KC Cyclones Youth Project
Nurturing a community of young refugees in the Kansas City area through the world's most popular sport - soccer.
KC Cyclones Youth Project sets out to foster an inclusive community and develop leadership and interpersonal skills for the refugee community in Wyandotte County, KS through participation in a team sport that they know and love - soccer.
The refugee children come from a variety of backgrounds, including Honduras, Guatemala, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and the Congo, but they all share the love of the game.
Our Story
KC Cyclones is a futsal club (five-a-side soccer) in Kansas City. Now registered as a 501 c 3 with the IRS EIN 83-2159432. The team and club have a commitment to disadvantaged youth. Club leaders, Coach Henrique Pinto and Coach Jeff Wells had hosted several free clinics over the years but a breakthrough came in the summer of 2018 when High School coach Josh Wikler approached the KC Cyclones to offer a clinic to his girls team.
KC Cyclones player Oscar Carenza and Jeff Wells led a session at JC Harmon school in August. It was a roaring success; and the girls asked for another class. But the girls told us that they lived close to Wyandotte High School and since they didn’t have transport, they requested a clinic on the school court so that they could walk to the training.
As a result, we held another clinic, this time at Wyandotte High School.
There were a dozen boys already playing on the courts. Rather than clearing them to one side, Coach Jeff asked if they’d all like to do some futsal skills. At the end of the clinic, a ten year old boy, Oscar Meija asked for another session. How about tomorrow?
After a couple more sessions, the kids told us that they’d love to play on a real team.
It would have been easy to say no. These kids are refugees who don’t have shoes, transport or money. But we know that a lot of people in the broader community want to help, so we took a leap of faith and entered the boys into the KC Futsal League 2018-2019 season. We know it’s not just soccer. It’s so much more.
Over the winter the team won the KC Futsal Red Division which was an amazing experience. Then in the Spring we entered them into an outdoor league run by KC Kansas City. The team got second place.
We discovered that the team is good and the players have great character. But we also had a very difficult time getting them to games because none of them have transport. It's a huge issue since public transport is so poor in the area. We also discovered that there is so much demand- we need more coaches. We can easily form more teams and help open the gateways for these young people as they navigate their new lives in the United States.
Meet Coach Jeff Wells
Coach Jeff learned and played soccer in England and moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1994. By the late 1990s he began to coach his son and daughter in various recreational and competitive leagues.
Always believing that the Brazilians had the most attractive and wonderful style, he discovered one of the keys to their long term success is futsal. Jeff was introduced to the five-a-side game by an experienced Brazilian-American futsal specialist- Tony Ziller.
By 2004, Jeff and Tony coached a boys team to become the Midwest Futsal Champions. Jeff then coached them in the US Futsal Federation Nationals where they finished as runners up. In 2005, the boys won the u16 national title.
However, it wasn’t the victories of the boys so much as the sheer joy of seeing players of all abilities, boys and girls, playing futsal that inspired Jeff to become such an advocate for futsal.
In 2013, Jeff moved to Kansas City and helped Aaron Weissenfluh, another futsal aficionado, form the first u14 girls soccer team for FC Kansas City - the youth affiliate of the National Women's Professional Soccer Team. In 2016, Jeff and Henrique Pinto coached the u15 FC Kansas City girls to national futsal finalists.
In 2014, via FC Kansas City, Jeff met US national futsal team player Henrique Pinto. Henrique and Jose Pires started the KC Cyclones men’s futsal team with support from Aaron.
Jeff has been given the opportunity to travel the world to enhance his coaching career. Jeff has traveled to Brazil - EC Cruzeiro - to observe directly how a top club operates both with soccer and futsal. And last year, Southampton FC allowed Jeff to attend a full week of youth training and close observation. Southampton is one of the top youth academies in the world producing such outstanding talents as Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale, Liverpool’s Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Manchester United’s Luke Shaw.
Jeff holds various US coaching licenses and certificates and is a proud member of United Soccer Coaches.
How Can You Help?
We would love your support. Learn more about the different ways to donate below.
Shoe Donation
The team is playing futsal on a hard basketball surface and the boys, as you can see have very poor shoes. Holes in the tops, and the soles make the game a bit too challenging. What sizes, you ask- just about any increment from 4.5 to 10.5. The first priority is futsal or indoor soccer shoes. Gently used is great.
Funding
We have bought second hand uniforms- numbered shirts, shorts and new socks. We've figured out how to get to our matches by cramming into three cars. But medium term, we would like to get a minibus. The vehicle would open up the world for the boys in a City with extremely poor public transport. We ae are now a 501 c 3. Donations are tax deductible.
Meet The Board
Luis Henrique Pinto
President
Pinto, as he is known to all, moved from Brazil to Kansas City as a teenager. He played briefly for local colleges and was then able to move on to become a professional player in the US, Canada, Italy and Thailand. In 2015, he founded the KC Cyclones as player coach. In 2019, he was able to lead the mens team to the national PASL championship final. Pinto played for the US in world mini-football alongside Landon Donovan, and represented the US in Argentina last year. He is in the current US national futsal squad hoping to qualify for the US Futsal World Cup.
Jeff Wells
Treasurer
Jeff has been involved in youth soccer in the US since the late 1990s. He started coaching in St Louis and obtained his United States Soccer Federation national D coaching license there. He also has various NSCAA and USC educational diplomas and certificates including Futsal, Small-Sided Soccer, and Urban Soccer.
His boys and girls futsal teams have won national championships in Anaheim and Kansas City and appeared as national runners-up in USFF and USYF competitions.
In St Louis, Coach Jeff was a founder Board Member of MetroStrikers and was Treasurer when they broke ground on the soccer fields that are now the amazing Lou Fusz Creve Coeur Complex. Jeff was part of the Advisory Board to Metro Strikers when they merged with Lou Fusz in order to properly develop the potential of the facility.
Moving to KC in 2013, Jeff helped start the first FC Kansas City u14 girls team with Aaron Weissenfluh. It was this team that Jeff Wells and Henrique Pinto coached to the futsal national final in 2015.
Jeff is now dedicated to helping youth players who cannot afford to participate in the pay-to-play system. He coaches and runs the KC Cyclones Athletics Foundation as the Treasurer.
Hugo Valiente
Secretary
Hugo is a local Olathe businessman who originally coached Pinto when he was a teenager. They have always kept in touch. Hugo owns and runs the OSA- Olathe Soccer Association. The KC Cyclones were able to use their facilities in 2018-2019 in their inaugural season in the PASL.
Hugo is originally from Paraguay and has always loved sport, especially soccer.
“I learned all about life with a ball at my feet”
Ronaldinho
