Grassroot Soccer

Grassroot Soccer grew out of three powerful forces in the life of Grassroot Soccer Executive Director Dr. Thomas Clark: his love and concern for Africa, his training as a physician and the game of soccer.  Tommy spent part of his childhood in Zimbabwe, a country where life expectancy has dropped to 30 years of age, and later returned to play professional soccer for The Bulawayo Highlanders. He witnessed first-hand the devastating impact that AIDS was having in Africa, while also experiencing the power that soccer had to engage people across the continent. Young people, in particular, looked to soccer players as role models, even heroes.

In 2005 Tommy was a Research Fellow at University of California at San Francisco focusing on implementation and evaluation techniques for Grassroot Soccer. He has received numerous awards including All-American honors as a soccer player, two-time Resident Teacher of the Year at the University of New Mexico, and the Annie Dyson Child Advocacy Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2005, Tommy was the recipient of a Social Justice Award from Dartmouth College, and, in 2007, Tommy received the Peace Abbey’s Courage of Conscience Award.