Bucknell University Athletics
Leah Sipe, Kelly Boswell '09 Represent Bucknell on Soccer Without Borders Exchange Trip
2/25/2013 7:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Feb. 25, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Former Bison women's soccer captain Kelly Boswell '09 and current assistant coach Leah Sipe are representing Bucknell this week on a team of recent NCAA student-athletes as they travel to Granada, Nicaragua to take part in a Soccer Without Borders (SWB) cultural exchange.
Soccer Without Borders is a non-profit organization that supports year-round youth developmental soccer programs that typically take place in under-served areas.
“I am really excited,” said Sipe before departing for Nicaragua. “To be able to bring soccer to these young girls, as well as play in exhibitions with girls my age, will be a very special experience.”
Soccer Without Borders currently operates in the United States, Nicaragua and Uganda. Nicaragua and Uganda are two of the host sites of the four core programs of SWB as well as Oakland, Calif., and Baltimore, Md. The program aims to use soccer as a tool for a positive change in under-privileged youth by giving them the tools personal growth, and success.
Every SWB program aims to engage and collaborate youths to help them realize that with consistent scheduling anyone can overcome the obstacles that face them. Adults serve as models and mentors to these youths.
Sipe and Boswell will represent the Patriot League in this outstanding organization. In addition to Sipe and Boswell, the roster of mentors who will be participating includes former NCAA student-athletes from all across the United States.
All three NCAA Divisions are represented on the 16-player squad, as well as eight individual NCAA Division I Conferences, including The Big 10, Ivy League, Middle Atlantic Conference, PAC-12, and the Patriot League.
The players are leading clinics that help engage girls with a certain focus on team-building, skill-building, practice design, and different coaching strategies. Sipe at first did not realize she was going to be playing as well as coaching.
“I thought we were just going there to teach,” Sipe said. “But, the program says we are going to be playing. It will be a little interesting to play in a real game, and training the 80-degree weather will be much different.”
Sipe was a standout midfielder at Division III power Messiah College. In her final two seasons the team went 47-1-1. The Falcons made it to the NCAA Division III final Sipe's junior year and won the national title a year later.
Boswell served as co-captain of the 2008 Bucknell team that finished 11-6-3. She helped Bucknell to a Patriot League Tournament title and an NCAA berth in 2005, as well as back-to-back regular season titles in 2006 and 2007. Boswell was a four-time Patriot League Academic Honor Roll recipient while majoring in electrical engineering. She now teaches math and science while coaching soccer at Vail Mountain School in Vail, Colo.
While playing in the games will be fun, the most important part will be interacting with the girls in Nicaragua.
“To be able to bring something that I love to do, something I do everyday, to these girls means a lot to me.” Sipe said. “To be able to reach young girls is vital. I started when I was 5 or 6, and now it is my job. To be able to start at a young age is so important.”
For more information on Soccer Without Borders and the cultural exchange, visit the SWB website at soccerwithoutborders.org.
