Soccer balls lie in a bin after fans donated them to 'Kick for Nick' Friday.

UConn fans 'Kick for Nick'

Fans donate 1,000 soccer balls in honor of fallen soldier

By: Marc Gauthier

Posted: 10/6/08

There were all sorts of strange sights around Morrone Stadium Friday night.

Laminated white signs, displayed with the bold lettering of the words "Tickets Sold Out," were posted at all the ticket booths. There were the Fox Soccer Channel television cameras. The temporary bleachers set up across the main stands were used for the first time this season and crammed with people.

After 90 minutes of play, the zero under UConn and the one under West Virginia seemed to throw the entire scoreboard off balance.

But the most unbelievable sight wasn't on the field before, during or after the game. It was sitting outside the Mark Freitas Ice forum.

A large blue dumpster, covered with a "Kick for Nick" banner, was chock-full of new and used soccer balls.

Throughout the night, fans from all over the state came to donate their soccer balls to the Kick for Nick foundation, a Connecticut-based, non-profit organization that was started in memory of Nick Madaras.

Madaras, of Wilton, was serving overseas in the U.S. Army and asked his family to send soccer balls to him so he could distribute them to children in Iraq. Before he was able to fulfill his goal, Madaras was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in September 2006.

In memory of Madaras, the Kick for Nick organization has been collecting soccer balls for the past two years and sending them to children in Iraq. Before Friday's game, over 9,000 soccer balls had been donated and shipped to Iraq.

Friday night, UConn fans donated over 1,000 soccer balls.

"It's great just to show the support from the kinds of people we have in Storrs," said captain O'Brian White. "They definitely know it's for a cause and they came out, not just to the game, but also to support Nick. It's a really good feeling playing for a good cause."

People from all over the state found out about the men's soccer partnership with Kick for Nick through all sorts of venues. The Goal Patrol, UConn's student fan support group, sent its members a link to ESPN SportsCenter's special feature on Madaras and the Kick for Nick. Some fans read about it in the Hartford Courant. Other local fans heard about it by word of mouth.

Peter Leeds of Willimantic, has been the president of the Willimantic-Columbia Soccer Alliance for the past five years. Every year, Leeds and the Soccer Alliance put on a youth tournament in Willimantic. At 18 years, it's the longest running youth tournament in the state and every year the alliance needs to buy new soccer balls to supply at the tournament. This was the year that Leeds thought he had too many soccer balls.

"We've been building an inventory," Leeds said. "And we wanted to get rid of some of them so we thought this was the way to do it."

Friday night, Leeds' friend, and Willimantic-Columbia Soccer Alliance coaching coordinator, Sebby Randazzo drove his forest green pick-up truck to the front of the Kick for Nick dumpster. He jumped out and gathered his youth soccer players around the truck. After a quick team photo, Leeds, Sebby and about 15 kids started unloading over 150 soccer balls out of the truck.

"[The kids] are helping other people out," Leeds said. "They know what they're doing. They know it's patriotic and it's just good for the world."

Leeds turned to one of his soccer players and asked the 9-year old boy if he knew what he was doing with the soccer balls. The young boy knew who he was helping.

At halftime on Friday, Madaras' family, joined by 36 U.S. Army soldiers, was honored in front of 4,409 fans at Morrone Stadium.

At the end of the night, it didn't matter that the Huskies had lost to West Virginia. In the spirit of coming together for a great cause, everybody left Morrone Stadium a winner.

"His passion, even though he was in the army, was soccer and he tried to help little kids," White said. "To play in his memory and to play in this game was big, and not just for the game, but also for Nick."