This year’s Sports4Kids (S4K) success story is 14-year-old William Rivas. We first met William when he was in HPALS Get It Straight program, during a drug education and prevention class. William was in the GIS Program because he was doing poorly in school, not listening to his parents, and hanging with the wrong crowd, but otherwise seemed like a good kid.
After the class we gave a short presentation on the need for youth players, volunteers, and coaches for our sports program. William seemed to light up when we talked about soccer, immediately after the presentation he approached and inquired about volunteering for the soccer program. The next week he and his mother showed up at the park to see what it was all about, and immediately took to it like a fish to water.
William has now been with the S4K program for two seasons and absolutely loves coaching and refereeing in our youth soccer. William’s grades have improved. He now plays soccer for his High School, volunteers to help out with our other programs and whenever his mother or father sees us, they make sure to stop, say hi and thank us for William’s turn around.
We believe he is a testament of what our programs are all about. Good job William, You Rock!