An all-inclusive sports experience

When Troy Memis saw a need for a sports program serving kids with special needs, he created TOPSports of Harrison Township

Around town, Troy Memis is simply known as “Coach.”

The Mullica Hill resident has been a longtime fixture at local sporting events and, more recently, the founder of TOPSports of Harrison Township. The outreach program, modeled after the national TOPSoccer program, is an all-inclusive opportunity for kids with special needs to take part in soccer, baseball, basketball and cheerleading.

“It was pretty incredible right off the bat,” Memis said.

Memis and his wife Michele have four children — Jackie, 31, Troy Jr., 27, Kayla, 18 and JT, 13. JT — or JT-Yo, as he prefers to be called — is a comedian, a dancer and a showoff. And he also happens to have Down syndrome.

Having coached all of his kids, Memis said it got to a point with JT that he was no longer competitive in a typical recreational soccer setting.

“There was no program around here for him,” Memis said, “and I’m not the type of guy who says, ‘Someone should start this.’ So I just started it.”

Memis was aiming for 30 athletes that first year, but after he was continuously told the number was too lofty, he lowered his goal — to 29 athletes.

“Everyone kept saying I was shooting way too high,” Memis said, adding that the state predicts a program such as TOPSports should expect 4–6 participants the first year.

It turned out that everyone — including Memis — was way off the mark.

“The first year we had 48 kids,” Memis said.

This number was thanks to a huge outreach campaign by Memis and his wife, as well as an incredible effort by their daughter Kayla — now a student at Princeton University — to round up the required one-on-one teenage volunteers.

“Kayla said, ‘I’ll get the volunteers and you get the athletes.’ She started recruiting kids from high school and when we had to train volunteers, we had more volunteers than we did athletes,” Memis said. “It was amazing.”

TOPSports just kicked off its fifth season of soccer, and its numbers have only grown. At last count, there were 129 athletes and 150 teenage volunteers. The program is a registered nonprofit with a dedicated board and hardworking volunteer team.

When asked if the growth of TOPSports is a surprise, Memis said it feels that way every week until he steps onto the field.

“And then,” Memis said, “it just feels so right.”

There’s a special kind of community that comes out of inclusion, and thanks in part to Memis, Harrison Township is that type of community. He sees it every day at his Mullica Hill tomato pie restaurant, Holy Tomato Too, where he has seven employees with special needs. He sees it during college breaks, when the phone rings for one of those employees, former classmates and Clearview High School football players calling to see when they can stop by and visit their former equipment manager.

“That’s the kind of community that comes out of kids that are taught early on to care,” Memis said. “To just care.”

Gloucester County Living profiled Troy Memis as part of its Men of Gloucester County 2016 series. To learn more about TOPSports, visit the group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/harrisontownshipTOPSports or at the TOPSports website at http://sports.bluesombrero.com/Default.aspx?tabid=355220.