KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — One Knox Collective's TOPSoccer program provided the opportunity for children with special needs to play "Adaptive Soccer."
For two hours children with special needs, their families and more joined together to play soccer.
"What do you love about it?" asked Katie Gleason to her son Sawyer. "That I get to run around and play with my teammates," Sawyer said.
Sawyer is just one of many kids who showed off their soccer skills.
"It's super fun, especially like seeing Sawyer score goals. It's just always happy," Dawson Roufs, a soccer player who attended, said.
The importance of events like these is felt by the families who participated.
"It's important for other kids to be around people with disabilities. I think it's good for the for the whole community," Gleason said.
Children smiled as they played with their friends and put the ball in the back of the net.
"The smiles on the kids' faces, the smiles that you see on their face that the amount they're kicking the ball and just enjoying it," Victoria Weinhandl, Girls Associate director of coaching said.
Weinhandle said events like these remind her of the impact soccer can have on people.
"For me, it's everything," she said. "I actually have a nephew in St. Louis who is autistic. So it really touches my heart to be able to give these kids something to play, somewhere to go, something to do, something just for them."
The families of the kids involved recognized the importance of adaptive soccer.
"It's just really awesome to see them, to get to experience something that so many kids get to do all the time, to be fully included and accepted," Gleason said. "It means the world to us."
One Knox Collective is planning to host a six-week course in the spring next year.