I’ve often said that my memories tend to come back to me as photographs rather than motion pictures. I don’t remember long stretches of my childhood or even much of my early career. Instead, I remember moments. It’s almost as if someone was quietly standing off to the side with a camera, capturing an image that wouldn’t make complete sense until years later.
As I found myself thinking about National Sport Sampling Day this year, three moments from this summer kept coming back to me. At first, I didn’t think they had anything to do with one another. Looking back now, I’m not so sure.
The first took place in Baltimore.
Less than a week after the school year ended, Kerry and I had the privilege of working with twenty educators at Henderson-Hopkins School through our partnership with Arts for Learning Maryland’s SALA program. Ten of the teachers would spend the summer introducing our model to over 2000 children throughout Baltimore, while the other ten would be working with nearly 750 students in Extended School Year (ESY) programs serving young people with an incredibly wide range of abilities and needs.
I found myself thinking about the fact that these teachers had just finished another school year. Most people would have been looking forward to some well-deserved time away. Instead, they chose to spend most of their summer learning, laughing, playing and preparing to create even more opportunities for children they hadn’t even met yet. By the end of our two days together, several of them told us it had been one of the best professional development experiences they had attended. While those comments were certainly gratifying, they weren’t what stayed with me.
About a week later, Kerry and I visited several of their sites throughout Baltimore. We found ourselves in different schools, different neighborhoods and with different groups of children, yet the one thing that never changed was the quality of the people leading those programs. Everywhere we went, we watched teachers creating environments where children felt comfortable trying something new, encouraging one another and simply enjoying being active together. I went to Baltimore hoping we might inspire a group of educators. Instead, they inspired me.
The second moment took place in our living room.
For several weeks, our house slowly disappeared beneath stacks of mesh bags as Kerry and the team assembled seventy-five 2-4-1 Play & Nutrition Kits that would soon make their way to after-school programs across Connecticut through our partnership with the Capitol Region Education Council’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers and UConn Husky Nutrition &Sport. As we packed each bag, I found myself thinking less about what we were putting inside and more about the people who would eventually open them.
The truth is there isn’t anything all that magical about what’s in those bags. A ball is still a ball. A cone is still a cone. What has always mattered to us is helping people see possibilities instead of limitations. If someone believes they need expensive equipment before children can experience the joy of play, we’ve probably missed the point. If a teacher, coach or after-school leader opens one of those bags and begins seeing opportunities they hadn’t seen before, then we’ve accomplished something far more important than simply delivering equipment.
The third moment happened a few weeks later while Kerry and I were spending a few days on the coast of Maine with our adult daughters.
Amidst such a busy summer, it was nice to simply sit on the beach and do absolutely nothing (for those of you who know me well- I am no expert at relaxing). As I tried to watch the waves, my attention drifted toward two older kids playing with several younger children in the distance. For along while, I smiled as I watched them move effortlessly from wiffle ball to lacrosse to touch football. They weren’t following anybody’s lesson plan. They were simply making things up as they went along, making sure the younger kids were involved and, from everything I could tell, having a blast time doing it.
Then something started to look familiar.
The two older kids were a brother and sister who had attended our camps until just a couple of years ago. Year after year, on the last day of camp, their mom would send me a picture of the two of them wearing their 2-4-1 shirts. That’s why I recognized them, even though we were sitting on a beach three hours from home.
I’ll admit I got goosebumps.
It wasn’t because I remembered them. It wasn’t because they had attended our camps. It was because I was watching them create their own version of sport sampling without anyone asking them to do it. Somewhere along the way, they had embraced the idea that play should be creative, inclusive and fun, and now they were passing that idea along to a group of younger children who will probably never know where it started.
As I reflected on those three moments, I realized they were all telling me the same story.
For years, I probably measured our impact by the number of children we reached ourselves. I still love every opportunity I have to work directly with kids, and I hope that never changes. What this summer reminded me, however, is that our greatest opportunity may now be helping other people create those same experiences. Whether it’s a teacher in Baltimore, an after-school leader in Connecticut or two former campers on a beach in Maine, that’s how this work continues to grow.
When we first launched National Sport Sampling Day, I’ll admit I dreamed a little. I could picture ESPN SportsCenter mentioning it one August morning. Maybe Gary Striewski would remind families across the country that “Life’s 2 Short 4 Just 1 Sport”. Heck – I still think that would be pretty cool!
As I watched those two former campers on the beach, though, I realized something I hadn’t fully appreciated before. The movement I had been hoping to see wasn’t something that might happen someday. It was already happening right in front of me.
If SportsCenter ever tells that story, I’ll smile.
But after this summer, I don’t think I’ll ever look at National Sport Sampling Day quite the same way again. I used to think our greatest challenge was getting more people to hear the message. Now I think our greatest responsibility is continuing to help more people live it. That’s a very different thing.
I’m hoping National Sport Sampling Day has a lot more chapters left to write. Maybe one of them starts with you.
About Steve Boyle
Steve Boyle is a connector, collaborator, and tireless advocate for making youth sports more playful, inclusive, and developmentally sound. As Executive Director of 2-4-1 CARE, Inc. and Co-Founder of 2-4-1 Sports, Steve has helped lead a growing movement to reshape the youth sports experience—one that puts the joy of play and the whole child at the center. Grounded in his background as a school counselor and coach, Steve co-created the award-winning TOP Self™ platform, which uses sport as a vehicle for social-emotional learning. Under his collaborative leadership, 2-4-1 has grown from a single program in West Hartford, Connecticut to a global nonprofit impacting communities across North America and Africa. Steve’s influence extends beyond his own organization. He served as Advisory Board Chair for the National Association of Physical Literacy and as Global Lead for Athletics and Physical Literacy at Whittle School & Studios, shaping programming in Washington, D.C. and Shenzhen. Whether working with local partners or global networks, Steve brings humility, heart, and a belief in the power of teamwork to everything he does.