A soccer team made up of 27 children, some who may have never before played on an organized sports team, took to the field for an opening ceremony and first practice at McKechnie School in Vancouver on Saturday.
Team The Blazin' Soccer Dogs (www.soccerdogs.org) was created by soccer mom Abbe Gates after her 11-year-old daughter, Sadie, was excluded from playing by the coach of a league soccer team last September.
Sadie was told she could participate in practices -- but not games - because she has Down syndrome.
Gates decided to start a team in which her daughter could both practise and play.
That team has now grown to more than two dozen special needs children, who were excited to get started on Saturday.
Kerstin Luttich was overwhelmed at the sight of her son Tilman, who has diabetes, making friends after so long without them.
"You can take maybe one year, two years, three years, (but) when you're 11 and still you have no friends, you have no play dates, nothing!" she said. "What do you think? How does that feel? Horrible for everyone."
The team was outfitted and given equipment by local businesses, volunteers and supporters.
"Everybody that has come forward (in support), we have not gone to anybody," Gates told Canada AM on Friday.
"The phone calls, the emails, just giving, everyone donating all the stuff we need," she said. "We're going to become a non-profit organization because we want to carry this on, we want it to grow, we're going to have fundraisers so we can keep it always a non-fee league."
Luttich watched Tilman on the field.
"You see, there he is, that's the first time in his life that he plays soccer," she said.
"You know, you have a boy, you want to see him playing, outside, having friends."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's St.John Alexander
