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CSUDH Soccer Strives to Keep HOPE Alive

The men's team shows the Soccer for Hope kids the Toro sign.
Mission Viejo, CA -- The Cal State Dominguez Hills men's and women's soccer teams took some time out from pre-season double-days yesterday to engage in a different and more meaningful type of assist, traveling to Mission Viejo to volunteer their morning for an up-close-and-personal soccer clinic, benefiting the Soccer for Hope Foundation.
   
Under warm conditions peaking at 94 degrees, head coach Joe Flanagan and assistants Jeff Tuttle, Drew Rea, Amy Livergood and Fawna Waldo split the two Toro squads by gender, and then divided them into groups of three or four to accommodate the clinic, which welcomed nearly 320 kids from around the area.
   
Founded by Oliver Wyss, who played professionally with Flanagan for the LA Salsa after Flanagan finished his playing days in Carson, the Soccer for Hope program was spurred when Wyss was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia in 1997, an extremely rare, non-contagious and often fatal bone marrow failure that strikes both children and adults, and ended Wyss' playing career.  After successfully undergoing a bone marrow transplant he received from his older brother, Wyss became focused on helping others afflicted with life-threatening illnesses and began Soccer for Hope in 1998, which has contributed over $1.5 million to hospitals and foundations nationwide.
   
Since then, both Wyss' children, Hudson and his older sister Abella, were diagnosed with the same extremely rare cancerous brain tumor called Choroid Plexus Carcinoma in 2005, a condition that affects less than a dozen people yearly in the entire United States.  Hudson Wyss passed away on June 16th at the age of 3 years and 9 months, living a total of 1,384 days.
   
“It means the world that a former teammate and friend brings his program every year to support pediatric cancer research,” said Wyss about the Toros.  “Joey understands what it means to give back and his players are really blessed to have him as a coach/mentor!”
   
Soccer For Hope, whose mission is to bring hope to children with life threatening illnesses through financial support while fostering educational benefits and awareness in the local soccer community, has been conducting clinics for 10 years, and has welcomed international soccer superstars such as Mia Hamm as celebrity guest coaches.
   
Joining CSUDH in the summer clinics last week were men's and women's teams from UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, the Loyola Marymount men's squad, as well as Hamm, Joe Max Moore and the entire CHIVAS USA team.
   








(For more information, log on to www.soccerforhope.org)
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