North Side coach Doel Bailey watched with pride as his soccer players conducted a celebratory train of high-fives with their parents along the sidelines.
He got chills when his players doused him with a bucket of ice water moments later.
North Side had just secured a hard-fought victory over St. Louis Language Immersion School in a battle of the top two City League boys soccer teams Tuesday at Emerson Central Fields in Forest Park.
“I’m proud of them. We have a lot of new guys who are just learning the whole aspect of soccer,” Bailey said.
City League is a nonprofit organization that provides after-school sports opportunities to 11 charter schools in the city of St. Louis. In addition to soccer, City League offers cross country, volleyball and basketball leagues for both boys and girls.
“The mission of City League is developing youth through the vehicle of sport,” Commissioner Allison Cousins said.
A former college volleyball player at Alabama-Huntsville, Cousins worked as a Physical Education teacher at Lafayette Preparatory Academy where she discovered that few of her middle school-aged students had ever played an organized sport.
“There were so many great athletes and so many kids who clearly loved sports. It was surprising that they had never had any formal training. It was just pick-up games at the community center or in the backyard,” Cousins said.
Jonathan Brown, a sixth-grader, is one of North Side’s newest players and strongest defenders. His mother, Sharon Hoye, has noticed a difference since his involvement in City League.
“City League has brought out his confidence. He was a shy kid, but now he wants to be active and do all the sports,” Hoye said. “I tell all my friends to get their kids involved in City League.”
According to a survey of parents whose children were involved in City League last year, 87 percent of students were playing an organized sport for the first time.
Charter School Growth
When St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) lost accreditation in 2007, it started a charter school movement in the city of St. Louis. (SLPS was granted provisional accreditation in 2012 and regained full accreditation in 2017).
Many charter schools started with enrolling kindergarteners, adding a grade level each year as students advanced in age. When Cousins began working at Lafayette Prep, it had become a full K-through-8 charter school with few coordinated after-school activities.
“We had no athletic programs,” Cousins said. “If you go into the county 10 minutes west of the school, that’s just part of the landscape.”
Cousins pitched the idea of forming an athletic league with administrators from other charter schools that were in a similar phase of growth.
“They didn’t know where to start. ‘How do we coordinate referees? Where do we play? Who do we play?’ There were so many questions,” Cousins said. “I thought, ‘I’ll just create a small league and see what happens.’”
That small league began in the winter of 2020 with the formation of a charter school basketball league. It lasted two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic halted all indoor sporting activities.
Cousins restarted her vision in 2021 by organizing cross country and soccer leagues, and City League expanded to include volleyball and basketball the following year. Cousins hopes to add track-and-field to the list of options in the future.
City League Impact
Angela Rineer, a physical education teacher, coaches the volleyball, basketball and soccer teams at Momentum Academy. She sees the impact that City League involvement has had on her students.
“City League has made my players grow a lot, athletically and with their character,” Rineer said. “They learn what to respond to and what not to respond to, how to handle winning and losing and how to handle competitive situations.”
She added, “Being able to play other charter schools in the city is awesome.”
On Tuesday, Momentum Academy faced Kairos Academy on one field, Kairos and KIPP Inspire faced off in a girls soccer matchup on an adjacent field, and City Garden played Lafayette Prep on a third field.
City Garden had an entire cheerleading squad in uniform along the sideline.
“It brings the community together,” said eighth-grader Greg Hollis, who scored the game-winning goal for North Side against STL Language Immersion School.
Hollis, who is a North Side team captain, credits City League for helping him practice leadership skills.
“I’m able to control my temper in games when things aren’t going our way. It’s taught me sportsmanship,” Hollis said.
Future Vision
Cousins decided to leave her position as a teacher and athletic director at Lafayette Prep to focus on building City League through three phases – establishing a foundation which includes funding partnerships, expanding its reach to involve more schools and sports, and finding a collaborative facility.
Since several charter schools operate out of preexisting buildings, only three of the 11 City League schools have a gymnasium, and none are large enough to accommodate spectators.
Kairos, which operates out of a former publishing company, held volleyball practices on a blacktop, drawing a line on a brick wall where the net would be.
Cousins would like to find a facility where all City League participants could engage in collaborative practices with the positive impacts ranging from skill development to community building.
“Essentially, we would have a program director running a camp-like, fundamental skill-based program after school,” Cousins said. “Sometimes, there can be divisiveness, so this is an opportunity to get to know people on a different level. ‘We play ball together, now we’re friends.’”
Cousins’ vision for City League is vast and includes the teaching of life skills such as financial literacy, health and wellness and social media responsibility as well as the creation of adult leagues.
“It’s a big vision,” Cousins said.
In a survey conducted last year, parents identified significant improvements in their child’s academic motivation, peer relationships, self-esteem, behavior and leadership after participating in City League.
“It brought out his personality,” Hoye said of her son Jonathan. “I feel like as long as he stays with City League, he’ll be ok. They treat him like family.”
To learn more about City League, visit stlcityleague.com.