Scott M. Curran: Tomorrow, the World Cup kicks off on American soil for the first time in over 30 years. About four billion people worldwide will tune in. A quarter billion of us actually play the game across more than 200 countries and 300,000 clubs. And for every one of those players, there are the parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends who show up to watch. 

Same game, same rules, same moments that make people jump out of their seats, whether you're in Chicago, where I live, or halfway around the world. Whether you call it soccer or football, and whether it's played on a field or a pitch, the game unites us in ways obvious and not. There aren't many things left that still do that, especially these days.

So it feels like the right moment to look at soccer a little differently. Yes, it is a globally unifying sport, but take a second look at it and it quickly becomes much more. A shared language, a lifetime of learning, a thing kids, families, and entire communities can rally around almost instantly. 

You don't need much to start: a ball, a bit of space, a few people willing to play. What you do need, and what actually makes it work for a lifetime, is access, a place, some structure, and someone who cares enough to show up consistently. That's what we're gonna talk about today with Ed Foster-Simeon, President and CEO of the US Soccer Foundation. 

Welcome to Better Good, the show where you learn how the best do good and how you can, too. I'm your host, Scott Curran. For 25 years, I've served as a corporate lawyer, an in-house general counsel, and an advisor to some of the most extraordinary social impact work spanning the private sector, philanthropy, and social enterprises. On this podcast, I talk to the innovators reimagining how the world does good, bringing you candid and inspiring conversations and practical advice, guidance, and tools that you can use in your life and at work. If doing good is something you care about, you're in the right place because the world's biggest problems won't wait, and neither should you.

My guest today is Ed Foster-Simeon, President and CEO of the US Soccer Foundation, itself a legacy of the last time America hosted the World Cup in 1994. Ed and the foundation have spent decades building access to soccer in under-resourced communities across the country. This year, the foundation will hit a milestone of 1,000 mini pitches installed nationwide, timed to this summer's World Cup, and it's training 100,000 coaches across every sport to become mentors through their Yes Coach initiative. And this matters because safe places to play and coaches that teach life skills in addition to sports skills impart lessons that last a lifetime. I've gotten to know Ed personally through the Chicago Leadership Council of the US Soccer Foundation, on which my wife and I proudly serve. Ed is the same person in conversation one-on-one as he is on a big stage with billionaires and soccer stars. That's my favorite thing about him. Ed's the kind of leader in the nonprofit world who makes magic not just through what he does, but through how he does it. If you care about something as simple as soccer or sports and how it can open doors, minds, and opportunities for health, confidence, leadership, and community, you're gonna love this episode as much as I do.

This is Better Good, and here's my conversation with Ed Foster-Simeon. Ed, welcome to Better Good. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Thank you, Scott. Good to be with you again. 

Scott M. Curran: Great to be with you. You know I'm a fan, and I think all supporters have to wear the appropriate garb. I want you to know, I got my U.S. Soccer Foundation supporter scarf out today just 'cause I knew I was gonna be with you. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Excellent. 

Scott M. Curran: It's, it's warm, so I'm not gonna wear it, but it's right here with me. Um, but thank you so much for joining me. It's so great to see you and, and so fun to be with you here. I wanna ask you a question I don't know the answer to, and it's the same question I start most of these episodes with, which is, if you think back to your earliest memory when you came to the awareness that doing good was something people did, what is that memory for you in your life?

Ed Foster-Simeon: My grandmother, uh, is, was a sharecropper's daughter with a fourth-grade education. And she came from Moultrie, Georgia, to New York, to Brooklyn, New York, and she worked as a domestic, right? And, um, we all know what that role is. Basically, like a maid or whatever. And my mother, uh, moved up the ladder a little bit. She was a, a licensed practical nurse, but to make ends meet, she still cleaned office buildings at night. And my father was a general mechanic, which I took me years to learn that that meant he was a handyman, right? And so, why I give you that background to answer your question is because despite their humble beginnings, they always, my family always helped other people. They always did things to help other people, who were in even less fortunate circumstances of trying to, um, be, I guess, good. Good people. Trying to do the right thing and trying to be, do well by others when they could, uh, even with their humble beginnings. And they also consistently conveyed this message to me that-to treat everyone with respect, uh, and to believe in everyone from the parking attendant to the garbage man, to the businessman who's in a suit. They should all be treated the same in terms of how we respect and recognize them as, as human beings and members of, of our society. S this idea of doing good and, and doing the right thing, was basically a value set that, that came through my family. 

Scott M. Curran: I love it. Thank you for sharing that with me. So let's fast-forward from that earliest memory to where you are today. We're gonna talk about the work you do and the foundation's work in just a second. But when you meet someone on the street or in an elevator and they say, "Hey, what do you do?" How do you describe the, the position and the top-line work of the foundation today?

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yeah. So I say I have the privilege of running an organization that uses soccer as a vehicle to improve the health and wellbeing of young people growing up in less fortunate circumstances. One of the things that, that inspires me is how the simplest things in the world can have the biggest impact.

 There are many folks trying to address the needs of children and young people in under-resourced communities, but a lot of the solutions are very sophisticated and complicated and, and they're difficult to scale to reach the, to match the scale of the problem. And for us, the beauty of sport and soccer in particular, is that it's a relatively low-cost way to address some of the things that we care most about and that we're concerned about. Young people staying in school, staying out of trouble, developing healthy habits and healthy lifestyles, you know, going on to have an opportunity at least to pursue careers as adults and become a productive members of society. Ad sometimes the simplest thing is getting a kid engaged with sport.

There's all kinds of evidence that when kids are involved with sports that they they go to school, they show up because they want to play, right? And so thinking of simple ways to engage kids, and what I've learned through this work is youth coaches are mo- a underutilized natural resource. They are among the most influential people in a child's life. Children come running and laughing to their coaches because they want to learn from them, and they have fun doing so, right? And so our approach is to train those coaches not only how to run a soccer drill, but how to be an effective mentor in those children's life, talking to them about everything from nutrition, helping them deal with life problems that they come to practice with, you know, and just helping them develop and being that one more caring adult outside of their parents in their community who's there to support them.

Scott M. Curran: There is so much goodness in this that I cannot wait to unpack because I can both relate to it and because I see it, and I see it from the soccer side, the coaching side, the player side, the nonprofit side. I love your focus on simplicity. We're gonna unpack all of that. One of the things I want listeners who don't know your background to know is how you got here.

So let's time travel a bit between that young kid who was learning those great lessons from your awesome parents to where you are today. You did not start in philanthropy or in soccer. You kind of by necessity wound up in the world of soccer, and then kind of rose through here. So tell people who don't know about where you've spent, or where you originally spent most of your career, um, and then walk us through how you sort of wound up in this situation with your own kids playing soccer, needing a coach, and then getting into the, the foundation. Tell people what you did before. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yeah. So I, I used to be a journalist. I was, you know, before taking this role, I was deputy managing editor at USA Today. I got into the news business after I left the Navy, and it was something that I enjoyed and cared a lot about was journalism and storytelling and connecting with people and the opportunity to meet people and tell their stories, uh, was something that I enjoyed a lot.

The connection to soccer, believe it or not, I'm a kid from Brooklyn, so I, you know, in my youth, soccer was not a thing in my neighborhood. We played stickball, we played tag, you know, we played basketball. You know, we did, we did all these other things, but I did not see a soccer ball. My introduction to soccer was through my, my son when he was four. We s- we signed him up for soccer because we saw all these kids running up and down, burning all this energy, and I thought, we need that for him because, you know, he is, he's kind of a handful. Um, and through that I got drafted to be a coach... And I learned quickly that was not my strong suit, was coaching. I loved the kids, but I'd get so absorbed watching them I'd forget to substitute a kid in, you know? And I was like, "You know what? Someone else should do this." But I became very active in my club, first as a team manager, and then wound up being the volunteer president of a 3,000-player club in northern Virginia. Which was a great education for me to understand, you know, what motivates people and the structure around soccer and what works and what doesn't work. One of the things I, I learned through that, I had four kids who, who played and it was... You know, to be honest with you, it was quite expensive, even back then. Because not only are you paying the fees, but because they played competitive soccer, they traveled to tournaments. And just for regular league games you might drive 40, 50, 60 miles, um, to play a, a Saturday game, in another state. So it was a great education for me, but my love of the game just really kind of It blew up.

 I just was just blown away by the athleticism and the community around soccer. I grew up playing basketball, but I never had experienced that kind of sense of community around a sport as I experienced it with soccer. Some of my best friends in the community I live in, I've met standing on a touchline watching our kids play and, you know, starting a conversation, and these are folks that I would never have met or interacted with. And so the social factor of it, and I think that's why so many parents get so deeply involved because their kid is playing, but it has value to them as well because they meet friends, they make relationships that extend far beyond, beyond the playing field. So...and I watched it with my own kids how, um, you know, I'll give you an, an anecdote.

My, my, my oldest, when he was 10, he got a coach from Jamaica. And the coach cared a lot about what the kids were eating. Uh, you know, they went to a tournament. Between games, they ate hamburgers and french fries, and they pay- played poorly the next game. Uh, so he really started talking to them about what they were eating. And suddenly my, my, my 10-year-old son is coming home telling his mother and I that, you know, "I should be eating, you know, a grilled chicken and salad. Coach says I should be." And we're like, "Well, we've been telling you that for 10 years," right? You know? But, I share that point because the coach, things that we could say as a parent, the same exact words coming out of the mouth of a coach or another caring adult has a different impact on a child.

And so that was one of my great learnings watching my own children and the impact it had on them. 

Scott M. Curran: Super powerful. Before we jump into U.S. Soccer Foundation work, I wanna ask you what carried over from your career in journalism, an esteemed career in journalism? An d what was the moment when you made the switch, when you're like, "Okay, I'm gonna leave journalism," and, and a big media outlet, no less, into the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and tell people what year that was, because this was not the best circumstances to make a big career pivot that when you wound up at U.S. Soccer Foundation. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yeah. So it's interesting. I had served on the board of the foundation as a volunteer for a number of years, and in 2008, my predecessor announced that he was retiring and I was like, "Wow, that's, that, that's amazing. Why would you give up this job?" He says, "Well, I'm a little bit older than you think." And so, but he said, "Aren't you gonna put your name into consideration?" And, and I was like, "Well, like, I have a good job. You know, I'm deputy managing editor at USA Today...." But I came home and I've been married for a while, been married for 44 years, so, I came home and I talked to my wife about it, and the reason I married my wife is 'cause she's smarter than me. And she said, "Why wouldn't you put your name into consideration? You spend all your free time doing this. Why wouldn't you put your name into consideration?" And so I did, and here I am. The timing was really weird. I started in June of 2008, and by November of that year, people were talking about the, the great real possibility of another Great Depression, right? We had the financial crisis, you know, the meltdown on Wall Street. Not a great time to come into a, a nonprofit organization, and that where you're trying to advance a mission. Now, the good part about that is that a crisis focuses the mind. You know, as has been said, it's a terrible thing to waste is when you have a crisis to, to get clarity about what are we really doing.

When the U.S. Soccer Foundation first started, we were really about just generally growing the game of soccer. How do we help Major League Soccer get started? We came out of the 1994 World Cup. We're a legacy of that World Cup. So we helped the MLS get going. We helped bring the 1999 Women's World Cup to the U.S. We helped every iteration of the women's leagues. Uh, we supported field building projects and, and programmatic efforts in all 50 states, working with state associations and clubs, et cetera. But in 2000 when I came in, I had to do a business plan of what direction we wanted to go. And when we surveyed the landscape, we realized that in 15 years since the '94 World Cup, the game had grown phenomenally. The, you know, professional league was up and running, all those things were happening, but that low-income kids were not part of that growth stor, for the reasons that we talked about a little earlier, that the cost of participation had increased over the years. The need to travel to have transportation, and to be able to stay overnight, and accommodations in many cases was a barrier for many, many kids. And oftentimes the programs and the facilities were great distances from where children in low-income communities live. A lot of wonderful facilities that are out in nice middle class suburban neighborhoods, but not a lot of such facilities in urban spaces or, or under-resourced, even under-resourced rural spaces, right?

So, so we made a commitment as an organization to narrow our focus to under-resourced communities. But I'm very fortunate to have a board of directors that when I said, "Well, if we're gonna do that, we have to do more than roll a soccer ball out. These kids have challenges in their life. They're facing different kind of circumstances than my kids in northern Virginia in the suburbs that face." And the board was like, "100%, you know, we, we agree." And so that set us on the path of really designing curricula and training that not only got kids playing soccer, but helped them inform them about nutrition and sleep habits and those kinds of things, um, that help them develop critical life skills like leadership and teamwork and all those other things that really matter through sports. And most importantly, training coaches to assume that role of coach and mentor. That, you know, in the movies, the coach always just has it naturally. He just naturally has that, right? Well, most of us don't naturally have that, right? And some of us need a little, you know, education, a little training, some tools, some tips that we can use to, to help us.

And so that has been the, the focus of the work. And the thing that I will say, the connection with my journalism background is that because I'm a journalist It was important that we didn't just say sports are good for you. I mean, anybody can say sports are good for you. We took a very evidence-based approach that could we measure the impact that we were having, have third party independent evaluation come in and really assess whether this was making a difference in these children's health, in their wellbeing, in their life skills development. And I'm very, you know, very pleased that we took that approach because that has distinguished us in many ways from, you know, others who are just running sports programs, but we're re- running what are called sports-based youth development programs, using soccer as a vehicle to help lift up kids. 

Scott M. Curran: So I wanna unpack a couple things, and then we'll dive into the, the actual programs of, of the foundation. But I... For those who are listening, especially for, like, my kids' friends, who includes several soccer players, their families, and then others who may not be as connected to this world, I, especially those who are looking in, in non- the nonprofit space and nonprofit careers, 'cause Ed's journey's a lot like mine and a lot like others, where we didn't start in this space or even thinking we would be in this space, but we let, let our natural curiosity and interest and sort of life circumstances open up these doors.And, you know, the great quote that "Luck favors the prepared," I just love and wanna make that point that, like, Ed was doing something that, that was connected to his family and who he was in the world, and it revealed these opportunities. I had lunch with some students I teach from my law school class yesterday, and they were asking me about my career, and I said, "You can only connect the dots looking backwards." I had no idea. I never could have planned it this way. And so I just wanna note the, the importance of connection, community, being in community, and that revealing opportunity, and that is such a powerfully important message and lesson for anybody whose career is still in front of them and is considering, you know, the ways they're, they're, they're gonna evolve as a professional. Lean into the things that you love doing and that, that matter to you and your family, and there's no telling where you might wind up. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Scott, what you just said is really just so important. Because when I talk to young people, like, at community colleges and places like that, that's the one thing I tell them, is, like find what you care, and volunteer. You may have a job doing one thing, but volunteer because it opens up you to people outside of your industry. Um, if you only know people in your industry, you're limited to that world, right? But when you spend time committed to other activities or, you know, volunteering or, you know, in other areas, then it opens up a whole nother world to you and a whole, whole nother host of opportunities that are there for you, um, that open often, sometimes seemingly magically.

Scott M. Curran: I talk a lot about profile, platform, and passion, and that who you are is not confined by a degree on your wall or a title behind your name, um, it, that, that it can be so much bigger than that, and that your platform gets bigger the more you expand into the world and. You do these different things, including through volunteerism or leaning into the things that are important to you, your kids, your family, your community, and that your passions grow as a result of that too. When those three things are working together, it's amazing what, what opportunities magically appear for people. Um, and it turns out it's not magic at all. It's that luck favoring the prepared. On the journalism side, I just wanna also say that, like, one of the most important things I've seen in 20-plus years in philanthropy is the power and importance of storytelling, and it is...There are few people who do it better than you, and for anybody who's not familiar with US Soccer Foundation or Ed, go check him out, uh, anywhere he is online, whether it's on the USSF website or on YouTube, and see him tell the stories of transformation that the work of, of the foundation makes possible.And for anybody in the nonprofit space, success leaves clues, so follow Ed's clearly experienced trajectory of journalism in using evidence, data, and real human stories to talk about it. 

Because when I first was introduced through mutual friends and colleagues to the US Soccer Foundation, it was coming off the pandemic during another challenging time for philanthropy, where people were in resource scarcity, and it was hard. Everybody's sort of jostling for position about, "Hey, support this cause or that cause." Well, in a world of a pandemic or, or, or global upheaval or crises of various forms, how do you really position the power and importance of a game like soccer, where it might seem like something quaint or niche? But in the reality, and as we're gonna unpack now, the truth is these are fundamental, foundational life skills. And when you hear Ed and the team at the US Soccer Foundation talk about the transformation it has on individual athletes, on teams of athletes, on families and communities, and on the coaches themselves, um, you start to understand exactly how core it is. And for anybody who might be a skeptic of that, I want you to think about the coaches you remember from your life And I can guarantee almost everybody has a coach or a teacher, which is just a different kind of coach, an academic coach, who made a difference, and I don't know anybody who can't think of one. And that's the power we're talking about here, and for the, the world's most popular sport, um, that unites people across geographies and boundaries of every kind, this work really matters. And, Ed, one of the things that I think it was either you or Ginny or, or one of our other friends or colleagues said to me early on was that the work of the Soccer Foundation to create…One of the programs you do is, is create mini pitches, these sort of s- mini soccer fields, often in urban, but, but you- under-resourced communities, very often urban, which are r- space restricted communities. 

And so I'll ask you to help people understand what a mini pitch is, but it's like a mini soccer field, kinda like a, a hybrid between a soccer field, a hockey rink, and a basketball court. About the size of a basketball court, shaped like a hockey rink because it's got walls and, and boards around it, um, but it's ultimately a soccer field. And what was interesting about it, I was like, "Okay, well that's interesting and novel, and I understand that." But then y- I think you shared with me it was a safe space.Well, everybody understands the value of a safe space when you start thinking about it. It's good to have a safe space. But what does that mean? When we unpack what that safe space is, especially in under-resourced communities and maybe urban environments, it's neutral territory. And I think about that, and, explaining that in some urban environments there may be territorial disputes among gangs, but not the soccer pitch. The soccer field is where anybody comes together and their kids just play. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: It's interesting that, you know, that's one of the, the great learnings about building a mini pitch. At first, I'll be honest with you, I thought it was just a place to play, right? But then you realize that, you put a safe place to play where it's walkable for kids to be able to walk or, you know, ride their bike and go play with their friends in their neighborhood, or it's in a schoolyard where it's used during the day and after school. But oftentimes what you're doing is you're turning what was a fallow space, a space that was inactive, doing nothing, um, into an active space. And that changes the whole dynamic in that surrounding area. Suddenly, when kids are playing, you know, grandma comes out the house to sit and watch the kids play, right? Kids are playing and suddenly the neighborhood feels safer because why? Kids are playing here. It's a, it's a fun thing that's happening. And the mini pitches that we put in will often add aa bit of color, uh, and brightness to, which is typically a gray kinda backdrop that also elevates the feeling of, wow, this is actually a nice asset in our community that makes everyone feel a little bit better because there's something good going on in the community.

But that idea of activating spaces with young people and play and the ripple effect that has particularly when that space was used for nothing or, you know, nefarious purposes. Sometimes you have wrong people hanging out in certain spaces, but when you activate it with programming and a play space, then suddenly those activities move to different locations.

Scott M. Curran: So important and so powerful. And, and just think about like, the social aspects of, yes, playing with your friends, but I also think about the empower and importance of the relationships and the community that gets developed by team sports that wouldn't otherwise occur. So athletes play with other athletes they may or may not be friends with in school or outside of athletics. I remember being... Like, you at least sort of had a truce on the social side. Yes. 'Cause I played soccer from being the four-year-old who's, you know, toddling around and, kicking the ball till it pops out of the corner of indoor soccer into the other corner, and then we all go kick it till it pops out. I played with some of those same people who were in, through high school, who were in my wedding and are some of my very best friends today. And that is the case for a lot of people. They make lifetime friendships. But in other cases, you learn other social dynamics and interactions, both between other athletes who you may or may not be friends with off the pitch or outside of the sport. You learn how to interact with adults, whether those are coaches or referees or other coaches or other referees or parents or other parents. And then the parents, to your point, on the sidelines are developing their own relationships, and it creates community, which is so fundamentally important, especially in places where that community may not come together.

But honestly, in suburbia too, knowing other people in other ways, creating that connection. I mean, I've, I've connected with the parent of a soccer teammate of my daughter who's working on a nonprofit in our community I never knew anything about, and it never would've happened but for travel soccer. So the community aspects of this, in any sport to be fair, but especially soccer and these mini pitches you're putting in, and I would love for you to share what the goal of the foundation is and sort of what your current status is on the mini pitches across the country.

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yeah. So in 2018, we set a goal of installing 1,000  mini pitches in under-resourced communities across the country, and I'm pleased to say that we'll hit that 1,000 goal this year in alignment with the World Cup coming to the US this summer, which as you can imagine is a key milestone for the game.You know, the last time we hosted a World Cup was 1994, so that's a long time, um, between major events like that. 

Scott M. Curran: I was a freshman in high school playing on the freshman soccer team, and I distinctly remember the World Cup being in the United States was a big deal. So it has been a minute since we've hosted one, and I'm excited that we're gonna have one this year. A thousand mini pitches is no small feat in that short, relatively short period of time. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yes, and, you know, the key to that has been the commitment of some of the host committees who are hosting World Cup matches. Part of the, the story that we're, we're trying to educate people on is the fact that you're gonna have a mega event, the World Cup. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be a wonderful, wonderful event. It's gonna be, um, those who can afford it will get to go and see some incredible matches with the cities who have those games. The community will be overrun with different cultures and different people, and a lot of fun and joy. But when the final whistle of the final game blows, what's gonna be left behind for community? 

And that's the work that we're focused on with these, a number of host committees to ensure that there's a legacy that benefits young people in particular, that they have greater access and greater opportunity to participate in this game. And why... D- you know, we talked a little bit about this at the beginning, but I wanna underscore why this matters, right? It's easy to think of sport as just, oh, it's just fun and games. It's just like, either you have it or you don't. It's not a big deal. It is a big deal because it's another learning platform for young people. It's a platform where you learn teamwork, you learn leadership, you learn perseverance, you learn, um, how to be accountable to other people. You learn critical things that when you go to work one day, it's exactly the skillsets that you need to know. How to be part of a team, how to, you know, take responsibility for your role and hold up your responsibility for other people so that organization can succeed. When kids don't have access to that- They're missing out on a important learning that those who have it can easily take for granted.

 Uou can't take it for granted. And also, the health outcomes of getting kids off the couch, out from in front of screens, and physically active in their community. Right now, I don't know, Scott, you read a lot and I know you know this, uh, but the audience may not know kids are really struggling today. Young people with isolation, depression, anxiety, um, all the signals, overwhelmed with social media and how, what effects that have on their social lives, all those things. And having an opportunity to be with friends and run and play and laugh in a space is almost like, it's almost like this little escape pod that you can go into and, and for a minute, the troubles of the world are no longer with you.

And so making sure that all kids have access to that. We get stories all the time about young people talking about, "When I come here, I don't think about what's going on at home or what's happening in the neighborhood. I'm here with my friends having fun." And you just cannot, you know, overstate the importance of that for young people to have I've never shared this in an episode, but I wanna put a fine point on what you just said.

Scott M. Curran: I, when I was in law school, the summer after your first year of law school is sort of like a no person's land or, or an every- everybody for themselves. There, there's not, like, a structure of what anybody's supposed to do after their first year. I was very fortunate. I wound up with a pretty great gig working at the state's attorney's office in the county where I grew up, and one of the things I got to do was sit in a juvenile judge's courtroom, and a juvenile court judge's courtroom, uh, which is usually closed to the public, so I was able to be there 'cause I worked for the state's attorney's office. And what I found fascinating was that every single matter for every single juvenile brought before the judge was handled the exact same way. The judge asked every kid and their parent, "What do you do after school? What do you do after school? What do you do after school?" You know, there's lots of quotes about this. Idle time is the devil's playground. And, and almost universally, these young people had gotten into trouble with the law, such they're in front of a judge in a courtroom, which is a scary thing for anybody to think about, and especially a kid. They weren't doing anything with their extra time, and they were...Or they were spending all of their time on a computer, and this was pre, you know, smartphones. But now that would be smartphones. 

And so almost universally, the judge's order included getting... And he would ask the student, "What do you like to do?" And it, and very often the young teenager would be like, "Nothing. I don't like doing anything." And he would find the thing that they would eventually fess to and, and say, "Oh, I like to do this." "Okay, great. Then I'm gonna ask you out for the chess club or student council or drama club or a sport." But to do something constructive and productive because it does keep people out. And we all know this to be true when we're busy. But it's interesting now with, with smartphones, to your point, and anxiety, depression, and even cases now coming out about how social media traps our attention, whether we're adults or very impressionable and highly susceptible teenagers, this is an alternate to that in other ways.

So this kind of work is solving multiple problems. It's providing safe spaces and improved spaces in communities. It's providing outlets and opportunity and, and it really doesn't matter what your level of skill is. Y- pretty much anybody can get on a soccer field or pitch and play goalie, right? You just gotta block a ball from getting past you. We can all do that. I'm terrified of playing goalie. I've always been terrified of playing goalie. Some people love it. Um, you don't have to be the fastest runner or the best ball handler. Everybody can get on a pitch and try something, and I think it's a beautiful thing, um, to be in that community. But it has a real impact when, when kids have an outlet to just step on. And talk about the access and equity piece of it, because what is great about soccer, and there's other sports too, like running, where you need relatively minimal equipment, but like anything else, it's all been turned into businesses. Right. And so there is this... You know, there was one travel team when I was a kid. Now there's like 20 in my community. That does create a higher barrier to access for that type of, of it, but talk about how the foundation is doing work to, to lower that barrier and still provide access. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: And yeah, Scott, you said something really important. Um, our fundamental belief is that we're not in the elite player development business. We're not here to create the next World Cup player or national team player. We're here to create spaces and opportunity for young people to enjoy what I enjoyed as a kid: playing, having the opportunity to be with my friends and play, right? And to have a safe space to do that. Because, you know, when you add the layer of super competitive travel teams. Then suddenly what matters most is winning, right? That, that begins to matter a lot. And I'm not saying, like winning, that... There, there's a space for that. There's-- I'm not saying that anything's wrong. But for most kids, particularly younger kids, just having the opportunity to play and develop a passion and a love for the game without an inordinate amount of pressure on them.

 Because as you said, our programs are open to all children. There are no tryouts or, you know, it's not ability-based. It's, uh, you know, "Do you wanna play?" "Yes." You know, "Then here you go. You have an opportunity to participate, uh, in this program after school." And that is so important because this idea, what's happened with youth sports, and it's not just soccer, it's almost all youth sports, it's almost become, you know, up or out. Either if you don't make the travel team, then why bother playing, right? Which misses the whole point of play, right? The social component of it, um, being with your friends and having opportunity to run and be physically active. All those things that, that truly matter, but somehow we've turned it into, "Well, if I'm not an, a top athlete, then why bother?" Right? "Why sh- why should I do this?" And we, we're, we're the opposite of that. We want all kids, regardless of ability, to have the opportunity to play, to have a caring coach mentor to support them, to be there for them. Because you know what? Kids show up to practice with a lot of things beyond their soccer ball, right? Sometimes they're carrying life challenges and life problems, things that are happening in school, things that are happening at home. Sometimes the coach is the first person to know that a kid may not even have a home to go to, right? You know, because coaches are close in that way with young people. And so that's why we want all kids to have access.

You said something really important about time and activity for young people I think any adult who's honest with themselves and who can think back to when they were 13 years old or so, left with free time, you think of a lot of dumb things to do, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's just called being a kid, right? And when you're, when you have a place to go and a place to be and caring adults supporting you there, um, it kinda, you know, that takes that out of the equation, fewer opportunities for you to think. 'Cause when we're bored, we think of stuff, and those ideas often aren't good ones. 

Scott M. Curran: It doesn't just remove that, but it, it replaces it- yes, with physical activity, group activity, team building, community development, life skills, coaching, mentorship, and to your point, opportunity to connect in ways you would otherwise not connect if you were on your own or just with a device. So the four main... Well, I won't say four main, but there are four main programs on the website when we go or for if, if anybody's visiting the US Soccer Foundation. So we've already talked about Safe Places to Play, the mini pitches and creating those spaces. Soccer for Success, providing physical, mental, healthy, wellbeing activities. Talk about Just Ball, which I think is consistent with that, hey, you don't have to be elite. If you don't have a park district soccer program in your community, you can come play in the Just Ball league. And then talk about how... And then if you would go next from please do say something about Just Ball, but then also talk about how the coach mentor training works, 'cause I believe that that is so exponentially awesome, scalable, and impactful across lifetimes? So first Just Ball, then, um, coach mentoring.

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yeah. So Just Ball, so we have our Soccer for Success after school program, uh, which is typically middle, elementary and middle school kids, you know, right after school, uh, kind of free play. I mean, it's not free play, but structured, a little bit structured play. What we realized that older kids wanted to continue playing, right, when they got into high school. So we created a program called Just Ball, which is, think about it as sorta loosely organized free play. The kids form their own teams. Tthere's no requirement to show up five days a week or three days a week or whatever. You show up with your team and you play, right? You and your, your buddies or you may...And if you don't have a team, you get paired up with people who are there who don't have a team, and then you play as a team, right? And so it's been amazing to us that the uptake on this program, right? And the uptake on the program, it's in, right now it's in New York, it's i, Miami, Los Angeles, and it's about to move to Atlanta, uh, coming soon. And Chicago is one of the markets, uh, where you are, Scott, that we also want to, to hit. But the, the beauty of the program is the kids love it because it's theirs. They have ownership. We have our trained coach ment- mentors there, we call them playmakers. They're there to support the kids. And when we first designed the program, we thought, well, if the coach is not on the field coaching the kids and really directing all the activity, are they really gonna interact with them?

And the beauty of it is these kids recognize that there's this caring adult here, and they still come with, you know, to get support and, you know, to share their challenges that they're having in their life. And so it's been beautiful. I grew up playing basketball with my friends until I was in high school when I made the varsity basketball team. But most of the basketball I played was with my friends. We'd go to the courts, and you'd bring your team, and you'd call next, and then and you get on the court, and you play like the dickens to stay on there because you didn't wanna, you didn't wanna have to wait again. So that program, I love that program for older kids. 

And then the coach mentor training, um, of all the things that, that, that we do at the foundation, I think this is the, this, this is the secret sauce. This is the, the piece that matters the most because it ties everything to purpose, right? Um, you know, it, it gives a, the coaches a purpose to be there, not just to show the kids how to kick a ball, but to help lift those kids up. And so we made a decision with our coach mentor training, uh, we're doing an initiative with the Stand Together Foundation, called Yes Coach, in which not only we're training soccer coaches, but we've made a commitment to train 100,000 coaches of any sport by 2030 in this methodology of, being a coach mentor, what does that mean?

And here's-- Scott, this is the...you may appreciate this because, when I first started thinking about this coach mentor role and the team, and we all worked on it, we were all focused on the kids, right? What it meant for the kids to have this mentor, what we've learned since is what it means to the coach when they get this sense of purpose that goes to their role in shaping the futures of young people, right? The sense of purpose that's different. 'Cause when you think about sport, only one coach can win the league, only one coach can win State Cup, right? But all coaches can win and benefit from what this contribution that they make to young people. 

And I just can't tell you how the light bulb goes off with so many coaches when they realize this role that they...the important role that they can play in strengthening their community, in strengthening young people, just by showing up and being a coach with a mentor mentality behind that. 

Scott M. Curran: I love everything about that. I wanna say two things. One, for any and every coach of any sport anywhere in this country, think about how, and, and please realize that you have an opportunity with the US Soccer Foundation to be part of growing your coaching skill set to have a greater impact on the athletes you will inevitably teach and mentor and guide in ways that will transform their lives for the rest of their lives. And then that's the surprising truth about how the US Soccer Foundation can benefit all sport coaches anywhere in the country. Um, secondly, I can't help but think about my high school track coach. I played soccer. Identified primarily as a soccer player, but I ran track as well in the off-season of soccer in high school, and stuck with that sport longer, and still stick with it longer now as an adult.

 But my coach, Dave Jackson, was my track coach, and I, I've told this story before, I've never told it on the podcast, but here I am, 49 years old, and I will always and forever be the, the kid who was just running on a Thursday, it was rainy, gray, gross, late winter, early spring, and I just didn't have any in me that day, for whatever reason, and I was just behind the pack. It was just a warmup run, too. It was, like, three miles, right? Out a mile and a half, back a mile and a half, and I just didn't have any gas in the tank, and I fell behind the pack several hundred yards. They were way ahead of me, and it's okay, 'cause we were going in and we would then do strides or weights or whatever else was happening that day, but I just didn't have anything in me, and I remember being in the back.It wasn't a big deal. There's always usually on any given day. And I noticed that the pack wasn't getting further ahead of me, and I know I wasn't speeding up, but they were getting closer to me. And then I noticed that the fastest runner on the team, Ryan, was falling back towards me, which didn't make any sense And he's like, "I got you, Scott. Come on." And the coach had slowed the whole team. Then he told Ryan, the captain of the team, to fall back and get me, and he pulled me forward. And I, and, and as I ran up to the pack, coach said, "Hey, Scott, take us in." It wasn't a track meet. It was any given practice on any given day, and I just didn't have it. And I think about the impact of that day on my life, that I'm sitting here now, decades later, telling this... It, it sticks with you. And that was the... And I've told that story once in front of Coach Jackson, and I've thanked him for it many times since. 

And I think about it, that there was no glory, there was no audience, there was no big play. It was just what a coach did for me on a day when I wasn't at my best, and might've been, you know, from a track perspective, at my worst, and the impact that had on my life. And so, abig fan of this program of the US Soccer Foundation. I think millions of other people, if they think about it, have had a similar experience in their life where a coach made a huge difference, but it was probably in one of those quiet, unseen moments that they planted a seed that stuck with you for the rest of your life. And so on that program, I just wanna say high five. I mean, it's, it's truly what pulled me into US Soccer Foundation. It also  what demonstrates the value of this kind of work and the impact it can have on lives, teams, families, and communities throughout their life forever. And a lot of these coaches are young, right?

And now as I, I'm an older parent, an aging parent, these are 20-year-olds who are trying to coach sometimes teenage girls, which is a really hard group to wrangle as a parent. Much less as a coach of a whole bunch of them. This is truly hard work, but it is so profound and important, and I wanna commend you and the foundation for doing that work. What are two... So as the journalist, as the storyteller, as the CEO who's been doing this a long time, what are two or three of your favorite transformation stories, whether it's for a coach or a community or a mini pitch or a family or a student? What, what are the ones that stick out most to you? 

Ed Foster-Simeon: So the story and it's actually not a mini pitch. It's actually, we made another investment in South Central Los Angeles at a park called Algin Sutton Park. You know, for those who know Los Angeles, South Central's got a pretty tough reputation as a place to grow up. And, uh, I it's so funny. Um, so I w- we have a partner there called Brotherhood Crusade. We had just met them, uh, and they were giving me a walk around the community. And so we're walking around this park, and I had on a suit and, and a kid came up and said, um, "Are you somebody?" You know? And I was like, "Uh, what do you mean?" And he said, "Are you somebody who can fix this?" Right? Because the field was just a mess. It, it was a mess Uh, and that really stuck with me. First of all, that this kid just walked across, like, to these two strange men, and just on the hope that maybe they were somebody who could fix this thing. So we made an investment, um, this was back when we'd, we were supporting synthetic turf fields. We made an investment in, in, in that field, and come to find out, you had mentioned this earlier, Algin Sutton Park is at an intersection where multiple gang territories kinda mee.t And our partner there, you know, we talked about the field, but he said, "No, you don't realize what this has done," that now those gangs, their kids are playing together here, and this space is now a space that they all respect and they all see value in. And so it has changed the whole dynamic around the park to a safer space, uh, because there's less incidents going on, but then there's a place for kids to play. 

So two things have occurred. One is kids had a place to play, right? And they're now physically out and improved in their, in their community. But the social impact of that on what was a negative culture around that space changed because everybody saw value in it for their kids.

Scott M. Curran: Super powerful, and so important, and a community resource as well, not just a safe space, not just a place for kids to play, not just a place for people to be parents of those kids, um, but, but part of community revitalization as well. And, and, and when you can do it in the hardest places, you can do it in other places.

Would you speak, just bridging off that a little bit, speak to something that's so important throughout philanthropy in many nonprofits, and this again is like core leadership, and this is one of the many reasons I respect and admire you. You talk about a phenomenon I learned about when I was still learning about philanthropy and the work of nonprofits and communities, the concept and issue of parachuting in, which for those who may not be familiar with it is coming in with an answer. You're trying to plug into a community without regard for the unique circumstances, the background, the history, the culture, the leadership of that community. Talk about, for those who don't know what parachuting is, prime that pump a little bit more, and then explain how your work and the work of US Soccer Foundation, your leadership, has kept that in mind as you've gone into so many different communities and still been successful.

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yeah. Uh, parachuting in is, you know, coming in from outside the community with some idea that you think is right for that community and trying to force its implementation into that community, um, and often without a long-term commitment to that community, right? And, you know- There's a lot of hesitance for folks when someone comes with a new idea into a under-resourced community. They're like, "Oh yeah, another group coming with something that they're gonna try and force in here, and then they're gonna walk away from in a year or two," right? And so there's skepticism, and because people don't want to be disappointed. They don't want to get something that's, that they think is good and gonna be good for them, and then have it disappear.

So our philosophy was, right from the beginning, our strategy was we weren't gonna try and build things ourselves in those communities. We were gonna build through the existing community-based organizations that were there. 

First of all- I'm a kid from Brooklyn. South Central Los Angeles is different than Brooklyn, it's different than Miami, it's different than the South Side of Chicago, it's different than Houston. You have to find the folks in that community who understand, okay, here are the specific challenges here. Here's how you might want to modify whatever it is your idea is to make it work here, right, in this community, and these are the trip lines that you need to think about, right? So for example, in, you know, in Los Angeles, you have to be careful what color jerseys you give the kids to wear, right? Red and blue are out. You can't do it because those are colors of really, strong, uh, gangs in those communities. So to-- but if you come from anywhere and think you know something, and you don't ask or work with the people in the community who can educate you on what to do and what not to do, you can create more harm than good, right?

So our belief is to work with the community-based organizations who know that community. And sometimes it's multiple community-based organizations, and then they, in many ways, take ownership of the work, and that's how it sticks, and that's how it stays is because it's their program. It's not the U.S Soccer Foundation's program, it's their program. 

Scott M. Curran: Which is so great and so important. And that is a universal important rule or, or concept for which every one of the nation's two million nonprofits is made better for being aware of. And it may not always be at play or applicable, but it's always important to be mindful of that possibility, that we, we may be...And this exists globally. I mean, this, you know, is like bringing solar in communities that don't have the infrastructure or bandwidth or resources to, to maintain solar in communities all over the world. This is  not dealing with issues of waste or disposal of equipment that is dropped into other places. This is the case for nonprofits that have the best of intentions to go into the places and, and drop in real solutions that work in other places but aren't gonna work there. And there's examples I'm not gonna mention, but, but that are quite famous here in the United States that have, have seen sort of catastrophic endings. And so I just think even that awareness level, that is such a gift in the world of nonprofits. 

I wanna sort of wind down with a focus on what this looks like at scale or if in five to 10 years. So we go through the World Cup that's coming up this year. We have some success there, but we continue your work for the next three to five to 10 years. What has happened if you're looking back after five or 10 years from now and saying, "We did it"? What does that look like? 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Yeah, so, you know, it, funnily enough, we just, uh, got approved our n- our new strategy going forward, post, from the World Cup forward, and it's about going deeper in those communities, uh, that we're in.

So for example, looking at a mini pitch as a community hub, and then thinking about, okay, you activate it with soccer programming, but what else can you do? So we have a partnership with Colgate, and they have mobile health screeningm, oral health screenings that periodically come out into events so that communities and families have access to oral health screening that they might not otherwise have. We've had community partners who brought farmers markets into communities on a, a periodic basis so that families can get access, to healthier foods right in their neighborhood, right in their community. 

So we talked about soccer as a community hub, right, when, from the beginning of this conversation. It's just going deeper with that thought and thinking about, okay, who else should be at the table? Who else can come around this, that suddenly you have a space that young people are playing in, but it's doing such, so much more for the community in terms of other resources that are being brought into mobile health screenings, other things that can bring access and value, uh, to the community.

So that's where we're going, and our goal is to be reaching 10 million kids by 2030, uh, either in school or after school with our programs. But going deeper on the infrastructure with these community hubs to make sure that, you know, we're maximizing every one of those spaces in a way that makes it really a part of the fabric of life in those communities.

Scott M. Curran: I love that. That's why I love being part of your world, even in a small way and, and being part of this organization is it's that once you start seeing all the ways in which this radiates outward and can benefit so many others, it's, it's truly inspiring. And you can see how the impact and how engagement and contribution to the work of, of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, through the soccer focused work, the, the mentor training, coaching, the community development aspects,it's got a force multiplier that is exponentially valuable. And you've attracted incredible partners in, both from the soccer world as well as from outside of it, and Colgate a great partner, and oral health's such an incredibly important part of overall health that we're learning...We already know a lot about, but we're learning more and more about how many other health implications result from oral health. And to be able to then use that, that Saturday at the soccer pitch or any other day at the soccer pitch, and to not just serve the athlete, but their family and the whole community, oh, it's just so full of goodness, and I love it.

What are three things people can do in their life and in their work to join, support, or help the work of the US Soccer Foundation? What can people listening right now who are like, "I get it. I'm in it. I wanna help," what can they do right now to, to, to connect with you, your team, the organization, and what can they do both with you or in their own community to make a difference- Ed 

Ed Foster-Simeon: So first thing, I, I would encourage people to visit our website, ussoccerfoundation.org. Uh, and the reason that I encourage them to do so is not only will you see our programs, but you'll be able to see some of the third-party independent evaluation, the results, the impact, so that you can see that this is more than just about kicking a ball. This is about improving health and wellbeing outcomes, uh, for young people, so going there. 

This other thing I would say is to go to yescoach.com And to sign up for Yes Coach to take that training, um, regardless of the sport you're in, uh, and regardless because that training actually translates into the workforce as well. When you think about it, a lot of leaders are managing younger people, right? And quite frankly, don't know how to connect and know- don't know how to understand where those young people are coming from and giving them the tools. So taking Yes Coach, whether you're a baseball coach, a basketball coach, hockey coach, we've trained lacrosse coaches, uh, we, we, you know, we've trained pretty much every sport so far. Check out Yes Coach, take that training. Um, it's, it's really fun, it's really valuable, um, and it's not just reading a PDF, it is engaging. We call it edutainment. Um, you, you'll hear from soccer stars like Tim Howard, one of the greatest goalkeepers we've had in the uni- who is neurodiverse. He has Tourette syndrome, and he talks about the important role that a coach helped him in staying in the game and creating space for him.

So those are the two things that I would say. Visit our website and of course, the third thing any nonprofit such as us will say, if you have the means and can support this work financially, to donate to the cause to help us really, we always need more help than we have, and so we would appreciate that as well.

Scott M. Curran: And if nothing else, tell a friend. Tell a friend and who cares about soccer, who cares about coaching, who cares about community, about this work. Share this episode. Share Ed's name and, and the name of the US Soccer Foundation. Spread the word because this is incredibly good work. 

Ed, I am personally, professionally, and eternally grateful to you for your example. I'm grateful to your parents for planting that seed through their example of goodness and service that has sparked the same commitment in your life and in your work. I am grateful to be part of your world. I'm grateful to be in community with you as, as a leader in philanthropy, as someone I have learned from, who I regard as a coach and mentor to me, um, and to somebody whose, whose goodness is evident in all you do, and most importantly, in the way you do it. You are a, a personification of Better Good, if I've ever known it, and I'm so grateful that you have shared it with the people who will listen to this episode and in the work you do every day. Thank you for being with me, and thank you for who you are and how you are in this world. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Well, thank you, Scott.You're very kind with your words and really appreciate the opportunity to just chat with you. It's like, you know, it's good to have time together always, and so really glad to be here and really glad to share the work of the US Soccer Foundation. Uh, again, it's much more than just fun and games. It's about making a difference in communities that matter.

Scott M. Curran: Well said. Thank you, Ed. 

Ed Foster-Simeon: Thank you. 

Scott M. Curran: Thank you for tuning in to the Better Good podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate, review, subscribe and share. You can watch the show on YouTube or Spotify, and for those who prefer to listen, we're on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts.

If you wanna learn more about how you can do more good better in your life and at work, order my book, Better Good, published by Simon and Schuster and available August 2026. It offers readers a simple yet powerful and proven framework for how to leave the world better than you found it—no matter who you are, where you live, or what you do.

I'd love for you to join the conversation about making a positive impact by joining me on Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, or by subscribing to my Substack. You can find all the links you need to bring better good to your life and work at www.scottmcurran.com. Better Good is a Beyond Creative production. My executive producers are Kieron Banerjee and Aaron Shulman. Production is by Echo Studios in partnership with Palm Tree Island. 

Remember, the world's biggest problems won't wait and neither should you.