My wife Gloria’s and my internal discussions of The Fitness Mission are often referred to as “the resurrection of the farm kid.” This is all about teaching at the foundational, family level the exact same thing high school coaches try to instill in their athletes. We feel that all children should already have a sense of the values, courage, and work ethic necessary to succeed in sports. It’s wonderful when a great coach can succeed as a “last resort” in “rescuing” some kid from some degree of dysfunction. However, we feel that ideally all children would matriculate from their home environment with a head start on those life skills and values, and that I good coach can just “polish them up.” Ideally, they can also provide the opportunity offered by a team environment to develop leadership skills. Fitness Mission aims to develop in parents and other primary caregivers the importance of encouraging their kids to even want to participate in the first place. Coaches will never have a chance to do what we believe is important and necessary work if students have already concluded that “Sports are stupid,” or, “Sports just are not for me!” After all, what about the 45% of students that do not participate in athletics? Moreover, what about the likelihood that within that 45% reside a very high percentage of the kids that suffer the most and would most benefit from their participation?