We feel that sports are very very important in the character-building of children. More than anything, we want to make sure that our students grow up to be outstanding members of the community. If they don’t have an example to follow, it’s really hard for them to do that. We want to set those examples for our students, whether it’s in the classroom, outside of school at sporting events or in this case, playing organized sports.
A lot of our students have never played organized sports. So we’re trying to give them the experience of being on a team, showing them leadership, being on a schedule, being on time, being more professional, and more responsible. It’s kind of hard to find a field that’s safe for them because you can’t always know how well a field has been maintained. We don't want the kids to twist a knee or break an ankle by stumbling in a hole. The fields we are using now are not always located in safe situations. We want the parents to feel confident that they are dropping their kids off in a place where nothing is going to happen to them.
Goal - Fundraising for Sports Field
We need our own proper field. As you can see right now, our students are practicing on a field that has very little lighting. We usually practice until daylight ends. Once we run out of daylight, that’s the end of our practice. Other charter schools also want to use good facilities, and when we find one, we can’t always reserve it when we need it because we’re not the only ones using it. And there are very few facilities in Tucson that can accommodate all the students we have. In addition to competing against other charter schools for sports fields, we’re competing against other leagues as well. It creates a big shortage for all of our students and all of the kids here in Tucson. Our goal is to raise the necessary funds to build a field by our school with the amenities for the students to have a safe environment where they can practice their sports. Not only will it benefit the students from our charter school but it will also benefit many other charter schools here as well.
TIA Principal Mike Montemayor and TIA Teacher/Sports Director Federico Enriquez
Watch the TIA Video
Link to video https://youtu.be/oOo9dPr6WOk
