{"id":8046,"date":"2021-04-01T07:32:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T14:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/?p=50000002583"},"modified":"2021-04-01T07:36:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T14:36:27","slug":"pop-warner-coach-louie-fundraiser-gofundme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/pop-warner-coach-louie-fundraiser-gofundme","title":{"rendered":"Even with youth sports now allowed, Long Beach Pop Warner struggles to keep football going"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jose Luis Silva, better known as \u201cCoach Louie,\u201d said that COVID-19 has prevented his nonprofit, Long Beach Pop Warner, an athletics program of more than 40 years, from fundraising for football gear on its own.<\/p>\n

Car washes and restaurant fundraisers did not happen during the pandemic. Silva, board president of Long Beach Pop Warner and a coach, would also typically discount the $375 football membership fee for a few families tight on cash. But this past year, many parents lost their jobs, making the need even greater, he said.<\/p>\n

This is why 70-year-old Silva is asking the public to help him raise $10,000 on GoFundMe<\/a> for equipment intended for hundreds of youth between the ages of 5 and 14. Any additional money raised would be used to help cover memberships costs for youth on his nine football teams, he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tito “The Hood Santa” Rodriguez, left, stands with Jose Luis “Coach Louie” Silva, right, after donating a $1,000 check to Long Beach Pop Warner at Silva’s home in Long Beach on Wednesday, March 31, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than ever, he wants the youth to be able to play another football season this year because they need an escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t allow that to crumble,\u201d said Tito \u201cThe Hood Santa\u201d Rodriguez of the nonprofit Local Hearts Foundation, which donated $1,000 and stacks of boxes filled with 21,000 disposable face masks for Silva’s teams Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

A rise in violent crime<\/a>, Rodriguez said, concerns him because Pop Warner, like other youth programming, has served a crime prevention method in pre-pandemic years.<\/p>\n

Lately, parents have been blowing up Silva\u2019s phone to ask about the prospects of the football league for their eager children.<\/p>\n

Silva first started coaching football nearly 30 years ago. As a Mexican teenager migrating to California, he would \u201cget into trouble.\u201d Discovering football, he said, kept him off the streets. Coming full circle, he became a coach to influence the lives of youth who were in similar situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just did it for the kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jose Luis Silva, better known as \u201cCoach Louie,\u201d said COVID-19 has kept his youth football nonprofit from fundraising for gear on its own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":17211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[197],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2685],"class_list":["post-8046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-youth-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8046"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=8046"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}