with the Macomb Township Parks and Recreation staff not only shifted her attention to a particular sport, but birthed the creation of what is now Buddy Soccer.

“It’s a league that I came up with a few years back because of my own son, who’s autistic, and wanting to get him out to exercise and do something other than being on electronics,” Pelfrey said. “There was nothing for him because all of the regular sports leagues of soccer and baseball required coordination that my son didn’t have, but there’s competitiveness that goes along with that. I didn’t want to bombard the parents or the coach with special treatment, so I created this league.”

Now every spring and fall, Buddy Soccer, which typically has 15-18 players, takes over the field for an hour near the Macomb Township Recreation Center as children ages 6-15, who either have cognitive or physical disabilities, learn the game of soccer alongside their buddies, who are predominantly Macomb Lutheran North High School students or other local volunteers.

“The buddies are unbelievable,” Pelfrey said. “Most of them come from Lutheran North High School, and they are amazing and super helpful. Most of them are high school age and above, and they’re so good with the kids.”

Mario Iulianelli was one of those many volunteers alongside his two sons, who both went to Lutheran North, and the Iulianelli family was the first set of volunteers in Buddy Soccer’s inaugural season.

Fast forward to 2024, and Iulianelli is still the frontman for Buddy Soccer as its head coach, leading kids through stretching routines, running, doing passing drills with their buddies, and doing scrimmages against each other toward the end of the session. To make it fun and add structure, the coaches incorporate games such as Red Light, Green Light, where players compete in a start-and-stop race from a starting point to a goal.

Iulianelli said he’s always had a passion for coaching but said Buddy Soccer has given him a different perspective on different styles of coaching.

“As my sons grew older and grew out of what I was coaching, my potential to coach went away,” Iulianelli said. “This was an opportunity, and I played soccer my whole life and I love the sport and love coaching, so to me this was a really good opportunity to coach again. I hadn’t had any experience in this area, so it was a learning experience for me as well. I looked at it as taking my experience and knowledge from playing my whole life and applying that to the Buddy Soccer program.”

Over the course of the sessions, Pelfrey said she notices a difference in the young soccer players.

“It helps with their confidence, and it helps them be social,” Pelfrey said. “We’re giving them light directions, nothing real rigid, but it helps to give them some direction. Some of them have made friends, which is very hard to do with kids with special needs.”

Registration for the fall season (Sept. 16 to Oct. 2) will open up in early September with another month of fun-filled soccer ahead. Like every Buddy Soccer session, it will end with a “Go Team!”

“It makes me feel proud that there are families that are willing to do these things for their kids,” Pelfrey said. “It’s hard. Special-needs parenting is not for the weak, and it is very challenging. Daily tasks and day-to-day life can be challenging. For them to go out of their comfort zone and sign up their kids for a sport they don’t know if they even like, it makes me happy and gives me hope.”

For more information on registration or how to be a buddy, visit macomb-mi.gov/743/Adaptive-Recreation.