The Future Plays Here – Our Next Opportunity Starts Now

Dec 17, 2018

The Future Plays Here logo over an arial photo of Southeast High School's baseball field

This is our moment.

With 22 fields completed, a maintenance endowment started, and funding earmarked for the remaining field construction projects, Fields & Futures is turning its immediate funding focus to our perpetual field maintenance endowment, riding the momentum of a $2,000,000 endowment match gift!

Seven years ago, with the building of new athletic fields at Jefferson Middle School, Fields & Futures took its first steps towards helping Oklahoma City Public Schools grow student participation in sports by providing quality, maintained athletic fields, improved resources and a renewed focus on giving coaches the support they need to provide the best experience possible for their student-athletes.

The idea was simple: If they play, they stay. If they stay, they graduate.

We adopted the slogan “Build. Inspire. Empower.” and Oklahoma City responded by rushing to our side.

Thanks to the support of OKCPS, our donors, volunteers, contractors, and partner organizations, we have seen the impact and are blown away by early results.

Today, at each renovated campus, we see pride returning, grades improving, kids walking taller and smiling bigger, and perhaps most importantly, a renewed sense of hope and spirit of “I can do this!” working its way across the district.

And in the process, we had a profound realization: The future of our city, our state, and even our country is playing right here, right now. Right in front of us. On the fields we’ve built.

 

 

While fields are tangible, offering a sense of finality and, therefore, accomplishment, it’s time we set our sights on an ideal that is less explicit. The Future.

We know quality athletic fields bring more kids to sports. And that sports participation has an immediate and long-lasting, positive effect on kids and communities.

It’s time, then, we focus not just on building fields, but ensuring those fields stay in great condition so that generations of future students have an opportunity to realize their purpose and potential.

The Future Plays Here is both a theme for our endowment match campaign, as well as a driving belief behind everything we say and do.

With a new $2,000,000 endowment match opportunity propelling this campaign forward, every dollar donated unlocks a dollars until we reach $4,000,000! Effective immediately.

With the ultimate goal of funding a $7 million field maintenance endowment, this $4 million combined with an existing $1.5 million will leave us $1.5 million to go. Together, we can do this!

It is our guarantee The Future ALWAYS Plays Here!

The Future Plays Here Endowment Match Campaign

If you believe in this initiative as much as we do, consider giving to the Field Maintenance Endowment through our secure online donation tool or by contacting Mandi Dotson at [email protected].

If donating online, be sure to type “Field Maintenance Endowment” in the comment section.

On behalf of OKCPS and the countless children and families served by this work, THANK YOU!

Game, Set, Impact: A Q&A With Our New Development Director, Emmy Hufnagel

Emmy Hufnagel is an avid tennis player, former triathlete, and the newest addition to the Fields & Futures team. As our Development Director, Emmy brings a wealth of experience in youth sports advocacy and nonprofit leadership. Having seen firsthand the impact of sports on young lives, Emmy is dedicated to helping us take the next big step—from building fields to filling them with kids.

Meet Cody Laurendi, Fields & Futures’ New Director of Soccer

Cody Laurendi is a former OKC Energy FC goalkeeper and the newest member of the Fields & Futures team. As Director of Soccer & Youth Sports Advocate, Cody has shifted his focus from playing the game to growing it. With his passion for the game and vision for increasing youth participation in Oklahoma City, Cody is a key player in helping us keep our goal of creating more opportunities on and off the pitch.

What Drives Capitol Hill and U.S. Grant Football?

U.S. Grant and Capitol Hill may be rivals, but their football programs have more in common than their annual "Southside Bedlam" rivalry game. From 2014-2020, the OSSAA allowed both programs to play as independents so they could create their own schedules and rebuild their programs. Now playing in Class 6A, neither team has found success in district play, but they also know the scoreboard isn't the only standard of success.

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