At Playworks, we believe in the power of play to bring out the best in every kid. We are thrilled that one of our very first junior coaches is now out of college and has come back to Playworks to ensure that there’s a place for every kid to belong, have fun and be part of the game.
Synchro Bull was a smart, quiet girl who kept to herself and didn’t have a lot of friends when Coach George and Playworks, (then Sports4Kids) came to West Oakland’s Longfellow
Elementary in her third grade year. She tended to stay on the sidelines and rarely spoke to anyone. Snychro wanted to be invisible. Preferring spelling and reading over other things, she didn’t play games and certainly had never played on a team before.
But that didn’t matter to Coach George. He saw Synchro’s potential. After introducing her to the game of basketball, which she played for the first time ever that year and was a natural, he invited her to be a junior coach as a fourth grader.
At first, Synchro did not want to be a junior coach. “I didn’t want to talk with anyone and I didn’t want anyone to talk to me,” she says. “I could be defiant and a was bit of a troublemaker. I read books and closed myself off.”
The shirt talks
“One day I saw some kids with the Sports4Kids t-shirt,” Synchro recalls. “I wanted that shirt. It was so cool. Coach George said the only way to get it was to be a junior coach. So I finally said ‘yeah. I’ll be a junior coach.’”
Once she got the junior coach shirt — and the responsibilities that go with it — Synchro says things started to change. She found she enjoyed running the games and helping kids solve their issues on the playground.
“I liked bringing the kids together,” she says. “I felt empowered when I could help them resolve their conflicts. I talked to kids I’d never talked to before. I had to communicate and be nice, and by the end of the year I knew everyone and talked to everyone. I loved that shirt.”
Coach George recruited Synchro to play on One Nation, a basketball club that he founded in Emeryville, and Synchro developed into a standout player. Often she would be called on to play as a guest with other teams, where she said she had to work as a team with girls she didn’t know who often were much different than her.
Synchro credits her junior coaching experience for helping her adjust and be successful “If I didn’t open up in elementary, I probably would have been closed-minded and set in my ways for the rest of my life,” she says. “With basketball, I had to mingle with different girls. I got used to the diversity and learned to get along and make friends.”
Talent spotting
In high school, Synchro was again touched by Playworks, this time in the form of Emeryville High School basketball coach Erin Lewellen, a former Playworks coach who knew Synchro from her early days.
Synchro credits Erin and another former Playworks coach, Amy Jones, for “making things happen” for her. “They told me about college, explained about SATs and my GPA,” she says. Teacher Lisa Haynes, a friend of Synchro’s mom, also understood Synchro’s academic and leadership potential and encouraged her to enroll in AP classes and pushed her to keep up with her classwork.
“I never thought of myself as an honor roll student, but everyone was believing in and pushing me. I had no choice but to be on my best behavior and successful,” she says.
A star basketball player, Synchro made the honor roll at Emeryville High and was recruited to play basketball at Chico State University in Northern California, where she was a leader on the court and a pivotal member of the team. She graduated from Chico State in 2013, earning her degree in Psychology and Child Development.
Paying it back… and forward
Synchro has now come full circle, using her leadership skills to make a difference on the playground. She joined the Playworks NorCal team in the East Bay as an AmeriCorps member in January, 2014 and is committed to using her education and life lessons to pursue her passion to make a difference for kids.
“Sports4Kids and being a junior coach was a big part of my life,” says Synchro, lapsing back to Playworks’ former name. “Coach George and Coach Erin helped me so much. And being a junior coach empowered me to be a leader.”
“There are a lot of kids out there like me when I was younger, going through a lot and struggling with trying to figure it all out,” she observes. “I want to give back to them like others gave to me when I was at school. School should be a great experience, a place kids look forward to so they can learn and play. I want them to know that if they work hard and play hard, things will get better.”
