Class is in session: Onset resident spreads love of sports through youth program

“Kids are getting lazier as we speak and I didn’t want my daughter being on the television at all,” Elizabeth Wilson of Onset said. “She needs to be out and about and I want to make a positive impact not just on her life but on more kids’ lives.”

So Wilson decided to take action and started her own chapter of Playball, an international organization dedicated to helping kids develop through sports.

“Our mission is to promote physical, emotional, social and cognitive development in kids,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s chapter of the program is based in Falmouth and serves three age groups, 18 to 24-months-old, 2 to 6-years-old and 7 to 10-years-old. Each program has a 30 session curriculum broken up into beginner, intermediate and advanced sections which have a 10 session curriculum each.

She explained the program is set-up almost like a classroom, where kids can be active and get their energy out.

“We have our spots as if we’re representing desks in a classroom but we’re outside,” she said. “We show them a skill and then the kids do it and then we move on to the next one.”

The skills range from sport specific movements like free-throw shooting in basketball or an overhead soccer throw-in, to refining fine motor skills. Each activity is done in a way that is fun for the kids, Wilson said.

“We do a lot of planks but we turn it into a game,” she said. “We’ll say we’re little alligators and then alligator walk bit by bit. It looks like we’re playing, but we’re playing with structure.”

Wilson participated in the program as a student in South Africa and she credits it for her lifelong love of sports. She came to the U.S. with hopes of travelling the world and after settling down with her husband in Onset, she felt a call to get kids up and moving when her now 3-year-old daughter was born.

Thinking back on her own time in Playball, she decided to bring it to the South Coast for the first time in the program’s history.

Prior to officially establishing her own Playball chapter, Wilson said she tested the program out on her own three-year-old daughter and her friend's kids over a period of six months.

“I saw growth in my kid and my friend’s kids so I immediately said I’m just going to continue by buying my franchise,” she said.

Wilson officially began her classes five months ago and has already been successful. So much so that she recently signed a five year contract with Playball to help keep her chapter running.

So far, Wilson has seen over 100 kids come through her program with each showing signs of growth in a short period of time.

“One kid started when he was two and he’s three now and Playball took him from being unsure about a whole bunch of skills to talking to the friend next to him saying ‘hey could I help you,’” she said. “When he started he wanted nothing to do with the other kids and wanted to be by himself but now he’s very contained, sits still, listens, waits for instructions and follows through.”

She added the program is still young but continues to grow as word of Playball continues to spread. She said the next step for Playball is to get it into area schools and incorporate her program as a part of the school’s physical education program.

Despite hearing repeated no’s from various school districts, she got her first yes and is beginning classes at the Discovery Pre-School in Buzzards Bay.

“It’s the ultimate program and it makes me giddy on the inside,” she said. “It makes me want to continue this everyday.”