Canadian youth sports provider Sportball is opening its first operation in East San Antonio this fall, bringing their penchant for health-focused, evidence-driven physical activity to Alamo City.
From the company's inception in Toronto, Canada, in 1995, the company has treated youth sports as something that builds physical literacy rather than focusing on trophy chasing. Sports are organized around community effort, not tiered competition. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that roughly 70 percent of kids drop out of sports programs by 13, with the primary reasons being burnout, injuries, and a hostile environment centered only on winning.
Sportball will cover the Stone Oak, North Central San Antonio, Alamo Heights, Bulverde, Cibolo, Schertz, Universal City, Hollywood Park, Timberwood Park, and Garden Ridge areas by hosting sports at various parks and community spaces. Sports include soccer, T-ball, basketball, tennis, volleyball, football, golf, and hockey for children aged 2 - 12. Registration can be done at the official Sportball website. The company offers parent-child classes, drop-offs, camps, and birthday parties.
The San Antonio operation is part of a larger expansion into Texas. Franchise owners Mica and Alyssa Villalon started out as coaches at the first U.S. Sportball in Austin in 2005 before transitioning into owners. There are now Sportballs in four Texas cities and over 900 locations worldwide.
"Opening a second Sportball location has always been a long-term goal for us," said Mica. "The opportunity to build a new location from the ground up and implement all the learnings we've amassed over the last twenty years, while doing what we love, is such a joy."
The rapid expansion of Sportball is due in part to its franchise-owner model, which has transformed coaches like the Villalons into entrepreneurs. Demand for organized sports exploded following the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic, particularly among children. With that explosion came a new sense of sports as a form of community bonding through mental and physical exercise. Sportball captures the idea of youth sports as a healthy game, something often missing in the cutthroat world of Texas school sports programs.
"Sportball has been growing across Canada for more than 30 years, creating a generation of healthy, active children," said Jason D'Rocha, Vice President and Growth Coach of Sportball. "Our ongoing focus on expanding across the states reaffirms our commitment to help more kids experience the joy of play, while building a lifelong foundation of physical, social, and emotional skills."
