In 2007 I moved to the edge of nowhere. I put down roots in Southeast Mesa. My main crossroads were made of dirt and there were gorgeous mountain views in every direction. Lines at the local grocery store were rare and people were kind. Then one day about 5 years ago I found myself smack damn in the middle of everywhere…. only I hadn’t gone anywhere.

The change happened fast – one day I was racing 2 cops down Signal Butte in my husbands mustang and the next thing I knew I was stuck in a traffic jam pulling out of my neighborhood. The negative side of rapid growth had arrived. I knew I couldn’t stop it, so I stayed home and complained about it instead.

My youngest started kindergarten the same year Covid closed our country, and by the time everything reopened she was eager to get out of the house. When she asked to play volleyball and I was thrilled. Kids in team sports develop a type of confidence that you just don’t see otherwise. Not to mention, student athletes are 50% less likely to dropout of school and 40% less likely to use illicit drugs compared to non-athletes. There is no shortage of reasons to participate in youth sports and research shows the positives from doing so continue throughout adulthood.

So, I signed my kid up to play in our local rec league. She got through 2 seasons before she was placed on a team with no coach, which was so weird to me. I played multiple sports and was a competitive gymnast for 14 years before I started coaching, so I know how impactful the coach is, especially when you’re just starting a sport. A coach could easily be the reason a child quits the team or even walks away from sports in general. Things were heading that direction for my daughter when I volunteered to coach volleyball, and we were only in her 3rd season. That was about four and a half years ago, she’s 11 now.

According to The Aspen Institute, the average child athlete spends less than three years in a single sport, and cycles out around 11 years old, with approximately 70% of all kids dropping out of organized sports entirely by age 13. The number one reason athletes give for quitting is that it stops being fun due to increased pressure and lack of playing time. The high cost of travel/club teams is a close second.

Club and club-prep teams prioritize winning over fair play which leaves some kids sidelined for most… if not all of the matches and typically costs between $3,000 to over $10,000+ per season… (why anyone would pay that much to ride the bench is beyond me). Another negative that directly correlates to quitting rates is assigning positions too early. Research shows early single-sport and position specialization can lead to mental burnout and overuse injuries, yet most club & club prep teams prioritize position specialization over 6-6 rotations [where each player plays all 6 positions].

Between the horror stories I’ve heard and the obstacles I’ve encountered as a coach – I say with confidence – for the sake of our children something has to change. My daughter is at the age where she will either fully fall in love or walk away from volleyball and I have very little confidence that any of the 3 programs we’ve experienced are capable of holding her attention. And after speaking with several dozen parents, I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

As a community our needs are not being met. Our leaders have failed us... and, nobody is holding them accountable.

We were sold one neighborhood and they delivered a different one. The open spaces are filled but the town they built – is not the one they promised. The problematic E-bike kids and the Gilbert Goons are mere child’s play compared to what’s coming if real changes aren’t made. I have seen the ugly-side of unsupervised boredom – it happens fast and will hijack an entire generation before anyone knows it’s happening.

I moved here because of the town it was. I stayed here because of the town they said it would become. Now I’m stuck in the town it is. And that means my daughter suffers because our leaders value profit over promises. The whole reason I moved to Arizona in the first place was so my kids had a different kind of childhood, one that allowed them to stay kids much longer than I did. I can’t sit by quietly as all of the places kids went to create memories are paved over, walled off, and built up into massive warehouses that disturb our peace and destroy our property values.

Everyone (myself included) complains about the kids riding e-bikes around their neighborhood and through their parks. Southeast Mesa was an awesome place to ride, especially if you were new to riding off road. Even though our desert spaces have been consistently shrinking for the past 15 years, we still had small pockets of open desert up until very recently. But now, we have asphalt and block walls. Going on a family ride these days requires you to put your life in the hands of hundreds of thousands of distracted drivers who race through Southeast Mesa everyday, and if you try to avoid all that traffic by riding through one of the MANY empty parking lots along your old route an alarm will sound and a voice will come through the speakers telling you to vacate the property or the police will be called.

The center I’m building may not fix all the broken promises or solve all of our problems, but it solves a big one and helps a lot of working families in the process.

About 1 in 5 kids are alone and unsupervised after school while their parents work. Data consistently shows that juvenile crime rates on school days spike between 2:00 and 6:00 PM, and 75% of kids who use substances say they started using drugs after school because they were bored and their parents weren’t home to catch them. This is the reason after school hours are known as The Danger Zone.

The Spot, provides working parents with peace of mind. Families in Southeast Mesa can relax knowing their kids are in a safe environment where they can get help with homework, workout, play ball, access the internet, find peer-support, talk to a counselor, or just relax. But that’s not all we do…

In the hours before the Danger Zone, we cater to our senior community and homeschool families by offering creative art courses and physical fitness classes (grouped by age). Our senior members have access to daily small groups such as: Bungee Assisted Fitness, Beginners Aerial Yoga, and Partner Stretching. While homeschooled children can attend structured gym classes, where they’ll participate in a variety of intermural sports, and busy moms will love the free-time they get when they drop their kids off for recess at The Spot.

From 6 o’clock on we cater to the 70%… whether you didn’t make the team at school… can’t or won’t pay $3,000+ per season at a typical club… or are anyone of any age looking for a program that is committed to whole-person athletic development through knowledgeable coaches, advanced training methods, and up-to-date technology, The Spot, has a team for you.

Enjoy the difference a club where people are put above profits can make.

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Whether you landed here by mistake or it was intentional, you’re here now, so you might as well stay awhile, don’t worry – we’re good people. But I live in a neighborhood with no safe spaces for kids. So I’m going to change that.

The Spot is a trusted 3rd space that caters to the needs of our community. From a morning wellness center and micro school to a homework hangout and youth sports hub. The Spot is the space you need when you need it.

Only, I can’t do it alone. You can help by shopping the fundraiser, entering our giveaway or donating directly to the Project Smile Fund. Don’t forget to show your support by following our blog. Keep reading to deep-dive behind the scenes.

I am every WOMAN.

I grew up in a town with nothing for kids to do. We were chased out of every parking lot and the only park in town. Walking down the street became a gamble, the cops treated us like criminals long before anyone actually became one. I was in 10th grade the first time I saw a friend overdose… in 11th grade the first time I saved a life… and in 12th grade the first time I heard a friend had lost their life. Since then, I have heard those words so much that I lost count. But I do know that more than 30 people I once called friends were killed by a habit they picked up out of boredom and a lack of understanding.

One of them was Allison. She was my best friend, but more than that, she became a little sister to me. I met her walking down D Hall in middle school, three girls were following her and one of them was trying to snatch her jacket. My friend and I made sure that didn’t happen and then we walked her home. We didn’t become friends right away, but I did tell her about this weird need to protect her that I felt in the hallway. So about a month later when she was accused of trying to steal someone’s boyfriend, she called me, and that was the beginning of a literal life-long friendship.

We stayed friends through junior high and high school. We moved across the country and back. We were both pregnant with boys due on Halloween, born 9 hours apart but 6 weeks early, and delivered by the same doctor. Along with a million more moments that made our friendship unique, but also sad and eventually toxic. She used to ask what I thought life would have been like if we had taken my advice and Just Said No.

I don’t know how different it could have been. We lived in a small town and had a huge group of friends, not many made it out.

In order to end up as one of the unscathed, almost every choice we ever made would have had to been different for either of us to land in one of the small circles of kids who escaped the town fate. From where we were standing it looked like the world forgot about us and that perspective is what drove our late night conversations. We talked a lot about the things we’d do to make sure what happened in our home town – never happened in anyone else’s.

Now that I’m grown, I see we weren’t the only town hit by that plague. But when you have just over 50 kids per graduating class its easier to see the changes. I’ll never understand ho gotten degrees in criminal investigations and psychology. I worked as a court-ordered behavioral health counselor, over the last decade I’ve been able to help hundreds of clients navigate complex personal and legal issues, but I’m ready for the next chapter.

I have been passionate about things in the past, but this is different. This is what I’m supposed to do.

My past experiences and choices, both good and bad have prepared me for the next step.

My grandfather was the if you want it done right do it yourself type. He wasn’t wrong.

I’ve been searching for the perfect youth volleyball program for my daughter for almost 5 years now. I haven’t found one – but I have found some very disturbing trends.

After coaching in 3 leagues and talking to dozens of parents and other coaches I’ve heard enough to know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

The ship was making her way steadily through small waves which slapped her and then fizzled like effervescing water, leaving a little border of bubbles and foam on either side. The colourless October sky above was thinly clouded as if by the trail of wood-fire smoke, and the air was wonderfully salt and brisk. Indeed it was too cold to stand still. Mrs. Ambrose drew her arm within her husband’s, and as they moved off it could be seen from the way in which her sloping cheek turned up to his that she had something private to communicate.