Tony Di Giacomo:

Today’s expert interview. We’re excited to welcome Josh Shay, Tyler Robinson and Rob Abbott of Comeback Kids sports. Co-founders Josh and Tyler are student athletes at Hendrick Hudson high school and are joined today by their faculty advisor, Rob. Comeback Kids Sports is a local sports equipment collection organization, working to provide underprivileged youth with resources and connections to get in the game. We’ll discuss their important mission, how they created their own opportunity to make an impact during this uncertain time. Hi, I’m Dr. Tony Di Giacomo from Novella Prep, and this is A Novel Take. Josh,Tyler and Rob, excited to have you with us today.

Tyler Robinson:

Thank You.

Josh Shay:

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Tony Di Giacomo:

I’d like you to introduce yourselves and provide everyone with a better understanding of your mission at comeback kids sports. Tyler, why don’t you start

Tyler Robinson:

I’m Tyler. I’m a junior at Hendrick Hudson high school in this past few months. Me and Josh had both come across a bunch of leftover sports equipment in our garage and basements and thought what would be the best way to do something with this equipment? We both came to the conclusion that we should create Comeback Kids to try to donate our equipment to public kids in need. So that’s the reason for the start of our organization.

Tony Di Giacomo:

Thank you. And Josh, how did you come up with the name Comeback Kids and what is your stated mission?

Josh Shay:

It really just came to me and we were kind of just like brainstorming ideas and didn’t really have much. And then it came to me and it kind of just worked perfectly because these kids aren’t coming from great places on we’re trying to show them that if we helped them, they can really come back and do great things in life. And our mission is really just to provide them with the equipment that they need to have fun, go out there and enjoy sports.

Tony Di Giacomo:

Rob, what made you want to get involved with what these two students were doing and what are some of the work that you do?

Rob Abbott:

Well, I’m a member of the Croton rotary club. I found out about the project because the club had come across some youth sporting equipment that we wanted to donate. And through our relationship with the little league, I was referred to Josh and Tyler who had just started Comeback Kids sports a few months before that I was excited by the project because I could see that it was a really good community service opportunity for the two founders. And also that’s something that would be very helpful to members of the community who wanted to clean out their garages. The initiative that Josh and Tyler showed was not only giving them an opportunity to give back to their community, but also because they were serving as entrepreneurs in the creation of the project, they were able to gain a lot of and skills. That would be very important to them in their education.

Rob Abbott:

When I got in contact with them and heard the details about the work that they had done, I was really excited about that. And we were able to, uh, give them the baseball equipment that the Croton rotary club had assembled. And then I stuck with the two as an informal advisor. I’m not a member of the bicycle faculty, but as a member of the rotary club, I hope to be able to help them liaison with our club and possibly other community groups who would be good partners for them and getting the word out about what they’re doing.

Tony Di Giacomo:

Thank you, Rob. No, it’s great to have that kind of support. I think it sends a message to the community that when students, anybody, but students in particular have an innovative idea and want to do some good. There are usually people that can help rally to their cause and provide some additional support so they can sustain this. I think it’s a great lesson for the community here in Westchester, as well as in general, something that other students can aspire to do. When we’re thinking about service, when we’re thinking about community service, and we’re thinking about how to spend our time, generally speaking, it doesn’t just have to be limited to clubs and activities in the school. You can be entrepreneurial in your service and during a time, like now when better than to do something like that. Speaking of being entrepreneurs, Josh and Tyler, you both have such an entrepreneurial spirit for helping others through this work. Do you have any advice for other students who are looking to make a difference during this time and in the future after hopefully we have a vaccine and things are looking a little better. Tyler, why don’t we start with you?

Tyler Robinson:

My only piece of advice would be, if you have an idea, chase it without actually taking the initiative and following through with going and following through with our plan of collecting and donating gear, there would never be a Comeback Kids. If you have an overall idea, even if you don’t completely believe in it, if you follow through and take the initiative, anything can happen.

Tony Di Giacomo:

And by say not believe in it, I think you mean that you might not know how far it will go or how successful it may become, but you give it a go anyway, give it a try. Is that correct?

Tyler Robinson:

Yes. When me and Josh started this. We didn’t originally think that we would be able to collect 600 items. We thought we would reach out to a few friends, maybe a few people that we knew in the community and collect as much gear as we can, and hopefully give it to kids in need. But now this has since grown into a website and now we’re marketing it to other communities around us. Since we’ve collected over 600 items,

Tony Di Giacomo:

This equipment Josh, in terms of where students getting the items and how are you getting it there logistically.

Josh Shay:

right now we’ve shipped a soccer equipment to Ghana through Gavi sports foundation. And down there, he does a great job of running
tournaments and leagues for the kids. When I met him,

Josh Shay:

He was really passionate about it. And it was really cool to see because he grew up in Ghana and loved soccer and knows the passion these kids have for the sport. And he just told me like how appreciative that they are for getting this equipment and how it can really make a difference. It can allow them to make the best of their sporting career and have a chance to maybe play professional one day and chase their dreams. And then we’re also sending baseball equipment to Colombia, through Project Baseball. I’m talking to Justin Holiday. He told me about how much these kids really love baseball and enjoy it, and how just nine gloves can make a game for 18 kids and allow them to play. And it was just really awesome to hear from both these leaders, from the organizations and allow us to see how, what we’re doing can really make a difference.

Tony Di Giacomo:

Well said, Josh, thank you. It’s true. And one of the things that I was taken with in some of our prior conversations was how you just want more students to have access, to being able to play and participate and engage in sports that you love. And that you didn’t see this as simply an economic disparity issue, but also a resource issue. It’s about leveraging resources that already exist on the planet. So there’s less waste, but also there are those who don’t have access to these materials and granting them access that might help us find the next Lionel Messi or the next Aaron judge or whoever it may be. And granting access is everything these days. And we also know in the education community, how important play is to learning the connections we make and play often translate into other attributes, both a non-cognitive development with confidence, focus, team, building leadership, but also in just making connections in general, between ideas. So that’s wonderful. What are some of the goals that you have for combat kids in the future?

Rob Abbott:

Why don’t you say what sort of equipment you’ve been collecting Tyler.

Tyler Robinson:

Since the original creation of Comeback Kids are, our goals have changed. As I previously stated, our original goal was just to collect as much gear as we could, and hopefully help as many kids in need as we possibly could. Now that the organization has grown and we’re potentially doing a partnership with Rob and the rotary club, and we have marketed to other like communities through Facebook and other platforms. We hope to collect over thousands of items and ship it all to Ghana, Colombia, as many other areas. If there’s another organization we could find.

Tony Di Giacomo:

And do you aspire Josh to support any local student athletes who maybe don’t have access here in the United States?

Josh Shay:

Yeah, definitely. I know there’s tons of areas around here that kids really don’t have the equipment that they could use. And one thing I know I’m very passionate about, I think Tyler is too, is we want to start like working with kids like one-on-one and being able to like teach them about sports and tell them like our experiences and maybe give them advice. Like, I know I have a lot of experience with baseball and Tyler with soccer. So I think another one of our goals is to act as mentors to help these kids. And we would be willing to do any kind of lessons or something like that.

Tony Di Giacomo:

That’s great. I think there’s a lot to be said for providing material and informational support. You could set up a network now with all of our digital platforms being connected to one another, to be able to provide that kind of information. I think that’d be very valuable. So I’ll be sure to provide links and descriptions so that people can find ways to connect with your website. Should they want to provide financial support or be aware of what you’re doing or perhaps contact you if they’re a student and they want to hear more about how you started this organization. So perhaps they can do the same in their areas. Thank you very much for participating. Do you have any final questions or statements that you have before we wrap?

Tyler Robinson:

We have collected all sorts of equipment we’ve collected. I believe over 80 pairs of soccer cleats as well as football cleats, we have collected baseball bats. We’ve collected soccer, balls, basketballs, lacrosse balls, golf balls. We have golf clubs. We also have from my old soccer club, Joe Palumbo soccer Academy, they have given us over 200 clothing items, which we are giving to prom Gaby sports foundation to be shifted Ghana to kids so they can wear sports and soccer gear as they play their sports. Additionally, I believe we have baseball gloves. Softball is baseballs and a bunch of other stuff.

Tony Di Giacomo:

Okay. So basically any sport in particular, what we’ll do is provide, like I said, a link in the description on your website, you can clearly delineate what has been donated historically, and you can also indicate what is in need as well as future drives that you guys are doing to try to collect certain types of sporting equipment at different times of the year for certain populations, that would be helpful for everybody. Thank you all very much for participating very inspired by your story and felt that it was one worth telling to the local community here in the tri-state area, around New York, but also for anybody else, listening that during a challenging time, there are ways of helping each other and it doesn’t have to be through traditional channels. So I appreciate you guys leading the way. Thank you, Tyler. Thank you, Josh. And thank you, Rob.

Josh Shay:

Thank you, Tony. This was great.

Tony Di Giacomo:

That’s all for this episode of A Novel Take. Thanks for listening. Remember to subscribe for more discussions on the latest education headlines, key topics and expert interviews. As always, you can learn more about us at novellaprep.wpengine.com and find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @novellaprep. I’m Dr. Tony Di Giacomo, bye for now.