WHY TRENTON, WHY SOCCER,
WHY NONPROFIT

Community Activism

The founders of the Trenton Makes Athletic Center, Chester and Jazmyn Jones teamed up with community activists who recognized the need for space where competitive soccer is played in the Capital City of Trenton, NJ. As the shift in immigrant families migrate from South America and Latino countries across the world to Trenton New Jersey, the sport of soccer and places to play it becomes a necessity. Most of the historic baseball fields, tennis and basketball courts have been overrun by pick up soccer games and Futsal. As the cities recreations department continues to struggle to disperse what little funds they have for the local basketball, flag football, and tennis programs, soccer is left up to the Trenton YMCA and the Boys Club of America, and the Living Hope Church soccer program that runs for a month during the summer each year.

There is, however, a travel soccer team out of Trenton with a mission to offer the inner-city children with an opportunity to play competitively throughout New Jersey called the Glenn Myernick Foundation or “Mooch Soccer” (moochsoccer.org). Jazmyn and Chester coached the “Mooch” travel soccer team for 3 years while their son Chazz Jones played as a striker. This is a wonderful program and has yielded several successful soccer players from Trenton, however much more is needed. Since Trenton doesn’t have designated soccer fields, the Mooch Soccer home club is located in Robbinsville NJ, and their home games and practices are held at the Community Park in Robbinsville Township. 

Chazz Jones has grown to become a premier player on the “Mooch” travel soccer team and was eager to accomplish more, so they paid for his training sessions with the RedBulls RDS program, and the Olympic Development Program “ODP” which were not cheap. Chazz is now a starting senior player for Trenton Catholic Academy “Iron Mikes” located in Hamilton Township and a leading member of the elite MatchFit ECNL soccer club. Chazz is also getting good grades in school and has his eyes on several college recruitment opportunities. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Chazz’s former Mooch soccer teammates who were unable to afford the specialty training that Chazz received.

Creating an indoor sports facility in Trenton as a non-profit allows the ability to offer free quality sports training to youth 6 -17, provide daily exercise to senior residents, and it also, enables the community to utilize a safe recreational space all year round. The facility also becomes an economic engine for the city when sports tournaments are held and invited teams from all over come to visit, shop in the local stores, eat in the local restaurants, and stay in the local hotel.

The overall mission of the TMA Center is to create a pathway to success for Trenton’s youth through sports, education, and community. Essentially, the founders believe that developing more of Trenton's youth into student-athletes is the key to an enriched city, they also believe that creating a safe space for youth to develop life skills that are necessary and apparent in today’s society is paramount.