From the Plains of Africa to the Hilltop—and Back

Before Lucky Mkosana ’07 travelled to Kimball Union in 2006, he had never seen snow, he had never flown in an airplane, and he had never had the chance to train with state-of-the-art soccer equipment. Now a professional soccer player, Lucky has started a foundation to support young athletes in his hometown in Zimbabwe.
Lucky is from Plumtree, a small town in Zimbabwe. And while all of these new experiences were amazing, it was the people who really impressed him. “It was my first time in America and everyone welcomed me,” Lucky says. “They didn’t know me, but they invited me over for weekends—their arms were open and they wanted me to do well.”
Now a professional soccer player with the New York Cosmos, Lucky had been scouted at age 18 by Jeff Cook, then the soccer coach for Dartmouth College, at a two-day soccer showcase in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Cook recognized something special in the young man, and Lucky soon found himself playing soccer and enrolled in classes at Kimball Union Academy.
The cultural and environmental whiplash could have been tough to overcome, but a love of soccer, a willingness to work incredibly hard, and the support of his teammates, friends, and mentors helped Lucky excel at both his studies and his sport. At Kimball Union, he led the Wildcats to a 16-2-1 record and the New England Class B Championship in 2007, scoring 37 goals.
After graduating from KUA, he went on to earn his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College while being named Ivy League Player of the Year (2011), All-Ivy League First Team (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), Soccer America Freshman, All-America First Team, College Soccer News Freshman, All-America First Team, and Ivy League Rookie of the Year (2008). He was also Dartmouth’s all-time career leader with 34 career goals in 2011, breaking a record that had stood since 1953. After graduating from Dartmouth, he pursued graduate studies at the Real Madrid Graduate School, earning an MBA in Sports Management.
It would be easy for Lucky, now 30 years old, to stay focused on his own goals, but a visit to his hometown in 2015 made him realize there was more he could be doing.

Back to Zimbabwe

When Lucky describes his early soccer days in Plumtree, Zimbabwe, they sound pretty idyllic. “We were always playing soccer. If there was no school, we’d play all morning, come home for lunch, and go back to play more in the afternoon.”
Days full of soccer—sounds great, right? However, there were plenty of challenges, such as the lack of equipment and the struggle to find playing fields that were clear of debris, sadly typical. “There wasn’t the structure that there is in the United States,” says Lucky. “Sometimes, it was even hard to get a ball.”
When Lucky returned to his home country after living in the United States and traveling the world, he realized things hadn’t improved at all for hopeful young soccer players. In fact, things had gotten worse.
“They’re still training on the same fields I trained on,” he says. “And kids don’t play as much—and when they do play, their playing doesn’t get any attention.”
Lucky decided to do something to help the kids from his hometown. In 2015, he registered Bridging Youth Through Soccer (BYS), an academy that provides the soccer-loving kids of Lucky’s hometown with coaching, equipment, mentorship, and a structure that will help kids attend school in the United States. Another thing BYS provides? The message that soccer and education go hand in hand.
In many parts of Zimbabwe, it’s not expected that a child will do both sports and school, and there’s a lot of pressure on kids from their families to follow the path of education, which generally offers a better chance at success. “We work to show families that you can be good in school and in soccer, you have opportunities to do both, you don’t have to choose,” he says. “Just like I discovered I could play and get an education at the same time. There’s nothing to stop you.”
“With BYS, we want to mentor kids, provide assistance, and encourage them,” says Lucky. “We want to show them they can do anything—they can follow their dreams, even if they have more than one dream.”

In the Spirit of Kimball Union

Lucky says that the welcome he received at Kimball Union and the leadership skills that are instilled in every student there planted the seeds for his idea of giving back to the community that supported him when he was a fledgling soccer player—Plumtree, Zimbabwe.
“One thing I began to learn at KUA—it’s not just about you,” says Lucky. “You need to grow that mindset, you need to be willing to help. I learned that from my teachers, my friends, my classmates. That was an incredibly important part of this journey.”
It’s this spirit of leadership that inspired Lucky to ask himself how he could be part of the solution when he was confronted with the problem of disadvantaged children trying to scrabble together a soccer experience on the deteriorating playing fields of Plumtree.
BYS is sponsoring its first tournament as a registered academy this December, which will host six local teams as well as children from the areas surrounding Plumtree town. This is a chance for local soccer players to show their moves, both to their families and community, as well as an opportunity to be selected to train with the BYS academy all year round.
And it’s not just the kids who are looking forward to this one-day event. “Plumtree is a small town, and everyone loves to see people coming to town,” says Lucky. “They are eager to watch the soccer games. They can see that what we are doing is good for the children and that we are devoted to helping the youth of Plumtree.”
There is always the hope that a child who dreams of playing professional soccer will be granted the opportunity to do so. But while this is a definite possibility with BYS, there is something much larger at work with this program. Children of Plumtree, Zimbabwe, are getting the chance to be a part of an organization that springs from the mind of someone who understands them, someone who wanted to be a soccer player, who worked incredibly hard and traveled long distances, and who returned to help the community he left behind. For a young kid looking for a role model, you can’t do much better than Lucky.

Want to help the disadvantaged children of Plumtree? Click to the BYS GoFundMe page to donate funds to cover the costs of their first tournament!

https://www.gofundme.com/bridgingyouththroughsoccerplumtreeu14tournament
Back