SPORTS & RECREATION
THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | OCTOBER 25, 2020
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play,” McNabb said. Garrett Brolsma, YMCA’s district executive director who oversees the East Valley location and helps lead youth sports and aquatic operations, said nobody will be turned away from the facility’s programs because of an inability to pay. “We want to make sure that every child and family, regardless of economic status, have the same opportunities as anybody else,” Brolsma said. Like other youth sports programs, the YMCA charges program fees, but when an athlete cannot afford to pay they are offered some assistance. “We raise money every year directly for scholarships so that every child is able to access the same experiences that all other children do,” Brolsma said. “There are 10 kids on a basketball team and four or five of them might be on some sort of financial assistance or scholarship,” Brolsma said, “But nobody on the team would know and aren’t treated differently.”
Former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb, a spokesperson for Caris and husband of Raquel, said when starting the foundation they had similar goals in mind. “The thing that stuck with us, there are kids coming from single parent homes or adopted, and they don’t have the financial (backing) to pay AAU and
Some foundations are really complicated, and “ we are not. We raise funds to help kids play sports,” she said. “We have actually given out approximately $30,000 in funds this year to kids. ”
– Raquel McNabb
club dues each and every month,” he said. “We are providing support for them to be able to do that, so that the kids may have the opportunity to be on the same platform as other kids who do have families who can afford to pay the dues.” The purpose of nonprofits like the YMCA and the Caris Sports Foundation are to get more kids on the field. Once
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that happens, a child’s future is likely to expand. “I think it’s just tremendous for children to build positive relationships with other children through sport,” Broslma said. Both Raquel and Broslma agreed that skills learned in organized sports play
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an important role in a child’s future job prospects and influence who that child eventually becomes in their adult lives. “I think you learn so much about your own abilities, your ability to persevere, your ability to work with others on a team,” Brolsma said. “We feel it is important to play sports because of all the other values and skills that come with playing,”
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McNabb said. “How you develop as a person, not just as an athlete.” Brolsma said coaches also positively influence athletes and deserve just as much credit in shaping children’s futures. “I think they are paramount as well, the relationship with a coach that a child can build and learning from an adult role model that’s not their own parent, is really, really important,” Brolsma said. He said that the coaches at the YMCA are volunteers who generously give their time to children not because they have to or are being paid but because they want to be there to teach and support. Donovan McNabb said youth sports can also open doors for athletes that would otherwise remain closed had they not played. “Club sports play such a major factor in the future of these individuals, these kids,” said McNabb, who played 13 seasons in the NFL, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. “It gives them an opportunity and platform to be showcased, to be put out there so college coaches can recruit them, and they can fulfill a dream of playing D1 sports.”