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The Boston SCORES story
In Washington DC, teacher Julie Kennedy noticed the girls in her class had no out-of-school activity options.
Kennedy formed a girl’s soccer team at her school, and when they couldn’t play outside, the girl’s wrote poetry about their lives. Soon, the poet-athletes started to create community service projects to address the issues in their neighborhoods that the girl’s wrote about in their poems.
The program quickly grew within Kennedy’s school, then spread across the city through fellow teachers. The program became known as DC SCORES
DC SCORES recieves the first-ever grant from the U.S. Soccer Foundation, which enabled the organization to expand to Boston
Boston SCORES is founded as “New England SCORES“. New England SCORES is one of the first providers to serve Boston Public School students directly on their school sites.
The organization served 6 schools with 180 participants and 24 teacher-coaches.
New England SCORES hosts its first SCORES Cup, then known as the “Corporate Cup” at Boston University.
This tournament featured 12 teams and produced 3 future board members.
Today, SCORES cup is a signature tournament of the SCORES network and is hosted by every SCORES affiliate.
In 2006, New England SCORES expanded programming to include middle school
New England SCORES programming was now in 12 elementary schools, and 6 middle schools (only boy’s teams) with over 430 participants.
In 2009, New England SCORES, now America SCORES New England (ASNE), merged with local organization City Kicks.
City Kicks was a soccer and life-skills organization that served 12 BPS middle schools, but only offered girl’s programming. At this time, ASNE served 12 elementary schools and 6 middle schools, but only offered boys middle school programs.
The two organizations merged in the 08/09 season, and ASNE became one of the largest local school-based afterschool programs in the region serving 880 Youth in 23 schools
In 2015, the Boston SCORES High School program was formalized by AmeriCorps fellow Ethan Goldman
A partnership with South End Soccer (Now Soccer Unity Project) formalized the soccer program, and allowed teams to play in BAYS.
The program gained popularity in 2017, when one the U19 South End Scores teams won MTOC
Today, Boston SCORES has high-school teams based in East Boston and Roxbury with year-round programming. Students playing out of East Boston play under East Boston FC, and students playing out of Roxbury play under One City FC
Boston SCORES begins the “Love to Play” Campaign — a $17.5 million dollar comprehensive campaign launched with a vision of building a world-class recreation and education campus to support our programs.
This campaign would go on to create a new Boston SCORES headquarters and the SCORES Field Complex in East Boston, completed in 2024.
With the opening of the new SCORES field complex following the “Love to Play” campaign, East Boston FC is established by Boston SCORES and starts its first season of programming.
East Boston FC (EBFC) is a branch of Boston SCORES’ community programming that was made possible by the creation of the Boston SCORES Field Complex.
Learn more about East Boston FC here.
As of 2026, Boston SCORES serves nearly 2,000 students ages K-12 annually.
The organization operates in 33 schools across Greater Boston, with support from over 200 coaches in both our school-based and community programs.
Read more about our impact numbers here.
Boston SCORES programs were born out of the desire to close the opportunity gap for students in Boston, with a specific focus on soccer and out-of-school enrichment activities
Soccer is dominated by a “pay to play” model in the United States, requiring considerable financial contributions to cover equipment costs, travel expenses, club fees, and much more.
Play Equity Gaps
Health Equity Gaps
Systemic barriers to joining high-quality teams
At Boston Scores, students not only get to join a free soccer team, but also engage with hands-on curricula in the classroom with their teammates.
Boston SCORES provides 2 types of programming: School-Based and Community Programs
This is our traditional model of programming.
Boston Scores partners with Boston Public Schools and community partners to provide youth in grades K-12 with afterschool soccer and enrichment programs.
Students typically participate in SCORES’ activities 3-5 days per week. This includes:
This is a new form of programming that started after the SCORES field was built in 2024.
These are Boston SCORES powered programs that are open to all youth regardless of what school they attend, and don’t all follow the same “field to classroom” structure as our school-based programs.
As of Spring 2026, these programs include:
We believe young people can help us create a more inclusive, cohesive, just, and united humanity; a society where no one lives in fear because of the color of their skin; a world where intolerance, inequity, and systemic racism do not exist.
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