RINDGE, N.H. (September 11, 2017) – On Saturday, September 9th the Franklin Pierce University men's soccer program hosted a free soccer clinic on Sodexo Field for 20 members of the Rindge Recreation Department. The men's soccer team also invited the field hockey program to come and help volunteer their time to teach some of the games essentials to the young children.

TO VIEW PHOTOS OF THE CLINIC PLEASE CLICK HERE.

"We thought the clinic was a great opportunity for our athletes to give back to the local soccer community" said men's soccer head coach Roy Fink. "There was a great interaction between the athletes and kids and I hope that this relationship will grow even bigger."

The children arrived on campus a little before 4:00 p.m. Saturday and received a warm and friendly welcome from the Franklin Pierce athletes.

Men's soccer senior and team captain Hamish Cadigan (Christchurch, New Zealand) was on hand to participate in the clinic. "I thought it was an awesome opportunity to get kids from the local area down to the field and play with us" said Cadigan. "Hopefully this gives them some motivation to keep playing the beautiful game." Cadigan expanded to say the clinic was "an awesome way to connect with the kids, reach out to the community and try get as many fans as we can down to the games. Seeing the smiles on the kids' faces is always a great thing to see as you can tell they are having fun and enjoying themselves and that's exactly what we wanted from the clinic."

Even though they weren't teaching their spot, members of the field hockey program were glad to spend some of their time with the community on their day off.

"Coach Fink reached out to the field hockey team to help run the soccer clinic and I jumped at the opportunity because it was such a good way to give back to the community" said sophomore goalkeeper Kaitlyn Benoit (Goffstown, N.H.). "The men's soccer team interacted with the children in the best way possible running drills, coaching, and encouraging. The ages ranged from just about 3 years old to about 12 years old and the soccer team helped make everyone who was there better. Volunteering at this free soccer session was such a fun way to help the community and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. It was a good way for the men's soccer team and the field hockey team to join forces and play for something more than ourselves."

Field hockey midfielder Jessica Strassburg (Longmeadow, Mass.) also participated in the clinic and shared her experience. "It was cool to see local soccer players interact with our soccer team and get so excited. The kids really looked up to our men's soccer players and were so encouraging towards each other! Even though I don't play soccer, it was really fun to goof around with everyone and meet new people. It felt so good to help out and volunteer for the community, I can't wait to do it again! The kids had an awesome time and so did we! I worked with a little girl who was 19 months old and it was her first soccer clinic. She was constantly giggling and wanted to be involved in everything. It was really cool to see such young kids having so much fun at Franklin Pierce!"

The men's soccer and field hockey programs return to the field tomorrow as the men open their conference slate at Le Moyne with kickoff set for 3:00 p.m. while the field hockey team begins their home schedule versus Bentley at 7:00 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce athletic apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).