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We are proud of First Tee – Silicon Valley participant Franky Sumcad who stole the show at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club (SCVCC) Thanksgiving 9-Hole Skins Game on Nov 27th by winning 7 skins and raising $5,450 for FTSV.

The inaugural Thanksgiving 9-Hole Skins Game was a way of introducing and featuring SCVCC’s Junior Honorary Members* in addition to being a benefit for both First Tee – Silicon Valley and Youth on Course.  The day started with a Golf Clinic with Junior Honorary Members as demonstrators, followed by 9-hole skins game with a gallery of members and representatives from the two charities. The day concluded with awards and acknowledgements plus autographs and pictures with Honorary Members.

The roster of Junior Honorary Members competitors included:

1) Sabrina Iqbal – TCU / California CIF High School Champion, NCGA Champion, SF City Champion, CA Women’s Amateur Champion

2) Katherine Zhu – CAL / Rolex All American, two-time AJGA Champ, #1 player at CAL

3) Caleb Shetler – SJSU / Mountain West Freshman of the year, 2021 US Amateur participant at Oakmont, Santa Clara County Champion, Course Record Holder Cinnabar (60) and San Jose Country Club (59)

4) Francesca (Franky) Sumcad / Valley Christian High School, +1.1 Handicap, # 1 player at Valley Christian, First Tee – Silicon Valley member

Players competed for lowest score on each hole (skin). If the hole is tied, then the skin carried over to the following hole. If a player won a skin, they designated either YOC or FTSV as the recipient of the money won.  

The event was covered by Honorary Member – Janelle Wang (NBC News Anchor). Click here to watch the news story.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW483rVg_q4

Also in attendance to show support for Franky, was SCVCC member and FTSV Board Ambassador Baiba Scott. (Pictured below) and FTSV President & CEO, George Maxe.

* Franky Sumcad was chosen to be a Silver Creek Valley Country Club Junior Honorary Member in July 2021. SCVCC created this program to support young, prominent, local golfers as well as grow the game of golf.  Franky will have access to the club to practice, work at junior clinics, and be a role model for the club’s youth. She has been in the First Tee – Silicon Valley since 2012 and has progressed to our Ace level. Additionally, she has been a volunteer coach for several years coaching our younger participants.

Gracie’s journey in FTSV dates back to 2009. She and her family have been an integral part of our First Tee family ever since. She completed all 5 levels of our program, then volunteered at our admin desk, at outreach events, and as a coach. In the Summer of 2020, Gracie took the next step and became a Program Instructor, where she leads her team of volunteer coaches and teaches participants on Saturdays at Rancho Del Pueblo Golf Course.

“First Tee – Silicon Valley means family to me. I have been able to grow up in this program and make lifelong friendships,” says Gracie. “I absolutely love being a coach with the FTSV,  it is something I look forward to every single week. Every week brings a new experience and this has allowed me to continue to grow as a person.”

In addition to her coaching, Gracie is currently studying Elementary Education at Mission College and working during the week. She has excellent interpersonal and class management skills that she uses with her students, and will serve her well as she continues to pursue education and teaching.

According to Program Director Chris Moreno-Hunt, “Gracie represents what First Tee is all about. She embodies our core values, builds positive relationships, and sets goals that push her to new heights. I am grateful to have coached and worked with her for 4 years. I have seen her hone her leadership skills and positively impact those around her. She is a natural leader and instructor. We are fortunate to have her on our team and part of our First Tee family.”

With coaches like Gracie, our participants are in good hands. Thank you Gracie!

If you would to learn more about joining our coaching team, click here to get started. To view our team of coaches, please visit our staff and board page.

This Fall, 6 schools (5 returning and 1 new) have begun our Community Partner outreach program. Bracher Elementary (Santa Clara), Ellis Elementary (Sunnyvale), Cesar Chavez (San Jose), Spartan Keys (San Jose), Franklin Elementary (San Jose), and Santee Elementary (San Jose) have taken our training and started delivering classes to their students ranging from 1^st grade to 6^th grade.

Unfortunately, COVID put a pause on our Community Partner outreach program for over a year and a half, but our staff worked hard throughout the year to create a robust resource portal for our community partners. The online portal includes varied lessons plans, best practices, and video tutorials. Our goal was to come back stronger and better support our community partners so they have the tools to be successful. We value the community that we serve and we are excited to once again bring back our FTSV life and golf skills experience to our community partners and serve the areas where golf is a relative unknown.

Implementing the community partner program is difficult due to COVID, but due to the collaborative efforts of school principals, site managers, P.E. teachers, youth leaders and our FTSV staff, classes are going well, and we have received positive feedback from the participants. Each lesson of the community partner program consists of learning one of our Nine Core Values and a golf skill through different games set up in gyms, soccer fields, grass fields, or blacktop basketball courts. The equipment that we provide includes oversized plastic clubs, tennis balls, and Velcro targets.

To find out more about our Community Partner outreach program and to inquire about your school becoming a partner, please visit our website, contact [email protected], or call 408-508-4884.

First Tee – Silicon Valley held our annual Mentor-Junior Tournament at Rancho del Pueblo Golf Course on November 13^th.  Twenty-five participants paired with twenty-five mentors, including seven Stanford Men’s Golf Team members, and competed in an alternate shot stroke play tournament. Tournament experience is always valuable for young golfers, especially when they can learn from the accomplished Stanford Men’s Golf Team and form new social bonds with them.

“Watching the participants, mentors (FTSV coaches and Stanford Golfers) and parents/guardians all come together, share laughs, and have a good time is all we could ask for,” said Program Coordinator, Robby Keith. “Our tournaments are great ways for our participants and families to build their skills while forging a family-like community.” 

Thank you to our participants and mentors for attending and making the event fun and formative for all.

FTSV hosts a tournament quarterly, 2 weeks after each season ends. We hope to increase the capacity of these events and encourage many more FTSV participants to join us in our next tournament, which will be our Adult/Junior Tournament on February 26th. We hope to see you there, and look forward to your continued support! For more information on our tournaments please visit our youth opportunity page.

Below are the results of the tournament as well as a few pictures.

Par Division:

1^st place = Jesse Jang and Martin Fu

Birdie Division:

1^st place = Vincent Vo, Nicolas Hernandez, and a Stanford player

Eagle/Ace Division:

1^st Place = Joshua Jang and his Stanford partner

First Tee – Silicon Valley capped off the Fall season with our third Girls Golf event of the year – Fall Festive Play Day on November 13^th. Our 16 girl golfers wore their favorite cozy sweater and joined us for an “unbeleafable” time. The girls played on the course with our female FTSV coaches, and practiced their teamwork skills while playing different themed games including, Pumpkin Golf, Archery Golf, Speed Golf and Beat the Coach Golf. Girl golfers Elsa, Elena, Taj and Zoe sure knew pace of play as they got the fastest time for Speed Golf, finishing hole 3 in less than 4 minutes!

In addition to the golf, the girls used their art skills to decorate their Fall-themed ornaments, and took part in a trivia challenge where Elise and Taj took home the prize which was a pumpkin carved by FTSV coach Jasmine.

“This Girls Golf Play Day was special because we had five new Girls Golf members that joined for the first time. It was also great to see the engagement between our female coaches and the Girl Golfers as we empowered the girls with confidence and helped them develop their skills on the golf course,” shared FTSV Program Coordinator, Gabby Ruiz.

Girls Golf events occur 4 times a year. In each event our female participants play golf games and engage in team-building activities that fosters empowerment, healthy habits, and provides an outlet to build positive self-esteem.

Make sure to join us for the next Girls Golf event by visiting our Youth Opportunity page. Registration for the 2022 Girls Golf Play Day held on February 26^th will open February 9^th. See you in 2022!

Start your Christmas shopping now by clicking here for your choice of 4 Bay Area hometown sports colors while supplies last and support FTSV with our goal of raising $10,000 through this partnership.

d.hudson Golfwear and San Francisco 49ers kicker, Robbie Gould, have partnered together to create the Bay Area RG9 hat series, sales of which will go toward supporting a charitable cause.  Their first collection features iconic images representing The Bay in hometown sports colors.  d.hudson and Robbie have selected First Tee – Silicon Valley as the beneficiary of the first collection, donating a portion of the proceeds to the organization ($5 of $35 website price). 

As a company founded in San Francisco, d.hudson Golfwear is proud to join hometown football star Robbie Gould in giving back to the community.  Rock the Hud with Bay Area pride!

FTSV is a non-profit dedicated to Building Game Changers so all kids have a chance to grow in a supportive environment with mentors, who are accessible, welcoming and impactful, guiding them through a golf program.

Hear Robbie talk about First Tee – Silicon Valley

How do you learn best? This is a question we pose to our participants in the survey we pass out each season. The participants consistently rank the three in the following order,  # 1 – learn by doing, #2 –  learn by seeing, and #3 – learn by hearing.

Learning by doing is a student-centered approach to learning where coaches facilitate through guiding, open-ended questions and participants have a more hands-on approach to learning the material. For us that means participants are asked to demonstrate and reflect on how they are using the life lesson and golf skill in the games. Our coaches are encouraged to meet the students where they are and adapt to the individual.  Contrastingly, a teacher–centered approach is one that includes information being passed on in the form of a lecture or a direct instruction from the coach. Everyone learns differently and learning through hearing does work for some so there is a part of our classes where our coaches tell and explain the skill.

However, far more frequently we want to guide them and engage them using games. For that reason, our staff spends time and energy into making our games not just fun and visually enticing, but also purposeful to help put participants into situations where they can experience and work on the specific golf and life skill of the day.

This Winter season we are excited to present a myriad of golf activities and our goal is that participants have fun while learning.

Registration for the Winter season is now open. There are a few spaces still available, especially for our Par level. The season itself will start November 30th and will end February 5^th with two break weeks 12/19 to 1/3. The classes will take place at Baylands Golf Links in Palo Alto, Rancho Del Pueblo Golf Course in San Jose, and Gavilan Golf Course in Gilroy.  We encourage everyone 2^nd grade and above to join our program and help spread the word. For more information on our programs please visit https://www.firstteesiliconvalley.org/. and click here for the Winter schedule.

We hope to see you at the course!

First Tee — Silicon Valley is looking for high quality caring people that are interested in making a positive impact on youth. Volunteer coaches make the core lessons come to life by finding and using coachable moments. They also work together to make the classes fun and engaging and build a space where mentoring relationships can be formed and grow.

Learn new skills.

Our experience as coaches is that we are constantly learning, learning strategies for class management, class flow, lesson delivery, and how to connect. In our in-person volunteer training we review our coaching strategies, our golf cues, and our best practices. Also, at our in-person trainings we usually hear the phrase, “Wow, this skill really helps my game!” We have supplemental online coach resources available for coach development. However, where we learn the most is through experience and working together with a team of caring coaches. We strive to provide a supportive space where one can learn with others that share a similar passion for helping others.

Coaching makes a big difference.

When we ask and survey our advanced participants about their experience in First Tee, they overwhelmingly credit their coaches for improving their communication skills, and their ability to overcome challenges. Additionally, they say they are appreciative of the relationships they formed and the confidence they gained from having their coach believe in them. In a national study across the First Tee network, 87% of First Tee alumni said their relationships with their coaches were meaningful and grew stronger over time. These relationships were based on empathy, high positive expectations, and advocacy (e.g., open doors and eyes to new experiences). According to our participant surveys over the last year, on average:

• 86% said their life skills have improved.
• 95% said their golf skills have improved.
• 97% said their coaches made the classes fun
• 93% said they felt part of the group.

At First Tee – Silicon Valley, we believe in education and building life skills through golf. Golf is an excellent vehicle to practice collaborative and effective communication, learn self-management techniques, and set goals. These skills are developed in our first 4 class levels (PLAYer through Eagle). However, in our top level we dive deeper into 3 specific projects – career exploration, volunteering, and post high school education.

This Fall season we have had 20 Ace students (a new FTSV record) take part in the education module. Over the 8-weeks the participants explored a myriad of strategies for post high school identification starting with self-identification, and then progressing to research methods for schools, identifying what to look for and how to find it. Then we extensively discussed the college applications process, covering essay writing strategies, interviews, dates and deadlines, and identifying project management tools to set and monitor their progress and goals. We reviewed financial planning options for college, including the various available scholarships and where to find them, as well as defining and differentiating loans vs grants. We also explored the different costs associated with the multiple post high school educational options. Lastly, we introduced budgeting to help provide the framework needed to pay for school after high school.

“Ace Education is one of my favorite classes to teach,” says FTSV Program Director, Chris Moreno-Hunt. “The college process can be overwhelming, and several concepts within this process are not adequately covered in school, so anytime we can help ease their anxiety and help prepare them for their future, it is a gratifying experience.”

One of our goals is to have participants retain in our program and continue to learn the skills as they progress through our 5 levels. We are fortunate to have a large group of Ace participants that are taking advantage of these projects and passing on their acquired knowledge to our younger participants by way of volunteering.

To find out more about program please visit our Youth Classes page.

Our 3^rd Annual Challenge Cup returns on Friday, December 3^rd with 6 Country Clubs participating*.  It is an inclusive and friendly challenge between golf clubs benefiting the First Tee – Silicon Valley to help us grow the game of golf while building game changers in our community. It is an opportunity for golf clubs to demonstrate their philanthropic spirit of giving back to a non-profit closely associated with their favorite past time.

The head-to-head challenge matchups competing for the Challenge Cup are: 

• La Rinconada Vs Almaden  
• Silver Creek Vs San Jose  
• Sharon Heights Vs Menlo  

These same clubs raised $56,600 last year while La Rinconada was crowned the cup winner!

(See results below.)

All teams are encouraged to include men, women, seniors and teens in their team tally. Each participant makes a donation to benefit the FTSV to register. The format is a Point Par Scoring with 100% of Handicap — Net Par 1point, Net Birdie 2 points, Net Eagle 3 points, and Net Albatross 4 points.   Other members can make donations to support their club team. 

Click here to register or donate

The Aggregate of Top 24 scores from each Club determines their team score. The Team scores will be compared to rival Club to determine each match up Club winner. All money raised by both teams will be donated to FTSV in the name of the winning club plus bragging rights!  The team with highest overall score among ALL Clubs is declared winner of the 3^rd Annual Challenge Cup Perpetual Trophy!

The donations from the Challenge Cup will allow us to create a sense of belonging for all kids – no matter what walk of life. It will help us build the strength of character that empowers kids through a lifetime of new challenges by seamlessly integrating the game of golf with life skills.

If your golf club wants to challenge another club, Contact Development Director, Judy Dixon Deaton to get started 408-508-4881 – [email protected].

The 2nd Annual Challenge Cup was awarded to LaRinconada Country Club scoring 434 Points – the most of the 6 competing clubs.  Thank you to all of the 181 donors that supported us! 

• LaRinconada 434 Points vs. Almaden 410 Points – Total Raised $16,750
• San Jose 363 Points vs. Silver Creek 267 Points – Total Raised $9,752
• Menlo 358 Points vs. Sharon Heights 306 Points – Total Raised $30,100
• TOTAL RAISED $56,600