Many folks often talk about youth sports and the life lessons they can teach. This story about a young soccer team in Washington state is a wonderful example of that. Here is a great story about a group of young soccer players raising money to help the mother of a teammate:

It didn’t take much to convince Federico Rubiolo to help teammate Alex Appel’s mother who was diagnosed with leukemia. “Alex is one of my good friends, and I just don’t like cancer,” said Federico, a fifth-grader at Endeavour Elementary School. “The less people that have it, the better.”

Federico and Alex’s team, the Arsenal Blue 97, has been together for 11 months. On Feb. 15, they won the Washington Youth Soccer Commissioner’s Cup tournament with a 4-0 victory over a team from Tacoma.

Dawn Appel, of Issaquah, was diagnosed with leukemia in September 2007. Since, she’s undergone chemotherapy, sinus surgery and fought a blood clot in her brain, according to the National Foundation for Transplants’ Web site.

Appel underwent a bone marrow transplant in January at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and now the team is trying to raise an estimated $75,000 to help the family with the costs. “It really is a true team effort to help pay down the costs,” said Michelle Giovanola, a team parent. The team is hosting a series of fund-raisers to benefit the Appel family.

We’ve had some recent discussions within our league about teams donating a portion of their raised funds to the league’s financial aid fund. A small but noble gesture. What these kids are doing? That’s fantastic stuff. H/T National Foundation for Transplants (@NFT)