Funded sports a hit with kids

As a child, William Sparks spent a lot of time alone at home while his single mother worked two jobs to make ends meet. Unlike many latchkey children, however, Mr. Sparks did not seek solace in television or cause mischief with his friends. Instead, he immersed himself in baseball. “Sports gave me a direction,” said Mr. Sparks, winner of this year's Mentoring Excellence Award. “I got all of my male role models from coaches.” Decades later, Mr. Sparks, a first vice president in San Diego with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, decided to return the favor. In 2008, he and his wife, Sarah, founded Los Angelitos de Encinitas, an after-school sports and educational program for low-income children in Encinitas, Calif. This fall, the program (whose name means Little Angels) will provide more than 130 mostly Hispanic children with financial resources to help offset the cost of participating in the Encinitas Soccer League. In addition, the program will provide after-school tutoring to about 200 children. “My whole life experience has brought me to this point where I can make a difference,” said Mr. Sparks, who also serves as a coach with the Encinitas Soccer League. Typically, the cost of playing in the league is $175 a child. But Los Angelitos de Encinitas asks only that families come up with $50 per child. In cases where families still are unable to come up with the fee, Mr. Sparks, who speaks Spanish, gladly works out a payment plan. Like Mr. Sparks, many of the children participating in the program come from single-parent homes. As a result of the program, he said, the children develop greater self-confidence and learn to behave more responsibly, in addition to becoming better athletes. “Every child is a story in their own right,” he added. “You work with these kids, and they become your kids. It's been a wonderful, heartbreaking and rewarding challenge.” In addition to its athletic programs, Los Angelitos provides tutoring to children who are failing in school. In fact, the $15,000 contribution from the Community Leadership Awards will be used for academic programs. “Now people are realizing that we're more than just soccer,” said Sarah Garfield, Mr. Sparks' wife of 16 years. “We're coming together to make sure that no one falls through the cracks.”