{"id":580801,"date":"2026-04-04T02:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580801\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T02:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:17:11","slug":"nonprofits-soccer-tournament-for-underserved-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/580801\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit’s soccer tournament for underserved players"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENMORE, N.Y. (WKBW) \u2014 Beyond Borders Athletics, a nonprofit in Buffalo, is breaking down financial barriers for soccer players in Western New York, making a habit of hosting free tournaments for underserved players.<\/p>\n

Participating in an organized tournament is not a typical experience for everyone, mainly because joining a club team or a tournament could cost families thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

\"1.jpgBeyond<\/p>\n

WKBW<\/p>\n

\u201cMany times, people, we can\u2019t play in tournaments. Many people don\u2019t have the money, and many people can\u2019t join the big clubs,” 17-year-old Suraj Tamang said.<\/p>\n

Aweso Noor, a former Kenyan refugee who moved to Buffalo in 2004 and has since turned into a Bennett High School soccer coach, is looking to give out opportunities to play soccer through his nonprofit, Beyond Borders Athletics.<\/p>\n

\"Beyond<\/p>\n

WKBW<\/p>\n

Friday, Noor organized a free, two-day soccer tournament for 180 kids from across the area. He says many of the kids are from refugee and inner\u2011city families. <\/p>\n

“It is free for all the kids,” Noor said. “I\u2019ve always wanted to give back to my community, because there\u2019s so much talent here.”<\/p>\n

Noor grouped the participants into teams randomly, intentionally forcing them to play with other kids they had just met.<\/p>\n

\"Beyond<\/p>\n

WKBW<\/p>\n

“I love that format, because the kids get to meet so many new people,” Noor said.<\/p>\n

“You get here, you know nobody, we just know each other through soccer,” 16-year-old Mihotho Abdias said. “Yeah, during the high school soccer season, some of [my friends] are here, and there are new ones I\u2019m making friends with because we played on the same team.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We wouldn\u2019t have a tournament like this around. Everybody would just be at home. I\u2019m very excited and very happy Coach Aweso would put this together,” 16-year-old David Mwenda said. “This is like family. We all just come and play and have fun.”<\/p>\n

Noor tells me he hopes to have a minimum of two of these tournaments every year. Friday\u2019s was just the second he\u2019s ever hosted.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in signing your kids up, you\u2019ll find information on the Beyond Borders Athletics website<\/a> or by emailing Noor at beyondbordersathletics1@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KENMORE, N.Y. (WKBW) \u2014 Beyond Borders Athletics, a nonprofit in Buffalo, is breaking down financial barriers for soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[222382,13270,49,48,3872,42380,69319,561,82,1457],"class_list":{"0":"post-580801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-beyond-borders-athletics","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-free","13":"tag-high-school","14":"tag-nonprofit","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tournament"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}