AmeriCorps announced that Up2Us Sports would once again receive critical funding for our national service coach program. Since 2009, AmeriCorps funding has allowed us to train and support over 3,900 coaches to significantly impact the lives of nearly 100,000 young people.
Welcome to a momentous occasion as we celebrate 14 incredible years of Up2Us Sports! Since our inception, we have been committed to empowering young people through the power of sports, national service and mentorship.
We hope you will read our latest Annual Report and we thank you for your support in helping us provide underserved youth with a coach who cares about them. This report covers our 2021-2022 program and fiscal year.
The Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children's Mental Health Innovation Awards—an initiative that aims to identify and fund mental healthcare solutions for children and young adults across the United States—honors a 2022 winner, Up2Us Sports.
Today, January 12th, 2023 is our 13th Anniversary, and we are expecting to have more impact in the year ahead than ever before. We will serve more kids, recruit more coaches, support more VISTAs (front office-based service members) and help more sports-based youth development programs across the country.
Angel Fulgencio grew up in Oxnard, California just a few hours north of Los Angeles. He is the son of an immigrant family whose parents migrated from Mexico. Growing up, his parents worked hard in the strawberry fields in Oxnard to provide for the family. In high school Angel joined the football team, which was his introduction into sports. Football kept him on the right track and encouraged him to set goals beyond high school.
In two years, Corey Edwards’ goal is to be coaching in the Division I ranks, the highest level of men’s college basketball. For a lot of basketball coaches, ascending to Division I is aspirational at best, but for Corey it feels more like an eventuality. This feeling is born from his lineage and experience in basketball and his dedication to the coaching craft.
Operation Coach is a program of Up2Us Sports that provides veterans with support and professional development while giving back to their community as a coach mentor for underserved youth. AmeriCorps Operation Coach coaches serve as AmeriCorps members for the duration of their service term, which is 900 hours, not to exceed a full year.
In every aspect of her work as a dance coach at ARISE Academy you can see the strategies Chanice learned at the Up2Us Sports training. One example of this is helping kids who struggle to behave by giving them opportunities to matter. “One of [my] students likes to talk back, he likes to talk the entire class so I would have him be the director. He would be standing next to me and I would give him something to do and he would help the other students,” she explained. “Instead of the behavior causing disruptions, they were helping each other. They were learning how to [put] what people would call disruptive behavior to good use.”
Up2Us Coach host sites participate in data collection to measure the benefits of a coach trained in Sports Based Youth Development for youth health and life skills. Data collection includes youth fitness tests (the PACER) and youth surveys measuring the High Impact Attributes, a group of positive attributes connected to the sport experience and to positive life outcomes. Up2Us Sports would like to recognize the four Up2Us Coach host sites below for collecting high quality data and achieving great results for their youth!
The most important factor in a young person’s life is whether or not they have positive adult relationships. Nobody knows this better than Maria Gomez. Maria joined her family in the United States after being born in Guatemala when she was in second grade. A transition which on its own is challenging, but coupled with her father’s arrest and later his deportation caused Maria to get angry. This trauma had profound effects on her, as at an early age she began to have run-ins with the law. This trouble continued for a prolonged stretch and easily could have endured if something did not change in her life.
Patrick credits ROTC as the biggest influence in his life and he aspires to pass on the values it instilled in him to the kids he is now coaching, who have become his biggest inspiration. The experience - both as a volunteer and now as a full-time coach - has also helped Patrick put things into perspective and move on from the loss of his dream.
My name is Sean Johnson and I am a veteran of the United States Air Force. I served in the Desert Storm conflict, returned home and was shot in the back in my neighborhood. I was left a paraplegic with little hope from the medical establishment that I would ever walk again. There was a time I thought my life was over but it was just the beginning. Through prayer, a consistent support system and an undeniable desire to walk, I did just that. I actually ran! For several years I was able to walk with the aid of a fixed leg brace. Complications from an ulcer years later resulted in the amputation of my right leg below the knee. I was introduced to wheelchair sports and began playing basketball and tennis. In addition to a host of gold medals from the annual National Veterans Wheelchair Games, I was one of twelve selected in 2014 to represent the East in the NWBA All Star Game in New Orleans.
I’ve always loved sports and being re-acquainted with them after losing my leg helped me to cope with my situation better. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I felt the need to help someone else. I have a heart for the disabled, veterans and our youth. Working with Up2Us Sports has allowed me to address and service all three of these groups. The training Up2Us Sports provided for me is something I will never forget! I learned how to reach those who are in need, and through the power of sports, guide them to a happier, healthier and more satisfying life.
Now, as a coach with Up2Us Sports I get to make a positive difference in the community and work with some great organizations such as the Police Athletic League (PAL) and Philadelphia 76ers.
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Sean Johnson began his one-year service term at Philly PAL through Up2Us Sports' Operation Coach Program in August 2016. His position is generously funded by Toyota.
Former Up2Us Sports coach Isaac Williams was recently named a grand prize winner in USA Football’s Thanks Coach contest. The Thanks Coach program honors coaches who have inspired their players to be better, work harder and attain more.
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