The EP Story
I started playing soccer at four years old. My parents knew nothing about the sport (my dad once sent me to practice wearing jeans), but they subscribed to the idea that it would keep me active and social. I'm so happy they did because soccer ended up changing my life.
Sixteen years after I started playing, I had won numerous state championships, captaining many of those teams, and was recruited to the Boston College soccer team, where I experienced some of my greatest triumphs and deepest failures. However, I won't use this space to write about the opportunities soccer gave me. Rather, I will describe how I'm trying to create the same opportunities for others - the four-year-olds that statistically have little chance to succeed because of their family's income, race, or a variety of other attributing factors. A significant portion of my recent years and of my life going forward will be for them.
I had two friends on my middle school soccer team (for privacy I won’t disclose their names). They were both from underprivileged yet hard-working Hispanic households. Their fathers both worked in construction, and their mothers were unemployed. I admired their hard work and discipline, and they were the star players on my team. One day after a team practice, my own father, the team "treasurer," told me that my soccer club paid for all of their expenses. That meant the club was out of pocket several thousand dollars per year to give my two teammates the same opportunity I had.
After graduating from college, it became clear that I wanted to meaningfully give back to a primary community that built me: youth sports. Specifically, I wanted to find a way to give young athletes in my community, like those two players on my youth team, a shot at having the same childhood experience as I did.
In 2019, I created the non-profit EverybodyPlays to make my impact. While I am passionate about growing EverybodyPlays into a global brand for good, I've so far been grateful to fund the athletic costs for nine athletes. To do so, I've fundraised $20K and partnered with Colorado and Massachusetts soccer clubs to identify players that embody excellent character and hard work. I've also had the chance to mentor many of the players that EverybodyPlays has funded, encouraging them to dream big, and have worked with them to volunteer in their communities. Volunteering had a prominent impact on me during my childhood, and my aim is to cultivate well-rounded student-athletes with an empathetic understanding of their world.
With an enabled opportunity to play sports, the right mentorship, and an expanded worldview, our players have gone on to play in college at schools like the Air Force Academy, MIT, and Princeton.
A move away from Boston and Denver is now on my horizon, and I look forward to simultaneously extending the reach of EverybodyPlays. By adding a third chapter in my next city, a new community of young athletes can step onto their field with the same opportunity as four-year-old me.
I look forward to sharing new updates around this anticipated growth soon, and thank you for reading.
✌️ Joe
EverybodyPlays aims to even the playing field of the world’s youth sports - one athlete and one community at a time. If you’d like to reach out and/or support our cause, please visit our contact page or consider a donation. Thank you!