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From the Soccer Field to the Classroom: A Q&A with Coach Ryan Gitonga
On an SWB soccer pitch, learning happens in all kinds of ways.
Participants communicate across language differences, work through challenges with teammates, and find the confidence to speak up for themselves. And right there beside them is a coach, getting to know them, listening, and helping those lessons carry beyond the field.
Ryan Gitonga knows that role well. As the Program Manager with SWB Maryland, he has spent years building relationships with participants and helping coaches across the country do the same.
We caught up with Ryan to talk about how coaches build trust, what learning through soccer actually looks like, and what he wishes more people understood about the role sport can play in education. Check out the conversation below!
Photos by Ryan Gitonga.
What challenges do newcomer youth face when starting school in the U.S., and how does the game of soccer help?
When I think about the challenges that a young person who is new to the U.S. might face, I often think about SWB programming during the COVID pandemic. It really highlighted just how much newcomer families and youth go through, and the importance of youth staying engaged with their SWB teams.
Newcomer youth are often navigating a new culture, a new school, a new language, a new neighborhood, or some combination of them. All of that can feel very isolating.
On an SWB team, one of the main things we provide is a safe space where youth can be themselves, surrounded by coaches and teammates who understand what they are going through. It’s a place where youth can make friends, and where a soccer ball can help bridge the gap when two players don’t yet share a language.
For participants, SWB becomes a place where, at the end of the day, they can take off that feeling of being the new kid at school or the English Language Learner in class and just be a kid playing soccer with their friends.
That space can quickly become something they need, and something they deeply feel when it is taken away. At the start of the pandemic, newcomers who were just starting to feel settled at SWB suddenly had direct programming paused. That loss was really felt across the community.
We often say that learning at SWB happens through soccer. What does that actually look like in practice?
English Language learning happens in numerous ways at an SWB practice. Our students are coming with varied levels of English language proficiency so on a team you might find students confident in English while there might also be a few with close to zero proficiency. Our SWB rule of 'Practice English' helps in that it does not seek or expect perfection from the players, all it does is encourage youth to always make an effort, to always try their best.
As a coach, you get to know participants well beyond what happens during programming. How does that relationship allow you to support what they're working toward at school?
I think the thing that has helped me connect most with youth as a coach is being authentic and open with them. Relationship building, for me, has always come from a place of being genuinely curious about youth, their thoughts, and their experiences.
The players we work with want to be heard. They want to feel like the adults in their lives are listening and actually care about what they have to say. Realizing that completely changed how I build relationships with my players. Often, when I talk to a player about a difficult situation they’re facing at school or at home, it boils down to feeling unheard or misunderstood.
For newcomers, helping them develop the language they need to express and advocate for themselves can make a huge difference in their interactions with adults. They’re better able to work through challenging situations at school, speak up for themselves, and grow in confidence.
Being a coach who is genuinely interested in my players and makes them feel heard has gone a long way in helping them feel comfortable coming to me when they’re going through something difficult. It also helps me work with them to build the communication skills they need to positively engage with other adults in their lives.
Is there a particular participant or moment from your years coaching at SWB that showed you how something learned or developed through soccer carried over into school or another part of their life?
When I think about a participant who has really developed both on and off the field, I think about Edea, a current senior on our High School Girls team who I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and coaching since she was in fifth grade.
Edea has always been outgoing, but the confidence she found through soccer has extended into other areas of her life. She has become a champion for SWB, advocating for herself and her teammates and always looking for opportunities to bring more girls onto the team.
Since starting high school, she has also served as a youth coach and intern at our International Summer Academy, the same program she so excitedly joined as a fifth grader.
I think the biggest marker of Edea’s growth came this year, when she represented SWB youth at the United Nations in New York. She joined a panel hosted by UN Youth and UNHCR on how soccer can be a game changer for the world’s young people.
When you think about the young people you've coached over the years, what do you wish more people understood about the role that soccer, or sport in general, can play in their education?
I think it’s easy to put sports aside as secondary to school or education. As someone who was taken out of youth sports at a young age to focus on academics, I notice that same thinking sometimes come up with the families we work with. Sports can also be seen as valuable only when a young person is really good at them or excelling, but there is so much value in simply staying involved.
Youth learn so much about themselves, the world, and each other through sports. They learn that they can do hard things, face difficult situations, and come out stronger on the other side. They learn how to build resilience, how to fail and try again, how to handle disappointment, and how to advocate for themselves when something feels unfair.
Sports also teach youth how to work as a team, bring out the best in each other, and recognize and account for the weaknesses of their teammates.
Soccer teaches you that when you work hard at something and keep putting in the effort, you get better and begin to experience success. I think that’s such a valuable lesson for youth today.
Ryan has seen how what participants practice on the field can show up in the rest of their lives. Speaking up with a coach can make it easier to advocate for themselves at school. Communicating with teammates across language differences can build confidence in English. And when so much else feels unfamiliar, having a team where you feel understood can make a new community feel a little more like home.
That’s what learning through soccer can look like. The game creates space to connect, make mistakes, try again, and keep learning. Coaches like Ryan make that possible by building relationships participants can count on, on the field, at school, and through whatever comes next.
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