On Saturday, September 15, Mayor Darrell Steinberg paid a visit to the Up2Us Sports Coach Training Institute in Sacramento. The event, which ran from September 14-18, was for newly selected coaches from Up2Us Sports' national service program. More than 35 coaches from Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Pacific Northwest gathered for a four-day residential training program, which focuses on how coaches and youth professionals can be more intentional about linking sport and life skills and integrating trauma sensitive strategies into their activities. At the end of their one-year service term, participants will receive Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 certifications in sports-based youth development (SBYD) coaching, which is a first-of-its-kind certification, offered only by Up2Us Sports.

Mayor Steinberg, a champion of youth development initiatives in Sacramento, spoke to the Up2Us Coaches about how playing sports as a young person helped him develop the life skills that have made him such a successful adult and community leader. “When I think about my own childhood, my youth sports experiences were the most formative experiences of my life, and taught me all the things that I employ now in both life as a politician and as a community leader,” the Mayor shared. He vividly recalled an important moment in his life - scoring a football touchdown in sixth grade. He noted that the feeling of success, which he experienced in the end zone many years ago, has stayed with him throughout adulthood.

Mayor Steinberg recognized and validated the critical role that coaches play in guiding young lives and in teaching them positive values and skills. He thanked the Up2Us Coaches for, “investing [themselves] into teaching young people.” He is currently campaigning for Measure U in Sacramento, an initiative that will provide revenue to enhance the parks and recreation departments and invest in youth development programs. He expressed excitement in continuing the conversation with Up2Us Sports about expanding sports-based youth development programming in Sacramento.