Thank You Fire Station 43!!!

Today at the elementary camp, we received a visit from the firefighters from Station 43 located on Motor Ave. They drove their truck right onto the play area at Palms Elementary School and showed the enraptured students all of the various equipment needed to combat that most insatiable element, fire. After the firefighting tutorial, the students were allowed to sit inside the truck to see all the many buttons and contraptions installed on the fire engine. Finally, the firefighters brought out the hose and each kid received a turn turning on and turning off the hose. Lots of smile and a perpetual rainbow as a result of the visit from Engine 43. What a day.

Alumni Coaching Team and CoachArt

CoachArt, a nonprofit organization based in LA, has the expressed mission of providing arts and recreational activities to children and adolescents with chronic and/or life-threatening illnesses. For several years now, America Scores LA has partnered with CoachArt to provide a variety of soccer activities for many of the those involved with CoachArt. Today and Thursday, our Alumni Coaching Team will go to CoachArt and run a soccer clinic for the children there. I do no believe I need to spell out the benefits of this relationship, whether they are practical or sentimental. The only thing I am certain of is that when good people get together, good things happen.

Chivas! Chivas! USA!

With two buses filled with kids, parents, and coaches, Wednesday saw the elementary school summer program off to the Home Depot Center to watch Chivas USA face the Portland Timbers. After 90 minutes of riveting soccer, the end resulted with Chivas topping the Timbers one goal to none. Pandemonium ensues. I was there, loyal readers. And while the game was an entertaining one, I found much more pleasure in watching our students' faces light up as the men played their hearts out. For many of our students, this was their inaugural professional soccer game. Hopefully, these students left the stadium with a memory they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. This coming week will be the last for our summer programming. If you haven't already, feel free to come by and see the program every day from 12-4 at Palms Elementary School. Mondays and Wednesdays at Mar Vista Park from 12-2 to watch our alumni coaching team work with our middle schoolers. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays to watch coaches Dre, Armond, and Marisha run the high school camp.

New Coach: Marisha Schumacher-Hodge

We, at LA Scores, are lucky to have the experience of Coach Marisha Schumacher-Hodge to help at our alumni soccer camp. Marisha, who has coached briefly for Scores in earlier years, has join the summer coaching team of Coach Dre and Coach Armond. Alas, if only she were able to stay with our program for an extended duration, she is committed to coach at Durham University in England (the third oldest university in England). Marisha attended and played soccer at Boston University and played professional soccer both in the US and Europe. If that doesn't make her legit, then I have no idea what you people are looking for. Come out to the alumni camp at Mar Vista Park on Tues, Wed, Thurs from 2-4 to watch her coaching in action. See you there.

LA Scores Summer Camps

We are officially in the full swing of our Summer Programming. The elementary school camp is on its 4th day, catering to near 100 kids on a daily basis from 12-4. The middle school soccer camp has just completed their first week, being led superbly by our LA Scores Alumni Coaching Team. The high school camp concludes its first week this afternoon, being headed by Coach Dre and Coach Armond. The sun is shining. The children are laughing. The coaches are smiling. I think it is safe to say the summer has gotten off to a great start. With the help and support of countless volunteers, we are able to keep all the kids engaged and active.

Wise Words

"Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sport can awaken hope where there was previously only despair.

Nelson Mandela

Well if Mandela says it, it must be true.

Time Marches On

This was the first year, in the three that I have been working at LA Scores, where I felt a little teary-eyed on the last day of school. Students that I watched grow up cheered as they prepared to go on to middle school while I could only express my happiness for them while feeling a bit down on the inside. If I am ever lucky enough to have children of my own, I feel that when they go off to live their lives, I will be a mess. But time marches on and we have new students coming in to nurture and instruct in order to continue this cycle of positivity we have tried so hard to cultivate. The summer is shorter than the ones previous with the LAUSD school year beginning in the middle of August instead of early September and we have still managed to plan out our summer programming which begins on 7/7 and ends on 7/27. I look back on the past school year with a sense of fondness and pride while looking ahead to the coming school year with much enthusiasm. What a life. What a ride.