Hello Champions,

Over the years there has been a plethora of discussions centered around the overall impact sports can have on youth development. In my book titled “The END GAME,” I wrote about the four quadrants one should truly inspect when addressing the intrinsic values that can be gained by participating in sports. Those four quadrants are:

  • The REason we play sports.
  • The REsponsibility of all parties.
  • The REality of sports.
  • The REwards of sports.

This Q4 issue of CORE Magazine is dedicated to Youth Sports and development of youth. The articles in this special issue will take a deep dive into educating, engaging, and encouraging the best practices to produce positive youth sports experiences. I fell in love with sports at a very young age and to say sports have played a major role in shaping my life would be an understatement. I am the man I am today because of the many invaluable lessons I was blessed to learn from playing sports. That’s why I have always viewed sports as an institution of higher learning. My desire to use sports as a hook to give youth more led to the opening of the Bo Porter Academy Private School in August of 2022. You will meet the 2023 BPA Royals Baseball Team and gain insight into the pillars of excellence being embedded in our student-athletes. With standards measured by the excellence required to be a champion. We have created a culture for academic growth, athletic development, strength in character, and social responsibility, BPA prepares student-athletes to become tomorrow’s transformational leaders and influencers, both in sports and in life.

As you read these articles and short stories, I encourage you to reflect on your own life if you’re an adult and I want you to embrace the journey if you’re currently in your youthful years. Here’s a question each of you can ask yourselves, respectively. How did sports impact my life? … Am I really allowing myself to be transformed by the valuable lessons sports can provide? … All I can say, is I’m forever indebted to sports not because sports need me to pay back my debts but because it’s a debt, I can never come close to repaying. In the meantime, I will use every opportunity to make a payment to sports and this dedication to youth sports is one of the many ways I get to chip away my lifetime commitment to use sports for the greater good of humanity.

Our first article is the Q4 Youth Sports first pitch, Enjoy the read and be the champion you were born to be.