The Anderson Monarchs

Fifty weeks a year, you can find the 100 girls who make up the Anderson Monarchs soccer club and their volunteer coaches practicing or playing a game at their run-down dirt field at Smith Playground at 24th and Jackson Streets in Point Breeze, a crime and poverty stricken section of South Philadelphia. The Anderson Monarchs are the only all girls, nationally competitive African-American soccer club in the US. Nominated as the 2008 Sports Team of the Year by Sports Illustrated, they have placed five girls in the Olympic Development Program for US Women’s national soccer. Several now attend prestigious Philadelphia schools on academic and sports scholarships. The girls who play soccer for the Anderson Monarchs are deeply committed to creating opportunities for themselves by being active change makers. They see soccer as a way to not only better their lives, but as a powerful way to influence their communities.