Thanks to a three-year grant from the Women’s Fund of Essex County, Beyond Soccer has partnered up with the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport (CHJS) to develop researched-backed training and curriculum to enhance our girls-in-sports & wellness programs, which inherently addresses the 7 qualities or “C’s” of resilience, competence, confidence, character, connection, contribution, coping, and control. We are creating focus groups and will also benefit from measurement & evaluation strategies with Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. See full PRESS RELEASE.

To coincide with National Girls & Women in Sports Day, Coach Mentors & former players Sadie, Oriagna & Celia designed a curriculum for middle school girls. It meant 30+ girls coming together every Monday for 4 weeks to discuss rotating topics like positive self-talk, stress management, and what it means to be #GirlsInSports! They also engaged in team builders, like themed Jeopardy or creating tissue paper flowers for Valentine's Day. This program is just one way we're working to increase the # of girls in our programs, improve our off-the-field youth development approach, and advance the Women's Fund Resilient Girls-in-Sports Project!

"Thanks to the “Lefty” Scholarship, I could dorm at UML and because of that, I have benefited a lot. I got involved on campus. I joined the UML club soccer team. I found a job on campus and can walk to school, which is way better than driving half an hour to my classes. I have taken advantage of this opportunity, and my GPA is 3.9. I have made many friends who have my back and motivate me in all areas to complete my engineering major and stay active. This scholarship relieved so much stress so I can study more and enjoy life on campus instead of working every day after school." -Luiz UMass Freshman, 1st in family to attend college & 1st recipient of Paul "Lefty" Wennik Outstanding Character Scholarship.

As we redevelop Fuel for Performance classes that get youth learning about “fueling” their bodies for play, we think we've figured out its off-season focus. The credit goes to staffer William Inirio, who organized the first 20 high school players for a 4-hour cooking competition with a healthy twist. It included a grocery store run, meal prep in the teaching kitchen, and team presentations to the judges, who were all past or present Coach Mentors! The event’s success, with great teamwork and creativity, prompted a second team competition for 5th-8th grade girls, who had to stay within a budget too! The winner was a taco trio plate topped with caramelized onions and homemade guacamole.

Our Board of Directors raised the initial funds to award Luiz Lopez the first Paul “Lefty” Wennik Outstanding Character Scholarship. It meant Luiz received $5,000 in college tuition to attend UMass Lowell. For Luiz, it filled a tuition gap that the family was trying to meet and was a total surprise! He's so deserving of this 1st scholarship. Luiz is known for his fun coaching style (as a Summer Coach Mentor) that has hyped up young players with shouts of encouragement that sound like battle cries. It’s also why he was an outstanding fit, as Paul “Lefty” Wennik is known for his outgoing, gregarious personality. Luiz & his twin brother joined Beyond Soccer as talented players at age 10 when Paul was our first Board President. Luiz, like Paul, continues to be a team player, and today, after graduating high school with a GPA of 4.0, he is the first in his family to attend a 4-year university. We hope you saw Luiz's first-year progress report above. The scholarship committee is now accepting 2024 applications; the deadline is April 15th. For info, email: William@beyondsoccerlawrence.org