MANCHESTER — When summer arrives each year, many kids turn to sports to occupy their time and keep themselves out of trouble. For many of Manchester's inner-city youth, however, opportunities for organized sports are limited.

That's where the Inti Soccer Academy comes into play.

A nonprofit started in 2009 by Max Latona and Rodrigo Marion, Inti Soccer Academy not only works with inner-city kids on their on-field skills, but also stresses foundations of life that might be absent at home.

The academy aims to brighten the lives of Manchester's inner-city youth, ages 7-18, by offering free camps and lessons throughout the course of the year, including during this week's camp at Gill Stadium, which will continue to accept newcomers until it concludes on Thursday.

“At least half of the kids are African refugee children. The other half is a mixture of Hispanic kids, Nepalese refugees and children from Iraq and other Arabic nations,” said Latona, an associate professor of philosophy at St. Anselm College. “We started the program because we wanted to provide a soccer opportunity for inner-city kids who don't have anything. We soon realized that we needed a lot of academic help (for the kids), as well.”

That's why Inti also offers academic programs during the school year, focusing on supervised homework sessions, specialized tutoring services, English-as-a-second-language courses and various workshops.

According to the organization's website, the name “inti” is the Incan word for “sun” or, more specifically, for the Incan deity that is the source of light, life, understanding, vitality and growth. The name reflects the fact that Inti Soccer is not just another soccer program, but a program designed to bring light to the darkest, most forgotten corners of the inner-city, and to enable the growth of the mind, body and spirit among Manchester's most disadvantaged youth.

“These kids aren't coming from regular families where the parents are coming to the practices or to the games and keeping track of the schedule and driving their kids,” said Raul Rosa, Inti's president. “A lot of the effort from us is to make sure the kids just show up because they have other, bigger issues to deal with. The kids aren't the easiest, but they have a willingness.”

The camp begins at 8:30 a.m. with breakfast provided by New Hampshire Food Services, continues with three hours of soccer and finishes with lunch around noon.

The three hours of lessons, drills and games might be the best part for the kids, who receive coaching advice and instruction from some of the best that the state has to offer.

Tuesday's session featured a visit from the program's most prominent alumnus, Guy Kabala, an African refugee who last year made two starts for the U.S. Soccer Under-17 team in international competition. About 70 campers were on hand to greet the returning celebrity.

The chair of Inti's Soccer Committee is Jaime Pendleton, the 2011 New Hampshire Soccer Association Girls' Competitive Coach of the Year, and two of the state's biggest soccer-development clubs, traditional rivals Seacoast United of Hampton and the New Hampshire Premier Soccer Academy of Bedford, have teamed up to provide equipment and highly trained coaches.

“It's brilliant to see the diversity and different cultures and put them all out there together,” said NHPSA's director, Dan Trafford. “There's a lot of good talent out there, and a lot of them could easily find themselves playing in college or at a very good level. We just need to give them the foundation and the stability to start from. For us to be able to give the kids the opportunity, that's all that matters for both clubs. That's why we're here, and that's why we do it. It's definitely about them and nobody else.”

Iain Scott, Seacoast United's director of coaching and a veteran of professional coach in his native Scotland, agrees.

“To be honest with you, the organizations mean nothing to me. I'm all about the kids,” Scott said. “I'm more interested in what they get. Whether we're the biggest rivals in the world, which we're not, it's the kids that matter. That's my point: We're here because we're football people.

“The big thing for me is when you link sport and education. I've done programs like this back home in Scotland and England, and you get a remarkable improvement in both, so that's the positive thing for me. These kids are fantastic. They just want to play.”

The Agnes M. Lindsay Trust funded the stadium rental, liability insurance and miscellaneous costs, while additional contributions from St. Anselm, Southern New Hampshire University, the Bean Foundation, the Cogswell Benevolent Trust, the Byrne Foundation, St. Mary's Bank, Stonyfield Farms, developer Dick Anagnost and auto dealer Stephen Singer have made it possible for the program to continue.

The program continues to seek support, with information available on its website, www.intisoccer.org.

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Pat DeCola may be reached at pdecola@unionleader.com.