NorthStar Soccer Ministries

Helping Youth Find their Direction

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At NorthStar Soccer Ministries, we are passionate about using soccer as a platform to inspire and uplift youth. Our dedicated staff and volunteers find joy in teaching the game, especially to children who might not otherwise have access to organized sports. For many of these young athletes, opportunities to participate in competitive sports—particularly those involving travel and regional competition—are limited. Beyond the game itself, our mission is to shape lives through mentorship, skill development, and the cultivation of self-confidence and social growth within a team environment.

Our Story

NorthStar Soccer Ministries was founded by Paul Neville in 1996 under its initial name, Neighborhood Network. Paul's original vision for the ministry was to help cultivate a wide range of resources for the development of a concentrated geographic area - the Smithfield Community of the city of Birmingham (in which Paul lives). However, Paul quickly realized that youth development was the area in which he and the organization were best equipped for impact.

With this in mind, Neighborhood Network began its mission of reaching out the the local community offering scouting programs, sports teams and a summer learning program called Camp NorthStar. With Camp NorthStar becoming a growing success, a new program name was adopted in 2001 to reflect its change in focus, NorthStar Youth Ministries. At this time, the scouting program, sports teams, and Camp NorthStar were all managed by a full time staff of one, temporary summer staff and many volunteers.

In 2002 the NorthStar began to see a rising interest in soccer among the youth in the program. So, NorthStar Soccer Club was formed as a program of the ministry. Other sports were dropped and NorthStar began entering teams into the regional league. In 2008 NorthStar received a large grant to further develop the Soccer Club program. With this, former Samford University soccer player Val Kikkert was recruited to develop the program. Val officially became the Soccer Club Director in August 2009. Under her leadership the Club grew from 65 kids participating to 150. From 2009 - 2015 NorthStar programs included: NorthStar Soccer, Camp NorthStar and various after-school programs.

In 2014, as program growth continued, NorthStar was invited to bring soccer to Cornerstone School. This led to a partnership with the Woodlawn Community for NorthStar to use the soccer fields at Cornerstone School in the fall of 2015. This partnership grew soccer participation to 240 youth with 10 teams playing in the Central Alabama Soccer League and 10 more teams of U6-U8 intramural players. Through the program we have had several former NorthStar players go on to play on State League (competitive/"traveling") teams with other Clubs. In January 2016, NorthStar re-directed its path to become strictly focused on a soccer ministry. Thus, we changed our name to NorthStar Soccer Ministries.

In January 2018 NorthStar began providing practices after school at Hemphill Elementary School in the West End neighborhood of Birmingham. At that time NorthStar established the NorthStar Intramural League for U6, U8, U10 and U12 teams from our three practice locations - East side at Cornerstone Field (Woodlawn Community of Birmingham), West side at Legion Field Stadium (Smithfield Community of Birmingham) and Hemphill Elementary School in the West End neighborhood. In January 2019 Holy Rosary Soccer (Gate City Neighborhood of Birmingham) became a program partner with teams participating in the NorthStar Intramural League.

Dedicated players from the Intramural program are invited to participate on NorthStar Travel Teams which compete in either Central Alabama Soccer League or Division State League with the Alabama Soccer Association (depending on the skill level of the team).

As NorthStar looks to the future, we hope to continue to grow our program and harbor a place where the local youth comes to learn about soccer, grow spiritually, and seek out life mentors in our wonderful volunteers.

Our Logo

The meaning behind our logo is very intentional at NorthStar Soccer Ministries. We incorporated 7 stars and an arrow pointing up. This is in reference to the constellations around the North Star. If you look into the sky and find the Big Dipper (made up of 7 stars total) you can go directly up from that and find the North Star. We intentionally left the NorthStar Star off of our logo. You might think that is strange but there is a very intentional reason. We, as an organization, strive to provide life skills, character development, and lasting opportunities. We cannot find their “NorthStar” for them, but we can lead them down the right path.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” - Proverbs 22.6

Our Mission

The mission of NorthStar Soccer Ministries is to invest in the lives of urban youth in Birmingham by offering a high-quality soccer club within a holistic, Christ-centered environment. We also seek to engage the broader community and local businesses, creating meaningful opportunities for partnership in our shared commitment to enriching the lives of these young individuals.

We believe every child matters.

NorthStar Staff

Paul Neville

Founder & Executive Director

NorthStar's founder Paul, has been committed to the ministry sice 1996. He loves working with kids and is committed to participating in revitalization of the Smithfield Community in western Birmingham. Paul has a BA from Auburn University, a MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and an MPPM from Birmingham-Southern College. Paul & his wife Jocelyn have lived in the Smithfield Community since 1993. They have 3 children.

Paul grew up in Birmingham and never played a lick of soccer but has come to love the game and - most of all - the opportunities through the game to positively impact the lives of youth in Birmingham!

For more on Paul Neville go to his personal website & check out the blog contained there.

Harrison Neville

Operations Director

Harrison is the Operations Director for NorthStar as well as the head coach for the u14 boys team. In addition to his work with NorthStar, Harrison is the editor in chief and founder of The Sunrise News, an online newspaper dedicated to serving Alabama with honest and informative news. He also serves as the communications director for The Montevallo Legacy Project, a non-profit dedicated to preserving local history and stories that might otherwise be forgotten. When Harrison isn't working, you can probably find him hiking, playing games with friends or sitting outside reading.

Cora Dickinson

Marketing Director

Cora is originally from Huntsville, AL and played soccer throughout her middle school and high school education. Cora moved to Birmingham to pursue a degree in Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and found out about NorthStar through her church where she began volunteering. Now operating as a full time employee, Cora works as the Marketing Director as well as the Program Director. In her spare time, she coaches the U14 ASL Boys team at NorthStar. She is passionate about building relationships with our players and teaching them about loving the Lord and loving the sport of soccer.

Michelle Chambers

Registrar

Part-time staff since 2015, Michelle operates as the Club registrar and Parent Coordinator at NorthStar. Michelle got to know NorthStar through her two daughters playing soccer with the organization. Michelle has a BS from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Master of Science also from UAB. Michelle works at UAB as a Clinical Research Professional. Michelle lives with her two daughters on the West side of Birmingham.