CHANCE SPORTS LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD
Photos and Story By Adrian Michael
On a Thursday evening in November, at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College in Denver, Colorado, State Senator James Coleman (D) watches his daughter and other teen athletes race against each other during track practice. Coleman stands along the race sidelines wearing a lapel pin on his suit that says Chance Sports while his daughter wears a shirt with the same message.
Chance Sports was launched with the vision of creating opportunities for all children to be able to play competitive sports by providing scholarships to those in financial need.
“We provide scholarships to kids who are 350% or below the federal poverty line. Our scholarship range is on a tiered system from $500 to $5,000 a year per athlete, and we have just over 500 athletes on scholarship,” said Coleman.
In 2022, Coleman and former Colorado Representative Colin Larson (R) founded Chance Sports after Coleman learned teammates on his son’s basketball team were quitting the team due to not being able to afford sports fees and other costs. Recognizing a problem, Coleman sought solutions and reached out to the Daniels Fund, an organization that provides funding for sports programs.
“I was told to go bigger than just funding my son’s sports team; [that I] should create an organization to help more kids out,” Coleman said. “We partnered with the Daniels Fund, which provided our organization with $500,000. Additionally, the sale of the Broncos team provided funding for local Denver Metro Municipalities to fund sports. We were blessed to get $200,000 from the City of Denver in2022, $500,000 from the City of Aurora in 2023, and funding from corporate partners and individual donors.
“When we talk about sports, we always say kids deserve a chance, and it was simple. We want to help level the playing fields for as many kids to have a chance to be able to compete, and so that’s how we came up with the name,” said Coleman.
“The beautiful thing about Chance Sports is we are strictly funders,” said Coleman. “We partner with our clubs, but we directly scholarship athletes. We give funding to the athlete. The way it works is we raise money, and if an athlete qualifies for a scholarship, we give them a digital card that allows them to be able to use it at pre-approved vendors (such as Dick’s Sporting Goods). We cover travel costs, including gas, flights, and hotels as well as club dues and fees, and the beauty of this is it makes our program highly scalable, and we can get dollars out quickly to families on a digital card, and it gives families dignity,” he added.
Service has been part of Coleman’s entire life. He grew up attending church and doing nonprofit service-oriented work.
“That’s part of why I ran for office. What I love about this is it’s an immediate impact. The work I do in public office is very important. I get to see this and help implement something with my own hands, and that’s also another reason why I love doing this,” said Coleman.
Being the second youngest legislator in the Senate and having been in office for eight years — four years in the House, four years in the Senate — Coleman is often asked,
“How can you do the legislative work and do this, too?” Coleman’s answer: “I have no choice. I have an obligation to pay it forward and pay it back to the people who raised us, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to support our community.
“The vision of Chance Sports is to help one kid at a time and be able to have an opportunity that [kids] otherwise wouldn’t have,” said Coleman. “We know [our program is] working by seeing high school students who received our scholarships continue their athletic careers in college. We started in 2022; we gave our first scholarships in February 2023, and in that short amount of time, we’re already seeing it work. I think that helps meet the vision of these kids to go on to the next level.”
According to data from the Healthy Sports Index, high school athletes are more likely to graduate from a four-year college (73% girls, 59% boys) compared to non-athletes (67% girls, 53% boys). A higher percentage of high school athletes also receive A/A- grades than non-athletes. Coleman knows the benefits of playing sports besides just the physical aspect. There is peer-to-peer relationship building, mentorship with coaches, and mental health aspects.
“A lot of our kids are suffering from depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness. Kids are committing suicide. I don’t want to be negative, but that’s just a reality,” said Coleman. “Sports have so many benefits; the biggest is safety. I always say, ‘When I know where a kid is, I know where a kid is not.’
When I see these kids out here, I know they’re not doing something else they should not be doing. These are tangible benefits that you may not learn unless you’re playing a sport.”
According to the United Nations, Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sports often provide safe environments at the grassroots and community levels, where participants are brought together in pursuit of common goals and interests; learn
values of respect, tolerance, and fair play; and develop social competencies.
Coleman said that Chance Sports has seen a lot of engagement from the community, and many people have reached out and provided the organization with support from individuals, donors, and former athletes. But according to Coleman, the biggest benefit is from within — being able to give back and seeing opportunities for his kids.
“My son has a team to play on; my daughter has a family outside of her [own] family that she gets to come and compete with. The more kids we have to be able to play, the more that benefits us.”
The long-term goal for Chance Sports is growth. “We’re going global,” Coleman said jokingly. “We have an opportunity to potentially scale to Eastern Michigan next year and potentially scale to Ohio and Tennessee. We have so many opportunities to help more and more kids. I want to make sure that we can sustain and make sure the program is consistent. If you’re a family in need of a scholarship, if you’re a club that wants to partner with us and help more kids play your sport in your club, if you’re a funder or donor that wants to invest and help more kids afford to play, or if you just want to learn more information to get involved and be an advocate, check us out at Chancesports.org.”
Donate and support local independent journalism here: https://www.coloradogives.org/organization/denvervoice