Beyond Borders Athletics celebrates first summer season

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Beyond Borders Athletics hosted their first annual award ceremony and banquet in Front Park Sunday to celebrate its inaugural youth summer soccer season.

The event featured semi-final and championship matches, an All-Stars vs. Coaches game, cultural performances, and more.

Program Coach and Executive Director Aweso Noor said that the event was designed to celebrate those who have supported the initiative's launch.

"Celebrating the kids, the parents, the partners that were able to make our mission possible this past year," Noor said. "We've been able to impact so many kids in just a short timeframe, and we want to, one, give back to the kids and show that we appreciate them for all the hard work they've done, but also all the coaches and mentors have all supported the kids to really make this a really impactful program."

Noor said he was inspired to start the free program to ensure all children have the opportunity to participate in organized sports, which played a pivotal role in his own childhood.

"Growing up, I was very passionate about sports ... and that taught me a lot of skills, life skills, that I'm still using to this day, right? I made a lot of friends along the way, and the program is essentially meant to create those same bonds, those same friendships, those same skills that can easily translate for these kids into their lives as well ... I want to create that same structure for the kids who might not be able to have that same opportunity."

The program initially launched with a tournament in Nov. 2025; Noor said he was hopeful they would get "a couple of kids" to play and ended up with over 150 participants.

"For me, that showed there is a need in our community that needs to be addressed," Noor said.
"Over the last couple months, we've been able to grow that program to over 300 kids."

Noor said that he plans to extend the program year-round.

"We're able to essentially do tournaments whenever the kids are out of school, like Thanksgiving, Spring Break, Winter Break, and we'll continue to keep that same model," Noor said. "We're already planning on the Fall and the Winter sessions being indoors, so the kids can continue playing and developing and continue making those friendships, and then the summertime we'll be doing obviously the summer league and also creating pathways for talented athletes to also have that chance to playing on travel, which we did last year with one team, and hopefully we're hoping to grow that."

More information about the program and how to get involved is available on their Instagram page.

Rachel Ross is a digital producer who joined WIVB in May 2026. Read more of her work at this link.