Progress and Impact in Borneo

It's been six months

since we traveled to Ranau, Malaysia to create our youth lacrosse program at the SMK Mat Salleh School. Since then it's been an amazing journey of successes and failures along the way, however, it makes me proud to say that things have taken off and the students are back to school learning and making lacrosse part of their daily routine. The students of SMK Mat Salleh spearheaded by two leaders of our program, Dena and Kennedy, both senior level students at the school have been involved with teaching new players and continuing to grow the game along with their fellow student athletes.

Erin Whitman is the new Fulbright English Teaching Assistant who has taken Kelly Case's spot at the school and is doing a terrific job helping the students scheduling time and involving lacrosse into their days with practice being held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursday afternoons. Her support is unparalleled and the program has taken on an sustainable nature that I could of only dreamed it would.

See below some photos of the students and her playing lacrosse, including star drills, shooting drills, and teamwork development sessions!

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As the students are practicing and developing, here in Denver we are planning our return trip to Ranau this April.  The time is coming and I couldn't be more excited to return and grow the game with 3-4 days of more instruction and coaching at SMK Mat Salleh as well as 2-3 days at SMK Ranau where we will teach 100+ students lacrosse and create another team that will compete with the SMK Mat Salleh school.  With these two school programs we hope that this will provide motivational competition and spread awareness of our impact and how lacrosse serves as  medium to provide an outlet for the students to become physically and mentally healthy.  The comradery between the students while playing lacrosse is unmatched and it is helping to grow them as individuals and as a group working together to achieve goals.

The outreach so far has been terrific from our partners such as LacrosseUnlimited and Jimalax as well as Nationwide Lacrosse and school lacrosse programs here such as Thunder Ridge High School (Denver), Lambert High School (Georgia), Long Valley Middle School (New Jersey), and West Coast (California).  During our programming in April, Jake Marr and crew from the MLA (Malaysia Lacrosse Association) in Kuala Lumpur and Drew Belinsky (Singapore), Fulbright Program Malaysia, and U.S. Embassy of Malaysia will be helping to support the Ranau Lacrosse Project and it's growth.  Together we will achieve great things are we are still looking for 1-2 more people to join us in early April to coach and teach in Malaysia.  

Letter from the President & Founder

Letter from the President & Founder

 

Today marks the last day of 2015 which ended up as a tremendous year of culture, happenings, and firsts. No time more than now is it apparent that everything in our society is occurring for a reason and that is for everyone to see. With the tragic events that have plagued us to the incredible successes accomplished that which have become front and center stage and we are more informed than we have ever been to witness and be apart of our global world.

I am proud to have created the organization this year and discover where we can go. Kids Lacrosse The World came about from a year long trip abroad and the opportunity I saw within the brilliant young people in communities around the world. It's clear to see the amount of good that is being done on a global level and it comforts me to know we are now a small part of the global cause. With our roots in Denver, Colorado the support we have received is unprecedented from corporations, small business, state senators, elementary schools, and beyond. Together we can achieve more and it has never felt better to work with like minded individuals to achieve a common goal of impacting the international world.  

This year brought us the creation of our first sustainable youth lacrosse program based out of Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. The stakes were high for our first program and I couldn't be happier with the results from those 14 days. With over 200 students learning the game of lacrosse and tons of equipment donated, the school recognized us with providing the students an invaluable experience and we formed an amazing relationship with a diverse, beautiful community in Ranau.  

Our next few months will be critical as we hope to travel to Kenya to create and develop our African based kids program where there is much work to be done. Towards the spring we plan to return to Sabah to grow the Ranau Program in other schools to create a regional level competition and begin creating a legacy program to further saturate the lacrosse program into the schools.  

With all of this will come the challenges and obstacles that face a growing organization as well as a furthering responsibility to the communities here in Denver and that we operate in to carry out our vision and due so in a diligent, responsible manner. Everything we touch I hope to improve and leave better than we found it. From the old equipment donated to the grass fields we play on, our focus should be to always improve and grow, make use and reuse.

““Everyone in this world should wake up on being stoked to do something.””

— Will Jackways

These words from Will who is someone that I look up to should echo to everyone in this world. Regardless of occupation, it is so important to have a fresh outlook daily and hold a passion that burns bright. It's easy to lose stoke, I look at my own self with working 50+ hours a week at my day job, coaching lacrosse here in Denver, and maintaining my activities outdoors and all the sudden it's easily lost. I push myself back to be stoked and passionate, and with the amazing work we do at Kids Lacrosse The World I find that. 

I wish everyone a safe and happy New Years, Cheers to 2015 and Stoke for 2016!

Success in Borneo On and Off the Field

Twelve days in Ranau proved to be just the right amount of time needed to produce the results Kids Lacrosse The World sought in their first trip abroad to an international community to introduce the game of lacrosse.  Just a month ago, nearly everyone in the state of Sabah had never heard the term "lacrosse" let alone understood what is was and how it could pull a school together in tough times after a recent major earthquake.  Stop by SMK Mat Salleh School in Ranau, Sabah today and you could find numerous students playing catch outside on the football field as well as hear students quietly discuss the game among friends and how it has affected them.

I bought my plane ticket to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia just two months ago, teetering on the edge of thinking to myself "is this a good idea for our first program? Who is Kelly Case the English teacher constantly reaching out to bring a new sport to her town? Could we really pull this off with minimal sponsors and partners?" I enlisted the help of a friend from New York City to come with me and put this program together.  Samson Tan had previously started a lacrosse program in inner city areas to promote health and wellness as well as giving students who previously wouldn't have had a chance to learn the game an opportunity.  Before we knew it, Samson and I were packed into a tiny car, with tons of bags and equipment ready to immerse ourselves in a unknown culture to teach lacrosse.

The cheers received from our players at the end of our time in Ranau couldn't be louder and more heartfelt.  A student came up to me and thanked me, not for bringing lacrosse to her home town, but for providing the chance for her to make new friends and enjoy herself being with others from playing a new sport.  She explained that all she does is study and go to school, with not much other opportunity to play sports or be with other students.  This profound impact is what I hoped would come from introducing a new sport and idea to a peaceful place that has limited resources and capital income which severely limited the opportunity of students and children alike.

During our tenure at SMK Mat Salleh, we were able to teach lacrosse to just over 200 students, involving them in our daily learning clinics and free time after class hours.  We also focused a 2-3 hour session everyday with 35-40 students aged 15-18 to develop their understanding of the game and training, hoping to create a sustainable team, roughly split between girls and guys who would currently and in the future represent the Ranau region.  Along with our programming, we donated two full sized lacrosse goals, 26 girls/boys lacrosse sticks, and 32 balls.  All of our equipment was sourced locally in Denver, Colorado being donated by numerous youth lacrosse clubs, associations, and high school teams.  Their couldn't be a better way to get rid of older equipment than given to these passionate, beautiful students of Ranau.

Reflecting on our trip a month later, I see a promising future for the Ranau Lacrosse Program. First I have to thank Kelly Case for her gracious generosity of her home and car while we stayed in town to get around and collect supplies last minute.  As well her devotion to promoting the game with her students and actively participating during our clinics.  She has continued to hold practices since we have left, working to sustain the program during tough times in the Ranau area (wildfire haze and smoke coupled with a recent major earthquake that damaged water systems).   We have a lot of work to do, encouraging school officials to get involved and and growing the game in the area.  This week, Kelly, the local Fulbright English Teacher Assistant at SMK Mat Salleh is holding a clinic with four student athletes at two locals schools to introduce the game and raise awareness of how they can get involved.  With this production on the local level Kids Lacrosse The World can focus on two more schools in the local area to hold clinics and create programs of which can compete in the first interscholastic lacrosse competition in South East Asia.