Soccer as a Vehicle for Social Change

Being recognized by the White House as a “Let’s Move! and Physical Activity Champion of Change” has made me reflect on all my past mentors and the impact of their positive role modeling in my life. It has also made me aware of the importance of my work through the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, and the lives we change every day through sports activities. My mentors taught me the importance of community work and the impact you can make through inner-city youth sports in low income communities. I believe youth sports are a tool to build communities and to unite people for a common purpose. They have given me a chance to become a role model for young people. The sport of soccer has changed my life and the lives of the young people who take part in the City of Houston’s Soccer for Success program.

When I was 16 years old, a coach from Houston Parks and Recreation Department gave me the opportunity to play in the only City-sponsored soccer program.  Houston was the first city offering soccer programming for free to all participants. When I was 18, I took a job with the City and began teaching soccer to young people, who like myself, were looking to sports as a way to a better life.  Fourteen years and hundreds of children later, I look back at my life and remember the opportunity that soccer has given me. I think of my mom raising her family of 16 and the difference soccer has made in my life.  I hope that now as a soccer coach and youth mentor I can pass on the opportunity I was given to another child. I’d say I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to learn soccer when I was 16 and to have made that my career. I want to continue my work through soccer and positively impact the lives of young people in Houston through Soccer for Success.

Promoting Peaceful Communities through Sport and Play

In 1998, my wife, Amy, and I moved into our first home, in Little Village, on the west side of Chicago. We immediately got involved in the sports program at the school where she was teaching. The kids would often tell us how they were being harassed by gang members outside of school. We would encourage them to “do the right thing” and not to give in to gang pressures or intimidation. After living in our new community for a year we found out first hand what it felt like to be intimidated by local gangs. In retaliation for reporting gang activity, the local gang set our house on fire twice while we were inside sleeping. They came back a third time and threw a bottle through our front window while screaming that they were going to kill us for calling the police. Our initial reaction was to leave the community, but we were challenged by the youth that we worked with not to give in to gang intimidation. 

This was a defining moment in our lives. We decided to stay in our home. We knew that something needed to be done to challenge the culture of gang violence that paralyzes the community. We didn’t know what we were going to do, so we just continued to do what we loved doing. We provided opportunities for youth to play in the community. This effort evolved into Beyond the Ball. Today, Beyond the Ball is globally recognized for our work in the sports based youth and community development field. We provide free programming for a thousand community youth and partner with them, their families and other community organizations to make our community a safer and healthier place for everyone. 

Fostering Body and Mind

"Seven years ago, I hired Chris West to be our Physical Education teacher because his vision centered on wellness and physical fitness.  We started to develop a larger vision together within the walls of Bauder Elementary School.  We began shifting the focus of PE as game play and large team sports to individualized fitness and movement-based health goals. We took the time to educate kids about the WHY behind fitness and life-long health goals. In addition, we involved the staff with this vision and continued to create school community buy-in.  To achieve our goals centered on fitness and health, we have dedicated the past few years to increasing quality physical education and movement beyond the gym and into the classroom."

-Brian Carpenter, Principal of Bauder Elementary.

To accomplish this joint vision of a school culture that integrates health into all areas of learning, we implemented a school wellness team with the direction of the Poudre School District’s (PSD) Physical Fitness and Nutrition Advisory Council (PFNAC).  During the 2006-2007 school year, as a Bauder Wellness co-leader, I volunteered to work with PFNAC so I could align Bauder’s goals with larger district goals for wellness and start building a partnership within the greater Northern Colorado community. The extra effort to build a new partnership was paying off. The PSD wellness coordinator and co-chair of PFNAC, Nicole Turner-Rivana, supported my efforts in several ways, including sending me to trainings such as the National and State AAHPERD.  Her involvement has been instrumental in supporting my vision for a new paradigm shift in education by assisting me in educator trainings centered on bike safety, integration of literacy and science into physical education (PE), action-based learning, active classrooms, and community support systems.  As a result, I continued developing the skills necessary to build Bauder’s PE and wellness program and to lead staff development for others in our school and district. “Chris’ passion for getting all kids moving is infectious. He has been a mentor to me and other staff in our district about how to work diligently for continued changes in the right direction. We are lucky to have him in PSD,” commented Nicole.

Beginning with my own PE class, I planted the first seeds by changing the culture of what students believed gym class was and what quality physical education meant. For example, every other year, I turn the gymnasium into a “Magic School Bus Inside the Heart” obstacle course where students travel through a make-believe heart while learning science and literacy. Their bodies are engaged in agility, balance, strength, spatial awareness, and cooperative play. I wanted to do more than just change the PE culture for students; I needed to build a deeper partnership with my staff. So I asked the third grade teachers to begin working with me to change the traditional Valentine treats from candy to a physical activity party while learning more about the heart. All third grade teachers joined in and used their PTO party funds for this new physically-active educational Valentine’s celebration with the PE teacher, in addition to regularly scheduled PE classes.   Change takes work and creativity, much like how a roller coaster needs to climb up that first steep hill, but the reward is the thrill of the speed and the wind in your face on the way down.