FOCUS on Athletics

Introducing a new standard for our athletics and healthy living programs. F.O.C.U.S. represents the factors that will guide our daily athletics activities, sports clinics, sports leagues, coaches and of course young athletes moving forward. To kick off the new program, Director of Athletics Phillip Redd and his team led our members through a series of activities on the fundamentals of sports during the first two weeks of school.

Soccer activity at our Port of L.A. Club during our F.O.C.U.S. kick off.

Fundamentals: Skill building and positive outlook on competitions.
Opportunities: Seeking options for the future in sports and academics.
Character: Building quality decision makers and overcoming failures.
Unity: Consistent teamwork and uniting athletic programming at our three Clubhouses.
Sportsmanship: Enjoying sports in its fairness and sense of fellowship.

LA Lakers Promote Healthy Living at our Clubs

As our summer programs are closing out for the season, we received a very special visit from the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation at our San Pedro and Wilmington Clubs. Team trainers visited our Clubs on July 30 and July 31 to give our students a taste of the same training that professional athletes receive. Our youth ran through drills that reeducated them on the fundamentals of sports and gave them new methods of training as our sports leagues start up again this fall.

The Lakers Youth Foundation is a member of the Active Alliance, a partnership with HealthCorps and The California Endowment, focused on improving health in children through exercise, nutrition and education.

World Cup Championships at the Boys & Girls Club

Head Coach Thomas McKenzie with minor league all-star players.

The World Cup is in full swing in Brazil, but our Wilmington Club World Cup tournament just ended with a celebration for our athletes. This past season, our Wilmington Club soccer league program took inspiration from the World Cup for the biddy (ages 7 - 9) and minor (ages 10 - 13) leagues.

Over 100 young athletes participated and were assigned into different national teams. Greece won the biddy division and Holland won the minor division. On June 14, players and their families celebrated at an awards banquet where parent volunteers served lunch and all of our athletes received a trophy.

Councilman Joe Buscaino Joins Us for Daniel's Field Athletics Facility Groundbreaking

After many years of planning and fundraising, we have launched a project to install a multipurpose recreational area in the historic Daniel's Field in San Pedro. The new facility, facing our San Pedro Boys & Girls Club, will include a sports arena with ADA accessible ramp, a baseball batting cage, golf driving-range cages, picnic and snack area and sustainable landscaping. 

Councilman Joe Buscaino at the Daniel's Field Groundbreaking

San Pedro Club alumnus, Councilman Joe Buscaino, joined Executive Director Mike Lansing and our youth for the groundbreaking ceremony on April 22. Special speakers for the event included Mark Mariscal, Region Superintendent of the Department of Recreation and Parks; Ray Brewer, Field Office Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and John N. Vidovich, Assistant Chief of LAFD and Boys & Girls Club Board member.

Our Executive Director Mike Lansing 

with Councilman Buscaino

Councilman Buscaino kicked off our groundbreaking ceremony by detailing the new additions to Daniel's Field and getting our youth members excited about the new athletics programs. He also spoke of the importance of education and our organization's national impact with the College Bound program.

Executive Director Mike Lansing spoke next about the long journey to get to this point. He expressed his optimism about the new additions to Daniel's Field and, turning to our youth, explained that we are adding the new area for, "you to use and hopefully that even your kids can one day use."

We are very excited about the changes we are implementing at Daniel's Field and the way it will benefit our community. Our athletics programming will expand significantly once the project is complete with the quality recreational opportunities our youth deserve.

Kory Minor Visits the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club

It's always a great inspiration for our youth to meet a Boys & Girls Club alumnus who accomplished greatness in the face of adversity. Yesterday, entrepreneur and former NFL linebacker, Kory Minor visited our San Pedro Club to tell his story, starting with the decisions he made as a young athlete.
 

Kory Minor with some excited fans at our Club!

Kory is a former All-American football linebacker originally from Los Angeles. In his senior year of high school, he was named Defensive Player of the Year by USA Today. He went on to the University of Notre Dame where he was a 4-year star on defense and team captain. In his professional career he played for the San Francisco 49ers and Carolina Panthers. 

Like many of our members, Kory was faced with distractions while trying to accomplish his goals. He was raised by a single mother and, although he dreamed of one day playing for Notre Dame, he knew his family couldn't afford to send him to his dream school. Kory had two options: either give up on his dream or commit to it. Kory chose to commit and spoke to our young athletes about the importance of committing to a dream and working hard for that dream.

"Whatever you are dreaming now is possible if you commit to believe and commit to work."

Kory Minor speaking at the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club.

Kory also spoke about the friends he lost in high school because he was so focused on his goal. He stayed away from anything that could distract him like drinking, smoking or doing drugs and only spent time with people who didn't fall into those behaviors. When he was named Defensive Player of the Year by USA Today, he proved wrong everyone who didn't believe in him and was awarded a full scholarship to Notre Dame.

Today, Kory is a motivational speaker, business strategist and a five store franchisee of Domino's Pizza where he took his franchise company from $600,000 in sales to nearly $4 million as an owner. He motivates individuals and organizations as CEO of Kory Minor Industries. Kory spoke of the importance of valuing education as he did when he utilized his degree in business to create a legacy for himself.

Thanks to Kory for sharing the valuable lessons he learned on his journey from young hopeful athlete to NFL player and successful business owner.

Championship Win at March Madness Tournament

Our three Clubhouses organize their own sports leagues, but the Clubs were recently given the opportunity to collaborate for a Boys & Girls Club March Madness Basketball Tournament. We sent one team comprised of high school youth from our San Pedro, Wilmington and Port of LA Clubs to participate and we are proud to announce that they took first place in their division.

For the 12th straight year, Boys & Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley held their annual March Madness Tournament for Boys & Girls Clubs in the Los Angeles County Alliance. Our Head Coaches Phillip Redd and Thomas McKenzie and Athletic Director Philip Jones organized a team from our three Clubs to compete and the collaboration was well worth the effort. Our LA Harbor boys were thrilled to represent our entire organization and take first place.

BGCLAH Basketball takes first place at March Madness Tournament.

F.O.C.U.S. Basketball Clinic

As we were wrapping up the semester and preparing for holiday break last month, our San Pedro Boys & Girls Club hosted the 1st Annual F.O.C.U.S. Basketball Clinic. The goals of the clinic were to help our youth basketball players improve their athletic ability and allow them to develop team-building skills. The program was open to our members, 8 to 10 years of age, with 48 young athletes participating.

A student testing her skills as her peers cheer her on.

Head Coach Phillip Redd led the clinic. Each day he and his fellow coaches introduced a new term, setting the theme for that day's lesson.

"F" focuses on “Fundamentals” - an important element to basketball. 
"O" focuses on “Opportunity” - playing any sport with a team is a very unique opportunity.
"C" focuses on “Character” - building character on and off the court/field.
"U" focuses on “Unity” - an important component of team building and team work.
"S" focuses on “Sportsmanship” - the one thing you have complete control over when participating in sports. 

The clinic was a great success and the youth involved will be able to build on the skills they developed this new year.

Coach Phillip Redd guides our students through their basketball clinic practice.

The LA Kings and Raytheon Visit the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club

On January 10, Raytheon teamed up with the LA Kings to teach our students about the "Science of Hockey." Raytheon organized the event which combined the knowledge of their engineers with the talents of defenseman Alec Martinez and goaltender Ben Scrivens to demonstrate the science and math behind the sport to nearly 100 middle school students at our San Pedro Club. The event also celebrated Raytheon's generous $5,000 donation to improve and expand our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programming.

Alec Martinez coaches our students through applications of math and science.

Our students were given the opportunity to learn directly from professional athletes and Raytheon's engineers. They saw real world applications of the science and math lessons they are currently learning in school and at our Club. Former LA Kings players, Jim Fox and Daryl Evans, now media analysts for the team, kicked things off with a brief speech to our youth about the importance of the lessons they were about to experience. Exciting demonstrations of classroom lessons are very rare and unique opportunities. Events like Raytheon's "Science of Hockey," part of their MathMovesU program, inspire our students to be more engaged in their lessons and bring their studies to life.

Thanks for the generous donation to our STEM programming, Raytheon!

The LA Kings Chariot brought professional hockey equipment for the demonstration and the Ice Crew assisted as Martinez, Scrivens, Fox and Evans worked with Raytheon engineers to help students understand the teachings behind complicated hockey moves, like puck velocity. We definitely have more students interested in hockey and engineering due to the experience, and the LA Kings have many new young fans.

First Season of Flag Football Ends with Championships

This fall, our San Pedro Club and Wilmington Club athletics departments started flag football leagues for boys and girls ages 11-13 to compete against local middle school teams. The season ended on the last weekend of October with championship games at Daniel's Field in San Pedro. All of our teams took home trophies!

Our Wilmington Boys & Girls Club Colts with their 3rd place trophy.

Our Wilmington Boys & Girls Club team, the Colts, won against Holy Trinity School to take home the third place trophy. The Colts led by Coach Johnny Walter saw vast improvement throughout the season and were thrilled to end with a big win.

The San Pedro Boys & Girls Club flag football program, coached by Head Coach Phillip Redd, was so popular this season that two teams were organized, the Seahawks and the Bears. Both teams competed in the final game of the season with the first place trophy going to the Bears and the second place trophy going to the Seahawks. The awards ceremony at the championship included announcements of each team's MVP.

The flag football league has been a great addition to our extensive athletics programming which includes leagues for soccer and basketball as well as introductory lessons in a variety of sports to keep our youth healthy and active. 

San Pedro Boys & Girls Club Bears and Seahawks with our MVP holding the first place trophy.