It's a Full Roster Fall after a Successful Summer

The #Beyond Resilient Girls Project has launched! Thanks to the Center for Healing & Justice through Sport, our 10-week ‘Beyond’ Resilient Girls guide allows our Coach Mentors to learn about social and emotional development and incorporate activities into portions of practice. The first curriculum round was created after a major time investment to assess best practices after player and family feedback.

Thanks to a 5-year partnership with Good Sports, our in-city league now benefits from complete uniform kits with individual logos on both the jerseys and the shorts! We all know how important that is to a first-time player. To top it all off, FUSE parent Fifa volunteered to properly outfit and logo all that donated gear. Yes, more than 1,000 jerseys. It lowers costs and promotes our #teameffort approach.

So far, 400 youth and growing are playing soccer weekly with us after school and over the weekends. These teams and leagues are all being led by a group of committed former players or Lawrence residents as Coach Mentors, like Issandel (center above) with his Grade 6 Rebels. The only exception is Soccer Director Chris, who leads the Wolverines squad, and a whole lot more! But we all know that Chris is all-in for all things Lawrence.

It's fall and that means our first PACER test has been administered. Here are the Wolverines at the beautiful Pavilion at Riverwalk Field getting their baseline scores. Our partnerships with Boston Children’s Hospital #FitKIT and New Balance Foundation allow us to track and analyze players' ‘healthy fitness zone' —to ensure all the exercise we provide helps them improve, reach, or surpass their ideal fitness zones.

Our Summertime Enrichment efforts started with our first Sport & Wellness Academy in 2009. That resulted in the genesis of our leadership through sports focus, where some of our oldest players were trained to lead that camp for younger kids. It was an obvious hit, filling an out-of-school time void while also elevating the confidence of so many teenagers.

They quickly became positive mentors to so many from their former middle and elementary schools. This summer was no different, but those connections have been elevated. Now, 28 Coach Mentors were trained and compensated, with 89% being former players from Lawrence! When we include the Jr. Coaches who volunteered so they could get their chance to lead, 41 teens and young adults made a lot of lives better. Here are highlights to prove it!

This video was created by Summer Coach Mentor Andy Guzman, a Lawrence High School graduate who is off to a great start at Boston College this fall.

We supported a 76% year-over-year increase in nighttime play (132.5 more hrs) from last summer and a 163% increase from summer 2022!

Thanks to the Department of Conservation & Recreation and other great summer partners, we offered multiple programs simultaneously at different locations. That priority particularly benefited parents, who had more options for their children. Just as significantly, high schoolers, a group needing more positive activity, connection, and mentorship in the evening hours, benefited from play every weeknight.

Former player and Sr. Coach Mentor Declan Murphy who took the lead with Director Chris this summer, said “I have so much love and appreciation for our Summer Nights program because I feel it is the best time for players and their families to get crucial access to sports. Also, for me, it is the best time to really get to know participants, including their skills and interests. It’s an awesome opportunity for kids to gain confidence in their athletic skills and, just as important, their ability to interact and talk to others. We offered programming every night but Sunday, which was a first for us. It was a busy summer but so important on all levels!”

It was two, full enriching weeks, benefiting 163 kids ages 6-14. They honed their soccer skills, forged new friendships, and stayed active creatively, with lots of water activities, fitness stations, and team-builders, including a visit from the Lawrence Fire Department that cooled them off in the hydrants!

These campers learned from summer Coach Mentors and Jr. Coaches from their neighborhoods who were part of our youth jobs program. Most were even former campers themselves. As shared above, our commitment to #leadershipthroughsport started in 2009 with our first camp. It continued in July with leaders like Jeffrey, a U of Chicago sophomore, who said,

“Camp has always been one of the highlights of my summer. I remember having so much fun and making good memories as a little squirt running around. Now, to be back leading the games, races, scrimmages, etc., where the kids (including myself) get to have smiles on their faces all day, with lots of laughter and play, is a full-circle moment that I am truly grateful for."

Volunteer parents from Families United through Sports Experiences (F.U.S.E.) assisted with registration. Andover High Schooler, Enzo, through his organization, Gear Up, fit and distributed cleats to 39 campers who didn’t have any. See photos below!

When our wonderful partnerships with Mass Hire YouthWorks and Forest Foundation’s paid full-time Internship are included, we leveraged $77,750 in youth wages. That meant 29 teens and young adults from Lawrence ensured we had a record-breaking summer. In addition to the summer partners highlighted below, the Massaro, Kelly, and Hart families made special donations to ensure we met our youth wage commitments so that young people like Osvin or Luiz (in the photo) could earn wages mentoring others from their community.

"As I grew up in the program and got older, I started to notice that Beyond Soccer was like a second home. I always had a smile on my face every single time I got on a field with them. I made new friends, and many of those friends worked with me this summer. I have always wanted to work with Beyond Soccer and leave the same impression on kids that my coaches left me. When I was old enough to work, I applied for a job. I got the job and led the kids this summer, and to this day, I try to leave the same impression that my coaches left on me when I was a kid. I also get to benefit from playing many nights. It's been the best summer." -Osvin, Central Catholic HS

Take it from Steven, who said, “BeyondFit with Spark contributed to my overall health. It pushed me and helped with not only my fitness but my mental health. It also taught me how to eat better and how to figure out if food is healthy or not.” We are now exploring more opportunities with Spark and college health science programs to make this access higher quality and more consistent for travel players, especially by utilizing our teaching kitchen and making our seasonal #FuelforPermance courses more consistent.

Three new Board Members joined our #team, including Brian O’Connor, the Chief Transformation Officer at Lumanity, who now serves as Treasurer. He’s already played a key role in streamlining our budgeting and accounting procedures, which are difficult to keep up with as a busy, multi-faceted nonprofit.

Shannon Butler-Mokoro, the Dean of First-Year Students at Wellesley College, joined in June. Her professional educator and social worker expertise is advancing our Academic Overtime and Resilient Girl focuses. Staying consistent with our team approach, we met Shannon through ECCF’s BoardCONNECT program, which matches passionate community members with area nonprofit boards!

Also, Teresa Prego, the Chief Executive Officer at Epiwath, started bringing 30 years of marketing experience and expertise to our squad. She will advance our branding, social media, and sponsorship efforts. You’ll love learning that Teresa played soccer at Notre Dame, one of Director Stephanie's former rivals, which knocked Michigan out of the NCAA tourney. They get to have fun with that!

This time, we want to highlight TWO incredible funders who have supported our summer enrichment efforts for almost 15 years: ECCF’s Greater Lawrence Summer Fund and Lawrence’s own Commonwealth Motors!

Soccer Director Chris with Summer Coach Mentors receiving Commonwealth Motors' donation

Being able to rely on team players and partners like this as we work to expand our impact brings great reassurance and incredible motivation. #GLSF ensures we have funding to meet our growing youth jobs budget, which, as shared above, topped $75,000. It’s an integral part of our out-of-school-time focus, as those young leaders brought 392 hours of programs to their community. At the same time, Commonwealth Motors has been generously assisting our Sport & Wellness Camp efforts, including ensuring every camper gets a t-shirt. Yes, those t-shirts rock both #GLSF and Commonwealth Motors logos! Again, having local foundations and corporations “power summer opportunities for young people” make our influence possible together with some other fabulous area nonprofits.

Recent Lawrence High School grad, Eunice has played soccer since middle school including being on Beyond Soccer's high school team the past two years. Her family roots are strong; she spends much of her free time with her Guatemalan family who moved from Pennsylvania a decade ago. She loves helping others and “wants to make people smile.”

That quality makes her a perfect fit for her leadership role as a fall Coach Mentor instructing and mentoring the Grade 6 Jaguars. She earned this role after demonstrating incredible reliability as a summer coach mentor! Eunice also works at Chick-fil-A and is talking to us about establishing other career and educational goals, including experience in the nonprofit field. She always shows up with a can-do attitude and a contagious smile, and that's why we loved expanding her leadership responsibilities, including incorporating our first "Beyond Resilient Girls" curriculum into the Jaguars' weekly practices, something she wishes that she had the benefit of when she was growing up!

The Center for Healing and Justice Through Sports facilitated specialized sports-based youth development coaches' training for our youth hires.

Suzanne, the daughter of retired Board Chair Paul Wennik, donated a game-changing amount of gift certificates to help families with their back-to-school needs. As a dedicated teacher, this assistance was extra meaningful to Suzanne.

Please consider a #PlayItForward Donation Today!