WiSCONSIN S.O.Y.L
Saving Our Youth Lives Inc (S.O.Y.L) is local non-profit organization established in 2018 by program founders Marquis Sanders and Tommy Foy. The organization was started because we noticed the need for youth in the area to have better access to quality basketball skill development and needing more life mentorship in this fast evolving world. Studies show that when youth are provided with safe, consistent, alternative healthy & physical activities outside of school hours, their self-esteem & physical health increases, and the probability of youth engaging in negative behavior decreases.
This program was created to combine sports and youth advocacy to help youth maximize their potential and provide safe & enriching physical and learning activities for boys and girls in southern Wisconsin. Our main goal is to use basketball as a tool to build life skills, discipline, a strong work ethic, understand team work, and academic accountability. We use sports to help prepare youth to become productive, responsible, and hard-working adults. Our program will focus on basketball fundamentals, growth in player ability, confidence building, and increasing your basketball intelligence.
Our program will provide girls and boys teams for grades 3rd-12th grade that compete year around, consisting of 2 seasons. With the Fall/Winter season being from November-March and the Spring/Summer season from March-August.
Teams will consist of high-level competitive traveling teams and beginner level developing teams. Our travel teams will play in competitive level tournaments and our most talented travel teams will compete high level exposure tournaments. Traveling teams will have tournaments in Wisconsin, but also outside of Wisconsin, throughout the Midwest, and potentially nationally. Our beginner level developing teams will compete in beginner level tournaments in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. We will help to provide our highest-level teams and players with opportunities and resources to gain a college scholarship.
Most of our teams will be based in the Dane County and Madison area, but will expand into other areas of the state based on interest in that area. We are also looking to build partnership with local Wisconsin communities that are lacking youth basketball programming. Our program provides quality coaches who were specifically chosen because of their basketball knowledge, coaching ability, and basketball experience. Our program is only seeking players and parents who are committed to being respectful and players dedicated to learning the game of basketball. We are also looking to find hidden & undeveloped talent and helps them reach their potential.
We pride ourselves on providing affordable team fees and offering payment plans in our program. Our high-level travel teams’ fees will be higher based on exposure tournaments costing a higher entrance fee. All player team fees go towards tournament entrance fees, jerseys, practice gym space, and liability insurance to help cover potential injuries. Our coaching staff is all voluntary currently. Travel to and from practice and games is the responsibility of the players and/or their parents.