Bringing Sports Back to Our Schools
A pilot league model for safer, healthier, and more connected youth.
Most kids in Chicago's South and West Side neighborhoods don't have access to affordable, local sports. Pay-to-play club teams start around $3,500 per kid per season, not including travel. Programs that schools can actually afford have mostly disappeared. And when kids don't have structured activity after school, everyone feels it -- attendance, behavior, engagement.
Comparable in-school sports programs run $10,000 to $35,000 for a single season. That's not a realistic ask for most CPS schools. The demand hasn't gone anywhere. The options have.
An in-house soccer league that runs right at your school, after school, no travel required. We build balanced teams from your students, run organized and refereed games every week, and close with a championship celebration. Every kid competes. Every kid belongs.
Six to eight weeks. Structured, supervised, and sportsmanship-focused.
Games run 3:30 to 5:30pm, one to two days a week. We typically work with 5th and 6th grade or 7th and 8th grade. Six teams means 30 to 40 kids. Eight teams means 40 to 50. Games are 20 minutes, small-sided -- more touches, more action, more participation across the board.
Big impact for kids, low lift for school.
We are a Latino-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has been organizing soccer in Chicago's South and West Side neighborhoods for over ten years. We grew up here, we live here, and we built a 7,000-member community through consistency and trust.
We know what works in these schools because we know these neighborhoods. The families, the culture, the real conditions on the ground.
We run the summer soccer league at the Rauner Family YMCA -- managing all game operations, refereeing, and ground logistics. The Executive Director there put it simply: "This youth soccer league launches meaningful programming that gives underserved communities opportunities to develop through sports."
We are looking for the right school to grow with, not a transaction. That means we come to the table as a partner -- with resources, relationships, and a real stake in making this work for your students. Cost is never the reason a good partnership doesn't happen. If the fit is right, we figure it out together.
A 20-minute conversation is all it takes to figure out if this is a good fit. No pressure. Just a real conversation about your students and what they need.
Let's TalkAbout REC 77: Chicago Neighborhood Soccer's school partnership program brings an in-house soccer league directly to CPS schools. Also known as REC77, this NBHD Soccer initiative serves Chicago's South Side and West Side communities through affordable, structured after-school sports programming. Our Latino-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit specializes in youth development through sports, built specifically for each school's unique needs.