Freestyle soccer gurus bring Freeze Out Bullying program to Calgary for first time
Kayden Abel, 19, has played soccer since he was 4 years old, and now practices up to five hours a day. Not only is soccer his passion, but he said the sport got him through some tough times.
“When I was in high school I got bullied quite a bit and it kind of changed my whole aspect on things,” Kayden said. “It made me shy and really self conscious, and freestyle was a way for me to escape the stresses of school and being bullied.”
Kayden said he started experimenting with freestyle soccer after he met soccer stars Steve Elias and Jamie Bruno at a performance at the Calgary Stampede two years ago. Elias and Bruno have travelled all over North America putting on soccer shows that teach kids about bullying.
“In 2007, I was hearing a lot in the news about kids killing themselves and bullying was such a big issue,” Elias said. “I thought that maybe I could use freestyle soccer to create a unique program that would engage children, and at the same time try to convey a positive message. That’s how we ended up creating the Freeze Out Bullying program.”
Partnering with the Calgary Minor Soccer Association, Elias and Bruno have brought their Freeze Out Bullying campaign to Calgary for the first time. Tony Wooster, president of Calgary Minor Soccer, said having an interactive performance, which includes freestyle soccer tricks, contests with the audience and on-stage games with the kids, is a great way to spread an anti-bullying message.
“It’s a good way to help kids recognize some of the things they may not know are actually bullying,” said Wooster. “These guys are really making an impact, and as part of Calgary Minor Soccer, we want to make that impact as well.”
abrooks@cjournal.ca
adrinnan@cjournal.ca
What are other things Calgary could look into to fight against bullying?
Republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
We would love for you to republish our student work!
Just scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site. It's free! We only ask that you follow some simple guidelines when doing so:-
You've gotta credit us. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Calgary Journal.” At the top of the story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by the Calgary Journal.”
-
If you’re republishing online, you must link to the URL of the original story on calgaryjournal.ca.
-
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Abbotsford, B.C.” to “Abbotsford” or “here.”)
-
You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. Please contact managing damclean@mtroyal.ca for more information.
-
Any website our stories appear on must include a prominent way to contact you.
-
If you share the story on social media, we’d appreciate a shout-out @CalgaryJournal (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)
- If we send a request to change or remove Calgary Journal content on your site, you must agree to do so immediately.
This policy was adapted from ProPublica and Wisconsin Watch.
If you have any other questions, contact our managing editor Archie McLean at damclean@mtroyal.ca