Last fall we were thrilled to be selected to receive a Fight For Children Fellowship Award. Fight for Children has a “mission of improving the lives of underserved children in the nation’s capital.” Over the past 30 years they have helped individuals, organizations, and communities leverage the power of sports to achieve improvements in healthcare, education, and policy reform.
The Fellowship Award is designed to build and promote the professional development of young adults from traditionally underrepresented groups. We applied for the Fellowship Award because it is in line with our commitment to opening doors and providing opportunities for youth and adults in our community.
We are pleased to introduce Hugo Lopez as our 2024 FFC Fellow! Hugo has been a part of the ASA community for several years and we are thrilled to have him on board in a more comprehensive capacity for the coming season.
Jim Hogan, ASA’s Deputy Director of Tournaments and Programs said, “When we learned about the Fight For Children Fellowship we were excited to identify individuals in our community who had been impactful within our programs, who we could now spend more time with, expand their role and provide more opportunities across the club. Hugo stood out as the perfect candidate with his coaching and operational experience, along with his drive to soak up additional knowledge and opportunities whenever he could. Since transitioning into this more comprehensive role, he has been an integral part of the success of our programming from a coaching, operational and administrative standpoint which we are excited to continue through the winter and into the spring season with Hugo onboard.”
Hugo is currently the head coach of the 2012 Boys Red and 2011 Boys White Academy Futsal teams for the winter season. He is also an assistant coach for the 2009 and 2012 Boys Red Academy Soccer teams (their spring season kicks off in March!). Hugo supports our Junior Academy and Access4All programs with his coaching expertise and last summer he helped run our popular Camp Kickin’ Fun summer camps.
In addition to coaching, his fellowship responsibilities include operational support at ASA’s spring tournament and events and customer service support in the front office. This includes building equipment, prepping fields and courts, helping manage a logistically challenging lineup of weekend events, and even building futsal courts across the city. Hugo is also pursuing a degree in Sports Management.
Hugo said, “What I’m looking forward to in the next six months at ASA is gaining more experience coaching. I’m also looking forward to gaining more knowledge with what goes on behind the scenes with other ASA programs, hoping that I can improve my skill set in different areas!”
Hugo actually jumped in full heartedly in late 2023 and helped us prepare for and host Capitol Futsal Cup, the largest single weekend futsal tournament in the country. We are thrilled to have him on board and grateful to Fight for Children for this opportunity and their commitment to youth sports in our community.
