The Winning Play: Building Community Through Youth Sports and Mentorship
Tekle Tafari may seem like a typical 11-year-old boy. As a fifth grader at Siebert Elementary, he participates in the Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families mentorship program and plays soccer in the youth sports program sponsored by Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Final Third Foundation and Columbus City Schools. When he isn’t kicking the soccer ball with his friends, he likes playing video games, like Fortnite and Roblox.
But Tekle also has a passion for teaching that is unusual at his age and impacts everyone around him – even the adults in his life. Just ask his mentor, Taylor Thees.
Taylor works as a Clinical Therapy Administrator for Nationwide Children’s and joined the Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families mentorship program three years ago. She works half days on Wednesdays and wanted to use her free time to connect with the community. “I work an administration job, so I’m not patient-facing. This is scratching an itch for me,” she said.
On her first day, Taylor was paired with Tekle and they’ve worked together ever since. She loves getting to meet her mentee for an hour each week. They tackle homework first, then play games or talk.
“Tekle is incredibly smart and barely needs help from me,” Taylor said. This year, he learned how to play chess and now he’s teaching his mentor the basics of the game. “I’m learning from him how to play,” Taylor said with a smile.
According to his coach Wes Mitchell, Tekle’s desire to teach is evident on the soccer pitch, too. Wes works in Behavior and Discipline at Siebert Elementary and has been mentoring kids since he was a young man himself. In previous years, Wes coached flag football and basketball at Siebert. This year, Nationwide Children’s sponsored a soccer program, which presented a new challenge for the coach. While Wes excels in building connections and confidence with kids, he admitted he started the year without any soccer experience. Luckily, he had Tekle on his side.
When Wes began recruiting for the team, Tekle was the first student to sign up. “He’d come up with drills for the team to try,” Wes said. “He was never arrogant. He never got down on his teammates if they made a mistake.” In fact, Tekle was a good influence and always encouraged the others to stay on task.
Tekle enjoys playing offense and scoring goals, but he also values the importance of strategy and teamwork. “Sometimes your team keeps passing the ball until you get a goal, and that makes everyone happy,” he said. “You have to learn to wait for the right moment.” The team's patience paid off: Siebert Elementary scored 5-1 in the championship game against East Columbus, their stiffest competition.
Though it may have been luck rather than strategy that brought Taylor, Wes and Tekle together, all of them have benefited from each other over the last three years. Both adults have truly enjoyed their time working with – and learning from – Tekle. Meanwhile, Tekle has gained greater confidence in his abilities as a student and athlete.
That’s the power of community outreach. It makes everyone better versions of themselves.
To learn more about Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families’ work in the community, visit NationwideChildrens.org/HNHF.
Published: April 2025
