Our Athletics Program serves over 300 girls and boys annually in football, basketball, baseball, softball, and competitive cheerleading. Our student-athletes must demonstrate a commitment to their schoolwork to be eligible to practice and play.

Athletics are a critical part of our education-focused mission, as it encourages academic accomplishments and social-emotional growth. Students’ participation promotes connectedness, increased resilience, and a greater ability to resist peer pressure. It has become a power vehicle for youth development, distinguished by its ability to generate what Dr. Monica Ruiz of The George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health has called “the Beacon House effect.”

Athletics often provides a path to college for many of our participants. Longtime volunteer Robert Wade Jr. described how our Athletics Program reinforces the importance of school: “We emphasize education – preach it first. We set an expectation that they will do well in school. We tell our youth that if you can learn on the court or the field, then you can learn in school.”