Shout! Day of Action

The SCORES Shout! Day of Action is a community action day when poet-athletes get out into the community to make a difference! SCORES Students have been studying their communities all spring, and on this day they will take direct steps to improve the communities they are a part of.

Our original Shout! Day of Action was canceled due to inclement weather and was rescheduled for Saturday, April 25th. We had over 70 students and volunteers help plant over 250 trees at the High Plains Environmental Center in Loveland, Colorado.

Below are some stories from students that went and to check out photos from the day by clicking here!



When I went to Loveland on Saturday morning, it was really cold but I went anyways. It was really fun! My friend and I planted 27 trees, we were the fastest planters there! We were at Loveland for a hour and a half. During that time I learned so much about planting trees, what the materials are used for, and how deep and wide the holes are suppose to be. I learned a lot about Loveland. You should go, it is so much fun!
~ Monica, Newlon Elementary


On Saturday, I felt good because I was helping my community by planting more trees. We planted 250 trees! After we were done we went and helped the girls team finish. After we were done we went and ate and saw a snake!
~ Gabriel, Newlon Elementary





When our soccer team went to Loveland on Saturday, we had a fun and cool time! On the bus we were laughing! They gave us Cliff bars to eat and they were very good. After that, we started planting trees. We had to dig holes and put the plants into the hole. Then we had to put the dirt back around the trees and make a dirt wall to put fertilizer on the soil. We did more plants than any other school! After planting trees and working hard we had lunch. All in all, we had loads of fun!
~ Alicia, Newlon Elementary


On Saturday, the Denver SCORES team and I went to Loveland to plant some trees. When we got on the bus, I was getting bored because it was such a long ride. When we arrived, we all got shovels and gloves. They showed us the correct way to carry a tool by finding the balance point. We planted a lot of trees! The best part of planting a tree is putting the tree into the hole we just dug. The most important thing is we helped the community and the world!
~ Carlos, Newlon Elementary

Check out photos from the Spring!

We have uploaded all of our photos to a Picasa web album. To view the album website, please click on the photo below!

Second Colorado Rapids Clinic!

Our four other schools (Cowell, Knapp, Munroe, and Newlon) participated in the Play Like a Pro clinic hosted by the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday, May 6th. These four teams were lead through various drills by some of the Rapids startering players! Once again the students were really excited about riding on a charter bus provided by the Rapids organization and had a fun afternoon of soccer and autographs.

Thank you to the Rapids organization and players for inviting us to this clinic and giving our students a wonderful experience!

Check out some photos from the clinic!


Left: Students from Newlon warming up with Rapids midfielder, Mehdi Ballouchy
Right: Knapp students working on passing with Rapids defender, Ugo Ihemelu


Left: Students from Cowell Elementary scrimmage each other under the encouragement of Rapids goalkeeper, Matt Pickens
Right: Rapids defender, Scott Palguta shows Knapp students the correct way to trap and pass the ball.


Left: Munroe student playing a dribbling game with Rapids midfielder, Colin Clark
Right: Rapids Forward, Omar Cummings, autographing students' shirts.


Left: Knapp boy receiving autograph from Rapids goalkeeper, Matt Pickens
Right: Students receiving autographs from various Rapids players

Soccer Clinic with the Colorado Rapids!

On Thursday, April 30th, four of our schools (Eagleton, Cheltenham, Valdez, and Barnum) were invited out to Dick's Sporting Good Park to participate in the Play Like a Pro clinic lead by the Colorado Rapids players. The fields were broken up into four stations that each school rotated through. The Rapids players worked with the children on dribbling, heading the ball, goal kicks, and much more. The SCORES students had so much fun and were really excited about meeting professional soccer players and riding on the charter buses provided by the Rapids organization. Their hard work during the two hour practice was rewarded at the end with an autograph signing session and ice cream!

The rest of our schools will enjoy participating in the clinic on Wednesday, May 6th!

Check out some photos from the event!



Left: Barnum Elementary playing head or catch the ball
Right: Eagleton Elementary boy on a break away during a scrimmage



Left: Valdez Elementary practicing kicks on goal
Right: Cheltenham Elementary working on coordination and trying to avoid been hit by the ball



Colorado Rapids players, Nico Colaluca (Left) and Ciaran O'Brien (Right) autograph students shirts

Come Join us for the Jamboree!

Our 10th Annual Jamboree! will take place this Saturday, May 9th at Dick's Sporting Goods Park from 9am to noon. We have partnered with the Colorado Fusion Club and our teams will have the opportunity to play some of the Fusion teams for the first time! The tournament will still be a fun, non-competitive event that will bring even more students together from around the city.

Both the boys and girls teams will be playing under the U11/U12 groups.

Click here for the Socerfest website and schedule!

The Big Apple, New Friends, and New York Pizza!

On Monday, April 20th two of our poet-athletes represented Denver in the National Poetry Slam in New York hosted by the New York Stock Exchange. Fidel and Nayeli had a busy but fun weekend in New York accompany by their coaches, Chris and Amy. They arrived in New York on Saturday afternoon and were quickly greeted by the other SCORES students from across the country participating in the National Slam. They spent the rest of the day making new friends and eating New York style pizza!

On Sunday the students had a dress rehearsal at the YMCA in Harlem and enjoyed playing a soccer game in Central Park! Later that day some students, with their chaperones, took a tour of the city and visited Times Square, the Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios, the Chrysler building, and Grand Central Station.

On Monday, the day of the Poetry Slam, the students took a tour of the Statue of Liberty and walked around Liberty Island. After a couple more dress rehearsals, management at the New York Stock Exchange, invited some students up to assist in ringing the New York Stock exchange closing bell! It was televised live on national television and our Fidel was one of the students chosen to stand on the balcony to ring the bell! Click here to see SCORES students close the NYSE. Later that evening the National Poetry Slam took place and 28 students from 14 cities dazzled the crowd with the emotion they put into performing their poetry. It was a fun and exciting weekend for all the students and chaperones who attended!

Check out some photos from the weekend. Thanks to Amy Olivas for the photos!



Left: Amy with Nayeli at dinner.
Right: Chris with Fidel at dinner.


Left: SCORES students across the U.S. pose during their performances.
Right: Nayeli in front of Lady Liberty

One can learn a few things from the Spartans...

In the April Issue of Responsible Sports the featured article is about determining responsible sports goal. It talks about how one can turn a bad experience into a positive goal for the future. For the complete article with pdf files please click here.

In the post-game interviews of the 2009 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship title round, Michigan State freshman Delvon Roe was asked about the defeat and watching the Tarheels celebrate. "Absolutely this is going to motivate us," he responded. "If we put in the work that we all need to, we'll give ourselves a chance to get back here."

What Roe, Izzo and the rest of the Spartans took away from the game and post-game celebration was not a sense of defeat, but a clearer picture of their future goal. With immense respect for their opponent after a difficult loss, the Spartans didn’t begrudge the Tarheels their celebration. Instead they saw it as a visualization exercise of what it will look like when they are the ones celebrating.

It was an example in goal setting that translates well to our kids and youth sports. And it’s about more than just winning.

These days when you hear the phrase “goal oriented” you might think of the latest version of your resume or your kids’ latest report card. For the team at Responsible Sports, determining your kids’ goals in sports comes to mind.

The experts at Positive Coaching Alliance remind us, “the life lessons portion of sports start when parents get on the same page with their kids.” Stop and think for a moment: what are your goals for your kids this year in sports? Improving their skills and becoming a better athlete? Learning to play a new sport? Winning? Gaining self-confidence? Improving their physical fitness? Make new friends and have some fun? All of these? How would you rank them from 1 to 10?

And then consider – what are your kids’ objectives in sports? Do you know? Have you and your athlete sat down to talk about their expectations? Some parents might be surprised to hear that their kids’ goals are different from their goals for their kids. Or that they are in a very different order of priority and interest. By talking together about these goals, parents and athletes work together to prioritize what it is they would like to get out of sports – a good reminder that we can’t do it all. It also helps remind us of the importance of character-building in sports. If we find we don’t have this element on our lists, it’s a chance to reflect and add it back in there. And it also gives us another opportunity to talk to and really partner with our kids, both working towards the same purpose.

Coach Izzo and his players used defeat to help crystallize their goals for next season. And notice that players like Roe are not only focused on winning the Championship next year, but also on the hard work and focus they will put in place next season to achieve those aspirations. Coach Izzo turned a difficult situation into an extremely positive and motivating experience for his players – not out of bitterness, but out of passion for the game, their program and their school.

Think about how we as Responsible Sport Parents and Responsible Coaches can help our kids set and achieve their goals in youth sports. How we can facilitate that conversation at home as well as on the field, ice or court.