At the start of the academic year, Dheer Jain and Aarez Zaidi, two DP1 students, began their journey of founding and running a football academy– Dribble Dreamers. What started off simply as a way to meet CAS requirements (creativity, activity, service) made mandatory for each DP student, transformed into something so much bigger and better. Dribble Dreamers is a football academy that focuses on providing opportunity to underprivileged kids aged around 6-9, that live around the Ascend campus the chance to learn how to play football and enjoy the fun and beauty of the sport. Dheer and Aarez’s incredible journey from a small CAS idea to a full-fledged football academy is something that they have“had a lot of fun with, and learnt so much from”. But how did they start this academy and how did it come to be?
How did the idea of Dribble Dreamers come to be? What was the thought process?
As mentioned, Dribble Dreamers first started out as a way for Dheer and Aarez to meet certain requirements for CAS. However as– “football is something close to both of our hearts and we both play for the Ascend football team,” deciding to do something in football felt like a no-brainer for the two, “towards the end, it’s come to something we’ve enjoyed every Thursday”, said Aarez. The pair described the experience of running the project as–“What started off as a CAS project is now so much bigger than just that and something we both actively look super forward to”.
From that initial idea, how has Dribble Dreamers transformed, changed and grown? 
Dribble Dreamers initially just started off as the two of them, and from there the scope of the project really grew with the help of Ms Deboleena (the CAS coordinator). “We started off with nine kids and by the end of the second week we had 14 kids, with the majority of them being girls”, said Dheer. Realizing this and seeing the potential scope the project had they realized they needed to expand their team as well. They brought on more people from different grades, different genders, and that helped them create a better project overall. However both Dheer and Aarez believe– “There is a lot more scope for growth in the future, maybe two to three years down the line.”
What were some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced this last year in regards to the academy?
Very early they realized that the kids they were training didn’t come with the right footwear and right clothes, and this impacted how they played. “Some of them used to come in slippers and sandals and jeans and were more prone to slipping and injuries and were not ideal at all to play football”, mentioned Aarez. This made the duo realize this was one of the challenges they would have to address, and this is something they are still working on, through funding and donations. Another thing that proved slightly challenging in the beginning was working with people from such varying backgrounds and also that are much younger than the two 17-year-olds. Dheer described the experience as- “A bit frustrating to get messages across to the kids as we ourselves are teenagers but it helps me to build my own patience.”
How did you go about establishing the academy? What were some of the steps that you took early on?
Dheer and Aarez worked closely with Ms Deboleena, who helped them actually bring the kids to school, communicate with them and get the kids to come on campus and participate in the training. After that first session once the kids were on campus, Aarez described the session as– “Something they enjoyed a lot, and this allowed for the academy to really kick off.” As the weeks went by, the pair and the others on their team, also created close relationships with the kids, which motivated the children to come to campus and learn from them. “The close bonds really helped us to work closely, and allowed them to develop their football skills”, said Aarez, One more thing the partners did to establish the academy on a larger platform was creating an Instagram page (@dribbledreamers_fa) which helped them spread the word of our academy to people of the Ascend community, students, paren
ts, and even other schools in the city.
Has running Dribble Dreamers changed you guys on a personal level?
In the beginning Aarez and Dheer admit that they “were not entirely confident in working closely and training young kids from different backgrounds” as well as “not confident in our teaching abilities, if they would listen to us and follow instructions” However as the months have gone by and through creating close bonds and relationships with all the kids it has really helped the duo and their team to not only be more confident in their ability to teach them, but just making the entire experience more exciting and something they can look forward to as well as the kids. Adding to that empathy has played a big role, putting themselves into the shoes of a nine-year old. Dheer expressed that “sometimes I forget that I was that age as well, and a menace
that too, so whenever I’m attempting to discipline them, it does help to obviously think about that for a second.” Dheer and Aarez claim that it makes them better teachers at the end of the day
What is the most rewarding part of running the academy and coaching?
“It would definitely be seeing the kids in action, and seeing them play football, and communicating with each other and coming to us with questions and doubts”, Aarez mentioned. Evidently the entire experience includes both of them disciplining the kids, instructing them, but the most important thing for Dheer and Aarez is that the kids should have fun. “Seeing them in action, laughing, and smiling is key”, the pair of them noted. Even though they do have to discipline the kids at times, seeing them playing football is so incredibly rewarding. “Seeing the progress that the kids have made since the start, and that it was initially difficult for some of them to simply kick a ball to say the least, to know where we are able to do more complicated drills with relative ease”, it has been super rewarding seeing that day-to-day progress, especially since the early days of the academy.
Lastly, can you describe your favorite memory from running the academy?
In their most recent session Ms Shweta and her 9th grade design class, created football bags for the kids which the 9th graders stitched themselves. In this session the Dribble Dreamers team got the kids to the design lab where the 9th graders gave them the bags which were personalized and made especially for them, with their names, favorite numbers, favorite colors. “Just seeing how happy they were receiving their bags, with different treats like chocolates inside was super fulfilling for both of us to see. The entire session would by far be our favorite session.” Described Aarez. The pair were also thrilled to see other parts of the Ascend community getting involved in what was originally a very small project.
