I founded Sports Dreams in response to a lack of non-traditional sports options for Detroit youth. I realized that if not for a scholarship from the Peter Westbrook Foundation while in high school, I would not have had the opportunity to learn the sport of Fencing - subsequently founding En Garde! Detroit. Throughout my experiences developing En Garde! Detroit, I knew that many college scholarships were available in sports often missed by youth from low-income households.

I developed a board and partnered with other BIPOC community leaders teaching non-traditional sports in Detroit. We were able to launch our nonprofit and host a national youth hockey tournament fielding minority youth from around the country. We were able to invest in programming at Adam Butzel, and keep the only public ice hockey arena functioning leading up to the Detroit Bankruptcy of 2013.

Unfortunately, this same financial environment made it challenging to raise the funding needed to hire full-time staff and leadership. However, I learned a ton about sports management, hosting summer camps across three sports, and how to write/negotiate an MOU agreement to take over the management of municipal facilities.

Quest: Help youth from low-income background gain access to non-traditional sports and college scholarships.

Time: 2010-2013

Mastery Areas: Program Management, Contract Management, Sports Facility Management, Coaching

Outcomes:

• Secured MOU agreement with the City of Detroit

• Host a national ice hockey event with funding from NHL Foundation

• Conducted summer camps for 1,000 Detroit youth in Fencing, Hockey, Lacross