Mesquite coach launches Camp Wrangler to teach soccer to students with special needs
MESQUITE – Faith, family and football are words to live by in Mesquite. But one soccer coach decided to put his own twist on the mantra when he started a camp to teach the game he loves to students with special needs.
"I see some of these kids in the hallway at West, and they'll be like, 'Coach, when's camp?' and I'm like, 'It's coming,'" said River David, the founder of Camp Wrangler.
This isn't your average fall soccer camp. Welcome to Camp Wrangler.
"I was sitting on the couch with my wife, we were watching a documentary on the Special Olympics, and by the end of it I just kind of had this hunch, like why not us? Why can't we do something like that in our community?" said David.
David was an assistant coach for the West Mesquite soccer team, but he decided he wanted to do more.
"My great-grandma actually ran a home, a center for kids with special needs and abilities, and adults as well. And I just felt like a calling to do what I can in my community," he said.
So, last year, he started Camp Wrangler, a soccer camp for kids in the special education program in Mesquite ISD.
"A lot of these kids don't get the opportunity to play team sports, and as a coach, I just know what this game has done for me and I wanted to give them the opportunity as well to make friends and make memories that will last them a lifetime," said David.
Kids like Dakota Foster, who you could say is just here for the vibes.
"I like to make friends and make buddies, man," he said.
David recruited his players, like Angel Sanchez, to help run the camp.
"These kids need an opportunity to feel the happiness and the pure joy that comes with the sport," said Sanchez.
It's an opportunity for them to learn about giving back, but it's a bigger opportunity to just make some kids smile. And today, there was no shortage of big smiles and big cheers.
Coach David hopes that Camp Wrangler will continue to grow and eventually include more than Mesquite ISD, opening up to the whole metroplex.