March 19, 2013
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By Jenna Marina
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF women's soccer head coach Amanda Cromwell recently traveled to Costa Rica as an advocate for soccer in affiliation with the Sports United U.S. Sports Envoy Program.
The program is run through the state department and often sends female ambassadors to emphasize the idea of empowering women and girls through sport around the world. However, boys were not excluded from the clinic sessions through the five-day span.
Cromwell traveled along with former National Team player and UNC goalkeeper Tracy Noonan. They spent the majority of their time in San Jose working in under-privileged communities, but took a day-trip to an elementary school in Limon.
"A lot of what we did was to show them why being involved in sports or any extracurricular activities is a good thing," Cromwell said. "We talked about dreaming big. Don't get comfortable where you are, thinking it's not possible, because it is. I was playing with boys 20-30 years ago. I didn't have great opportunities back then, but things changed a lot. We told them about Title IX. We talked about scholarships. There would be parents in the crowd sometimes and they were amazed - they didn't even know those opportunities exist."
This trip marked the fourth U.S. state department/envoy program that Cromwell has lent her time to. She traveled to Bolivia in 2010, to Germany in 2011 prior to the women's World Cup and Argentina last March. Cromwell started her involvement with the envoys due to her successful past as a former national team player and U-20 National Team assistant coach.