The Winston Salem Optimist Club has been in existence since 1948.  Over the years they have been involved in many youth activities with the mission of “Bringing Out the Best in Kids”.  Their first soccer season was in the fall of 1975, long before the sport’s popularity grew into what it is today.

With the many leagues and levels of competition today, their success can be traced back to the Optimist Club soccer program.  Daniel Levstek, Program Director for Optimist Youth Sports, says that the program has about 800 kids participating in soccer this season, ranging in ages U4 to U19.  Levstek says the soccer program was started by Mervyn Woodward and Keith Donnely’s dad ( Donnely is the soccer coach at Mt. Tabor High School ).  Shortly after the program started Dave Martin became involved and the program continues to flourish today.  Many of the people associated with soccer today in Winston Salem were at one time involved with the Optimist Soccer program, either as players, coaches, or referees.

The community has been very supportive of  the Optimist program.  Local businesses have stepped up with sponsorships to keep the program active.  Their very first sponsor was Krispy Kreme, followed by Modern Automotive Group.  Soccer Unlimited has also been a long time supporter of Optimist soccer.

The Optimist Soccer games are played at five different venues in Winston Salem, including Shaffner Park, Whitaker Park, Sherwood Park and Hine Park on Saturdays, and Jefferson Middle School during the week.

“It’s all about the kids, we are kids and soccer, not soccer and kids”, said Levstek, “and what I mean about that is, the fun comes first, our goal is that when kids come out here they enjoy the game, they have fun, and at the end of the day they go home and the score doesn’t matter.”

Levstek has been the Program Director for five years and he is very passionate about the young people that participate in all of the Optimist programs.  Besides soccer, the Optimist Club also has a field hockey program, Jr. Optimist Golf, Jay’s Girls program, an Oratorical contest and a Youth Appreciation Banquet.  The Club gives close to twelve thousand dollars back to the community every year.  The majority of that comes from money left over from our soccer and field hockey programs.  “This money goes to fund scholarships to kids, we honor a five hundred dollar scholarship each year to all twelve high schools in our area,” said Levstek.  The Club also provided funds to eighty seven of this year’s kids so that they could participate in the soccer program.

This past Saturday morning TriadSportsCoverage.com stopped by Shaffner Park to catch the action.  With as many as three games going on at once the smiles were plentiful and the kids were having a blast!  So, who won?  How about everyone, the players, the coaches, the referees and the great people from the Optimist Club!