Youth sports expanding in Camden under Cooper-funded nonprofit

This fall, children who join the Camden Youth Soccer Club will have two fields to play on, twice as many as last year. For $5, they will get uniforms, shin guards, socks, and 10 weeks of Saturday games and practices.

More than 100 new players will be part of the action.

The league's expansion is the first step taken by the newly formed Camden Health and Athletic Association (CHAA), a youth sports nonprofit launched in June by representatives of the Cooper Foundation, the charitable arm of Cooper University Health Care. The CHAA was announced by George E. Norcross III, the politically powerful head of Cooper University Hospital's board of trustees, who said he wanted to provide an umbrella of financial support for the city's youth teams.

The Camden Youth Soccer Club's board voted this summer to enter into a partnership with the CHAA. If all goes smoothly, the process will likely become a template for how the organization works with the city's other groups.

Funded with $1 million from the Cooper Foundation, the CHAA is subsidizing the cost of uniforms, equipment, insurance, and field use for the soccer club. As a result, league organizers cut to $5 the $10 registration fee for returning players and the $35 for first-time players.

"Our goal was to remove barriers for parents," said Susan Bass Levin of the Cooper Foundation, who said basketball will be the CHAA's next focus. "We want them to be able to sign their kids up for as many sports as they would like."

A search is underway for a full-time athletic director to lead the CHAA, Bass Levin said. More than 100 applicants have submitted resumés.

The Cooper Foundation also helped the Camden Youth Soccer Club with outreach this summer, said board member and volunteer coach Bryan Leib. At a recruiting event this month, the club signed up 130 new members, bringing the fall enrollment to more than 250. Last year, the club served 200 kids during both fall and spring seasons.

This year, soccer club members will play on newly refurbished fields at Von Nieda Park in the city's Cramer Hill section, and at Camden High School, its current practice field. The Camden County Board of Freeholders has approved installing at least three sets of goals and will build fences around some portions of the park.

Camden has several thriving youth sports programs, such as football clubs and neighborhood baseball leagues, but they receive little financial support from the city. Privately, some community members say that while they are optimistic about the CHAA, they have mixed feelings about the fact that Norcross is offering support for programs that city leaders never seemed to prioritize. One resident said he would never make such a statement publicly for fear of seeming "ungrateful."

Frank Moran, Camden Council president and director of the Camden County Parks Department, said financial problems over the last decades have made it impossible for the city to devote significant resources to youth organizations. That led to a number of separate grassroots leagues that have operated independently, without the benefit of shared resources or organized fund-raising.

"Just bringing all athletics together is long overdue," Moran said. "I commend the folks who have been part of that struggle, who have been in the trenches . . . but what is happening in Camden now is that some of those boundaries have been broken."

asteele@phillynews.com 856-779-3876 @AESteele