Do youth sports coaches really matter? We are proving that they do, in more ways than one.

When I started Up2Us Sports 12 years ago, I was motivated because kids in underserved communities deserve the opportunity to play sports and to benefit from as many mentors as possible. No adult represents mentorship more powerfully than a coach. Coaches inspire kids to exercise, to excel in academics, to develop leadership skills and to make positive behavioral choices on and off the field. 

At Up2Us Sports, we have recruited 3,500 coaches and trained them to be caring adults for 650,000 youth. We have provided them ongoing support and living stipends to launch or expand sports-based youth development programs in schools, parks and nonprofits that otherwise could not afford coaches in their communities. We also measured the impact of these coaches on the social-emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing of the youth they serve…and our results are powerful.    

But our work has only just begun. With the mental health crisis, the greater awareness of gender inequity in all levels of sports, and the rise in violence, we believe that coaches are more important now than ever. We need to recruit more coaches to inspire kids to make better choices. We need to train them to be positive adult role models who understand how to support life skills and who can intervene when they see that a student-athlete is in trouble. We need to place them in schools, parks and nonprofits in underserved communities so that all kids have equal access to recreational programming that promotes positive youth development. And we need to actively recruit women to lead teams of girls (and boys) to show youth that gender should never be a barrier to leadership in sports. 

This is the goal of Up2Us Sports and this is the purpose of our #ThanksCoach campaign. 

Was there a coach who made a difference in your life? Did they encourage you to see greater possibilities? Did they challenge you to master a skill that you never thought was possible? Or did they simply give you advice at a critical moment that helped you feel better about yourself and your future? 

We ask that you make a donation in that coach’s name to our campaign, and we will use your support to provide a coach to youth in underserved communities. This is the ultimate “play it forward” campaign because coaches are the ultimate embodiment of mentors for our youth. 

So, please, won’t you play it forward this holiday season? 

Thanks as always for the incredible support and all the good that you make possible for youth across America.