Hello everyone!

 

It has been an awesome start to fall season! There have been many blessings to celebrate within our player community, such as players getting called in to PDP, players thriving with their respective teams, and Tristan Weber winning the MLS Next Pro National Championship!

 

In this blog, I want to shout out YOU, the parents and donors, who have helped us with big wins from an organizational standpoint at Play Higher. This success is purely because of YOUR GENEROSITY – whether it be your time, treasure, and/or talents.

 

Lights

 

Our futsal-regulation street court is lit! Thanks to all of our amazing donors who bought solar powered lighting for us, so that we can play street soccer at night! You are allowing more players to come and enjoy a positive Play Higher experience so that we can play on two courts, side-by-side. I sent one group text, and many responded to help. You said, “Let there be light!”

 

Success Checklist

As you can imagine, throwing a bunch of talented, competitive athletes into the street soccer melting pot, often-times results in heated battles! We want to keep Play Higher competitive, and most importantly, we want that competition to bring out the best in ourselves and others. Years ago, my mom created a list of 6 questions (derived from John Wooden’s philosophies) that players can ask themselves after each training and game. The questions provide a checklist for process goals, which ultimately lead to successful outcomes (such as wins, goals, assists, clean sheets). If you control the controllables and do the best you can on the process goals, you will undoubtedly achieve successful outcomes and development. Megan Mills brought the Success Checklist to life by drawing them on the street soccer court barricades. Megan has continually been a leader at Play Higher, breaking down barriers between player cliques and organizing fun events for the players on and off the field. Megan was recently offered to play for the Cornell Women’s Soccer team – shout out to Megs!

 

Structure

 

Thanks to amazing lawyers, accountants, businessmen and businesswomen, we have a trademarked methodology of training, a player code of conduct, staff guidelines and safety procedures, a clear vision, a strong business plan and many more strategic systems in the works. An extra special shout out goes to Bob Rowlett, Jason Lynch, Gabby Hernandez, Tom Hoppe, Joe Feldsien, Walmer Landaverde and Mary-Robin Baziak ,who invest deeply into the success of our board of directors. We believe Play Higher will continue to influence kids in Southern California and will soon influence families worldwide. This does not happen without our amazing patrons behind the scenes.

 

A big thank you for all of your support.

 

With love,

 

Coach Justice