A special partnership in Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls Special Olympics soccer coaches Vanessa Coens and Craig Inglis present Niagara United president Vince Chieca an award honouring the club’s support of the program.
It was challenging for many years but Vanessa Coens was able to find programs and recreational activities for her autistic son Owen.
All that changed when he was nine or 10.
“I was his coach and we noticed that he wasn’t super competitive and that’s around the age where kids are really getting competitive,” Coens said. “He wasn’t really like that and he wanted to just go out there and have fun. When I decided that typical sports weren’t really the best option for him, I started looking around the region.”
Other cities in Niagara, such as Welland and St. Catharines, had Special Olympics programs offering a wide variety of sports but all that was available in Niagara Falls at the time was bowling and there were no summer options.
“I grew up playing soccer in Thorold and appreciate how accessible and versatile this sport can be,” she said. “Niagara Falls is our city and I thought we should have an option here. That’s when the wheels started turning about what I could get to come to Niagara Falls as a sport through Special Olympics. Special Olympics was very excited for us to have a soccer team and since I had a background in soccer, that was the sport I picked.”
With that in mind, she approached one of her son’s teachers, Mike Folino, who had a long-time connection with soccer and was involved with the Niagara United Soccer Club.
“Sometimes, you realize as a parent, that if you want something done, sometimes, you must do it yourself. As I explained to Mike, my dream of developing a soccer program with the Special Olympics in Niagara Falls, the idea came of approaching Niagara United Soccer Club. With his assistance, and introduction to club president Vince Chieca, this dream was closer.”
With the help of two other founding coaches, Ildy Peterdy and Megan Koabel, the dream became a reality in 2017 when Special Olympics, Chieca and Niagara United’s board approved the first-ever partnership with the Special Olympics and a soccer club.
“We met with the board of directors and everyone was wondering if it was going to work,” she said.
Seven years later, the team, now coached by Coens, Craig Inglis, Jim Charlton and Eric Edwardson, has grown to 22-24 athletes from 11, including players who have been with the team since Day 1. Players come from all across Niagara and team members range in age to 46 from six or seven.
“It is a beautiful program and we keep growing every year,” Coens said. “The team has always been fortunate with a wide range of ages, and all abilities and skills, from young youth all the way to adulthood. Unlike most other Special Olympic teams, Niagara United Soccer Club provides us with a beautiful field yearly to practice on weekly, as well as soccer balls, and a full uniform for every athlete on the team.”
The squad, which is always looking for new athletes, begins practising at Niagara United the long weekend in May and trains every Sunday at 10 a.m. for an hour starting with drills and ending with a fun scrimmage.
“This is actually going to be our biggest season yet in seven years,” she said. “We are going to be travelling which is really big for our team. Not only will we be playing West Niagara twice this year, we have travelled to Burlington already where we were undefeated in that tournament and then we will be going to Milton and Peterborough.”
The Milton tournament will be a provincial qualifier and Niagara Falls will be playing in it for the first time.
“The motivation was that it was time. We have been hearing from the athletes and the caregivers that they really look forward to the games and as much as we try and get more locally, it’s hard and peoples’ schedules don’t align,” Coens said. “We thought we would try it this year. We have such a great team with mixed ages and mixed abilities and they just deserve it.”
Gazing into her crystal ball, she sees a great future ahead for the program.
“I think in this life you are very, very grateful for what you have but if you had asked me seven years ago where we would be, I didn’t know if we would be here. This is my life, these kids. If I could gaze into a crystal ball, I would say it gets bigger and we have more teams.”
The squad operates as a D team and Coens would love to see Niagara Falls continue to offer that as well as a higher level C team.
“Hopefully, if time allows, we can start doing this in other sports too and we can find more partnerships as amazing as Niagara United.”
The team also has a sponsorship from Betty’s Restaurant. Owners Joe and Bernadette Miszk continue to support the team in memory of their daughter Julianne.
“The fact that they keep sponsoring our team because of her is beautiful as is the relationship with Niagara United. We don’t pay for anything and they want us involved in the club,” Coens said. “They are very, very good to us.”
Recently, Special Olympics Ontario had a volunteer appreciation event held at the Niagara United Club House and Special Olympics presented Chieca and Niagara United with an award recognizing their support for the soccer team.
Ontario Special Olympics program coordinator Pratima Bhatt was in attendance at the awards presentation and spoke glowingly of the club and its support of the soccer team.
“It’s been seven years since Special Olympics Ontario first approached Niagara United Soccer, and it has been a wonderful association and journey,” she said. “As you know, Special Olympics is dedicated to enriching the lives of people with an intellectual disability through sports. I cannot stress enough how important your support helped in ensuring the success of Special Olympics. Niagara United’s support and involvement gave athletes the opportunity to learn soccer sports skills and participate in many tournaments. All of it would not have been possible with Niagara United’s support, the use of its facility, the purchase of uniforms and the support of Niagara United’s coaches. The patronage that you have continued to give over the past years has enabled Special Olympics to provide sports training and competition for people with an intellectual disability in Niagara Falls. More importantly, it provides our athletes with the support and encouragement to adapt and feel a sense of belonging, allowing them to live a fuller and more integrated life.Thank you for advocating and cultivating inclusion.”
It was a no brainer for Chieca to bring the proposal forward to Niagara United’s board and to the Niagara District because it was something new that no other club in Niagara had done before.
“We wanted to give these kids a chance to play. They had no place to play and that’s why they came to us. They were paying for fields in other cities and they didn’t have uniforms and equipment.”
The decision to help out was keeping with Niagara United’s tradition of being a community booster. Among it’s benevolent activities, the club: hands out bursaries called the Elizabeth Dempsey Award to high school students entering post-secondary education who have been a Niagara United members, including four bursaries in 2024; and contributes to the Niagara Falls Soup Kitchen.
“We are the largest club in the district and we are giving back to the community because we have been so fortunate,” Chieca said.
The partnership has been a perfect fit for the club.
“Just last week we had an autistic child in our house league and his mother came in the office and withdrew him from the program because he couldn’t play with the other kids, he couldn’t do what the other kids were doing and he was isolated,” he said. “We gave them Vanessa’s number to call and told them they could be on another team. I believe he went out to his first practice last week.”
