Javier Mata
Javier Mata, Basketball Coach for the City of Santa Clarita Youth Sports, has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted Double-Goal Coach Award presented by TeamSnap for his positive impact on youth athletes.
Mata is one of 50 national recipients of the Double-Goal Coach award, named for coaches who strive to win while also pursuing the more important goal of teaching life lessons through sports. The award includes a $200 prize, a certificate, and mention within the websites and newsletters of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), a national non-profit developing Better Athletes, Better People through youth and high school sports.
“Coach Mata helps athletes win on and off the court,” said Alan Berkes, Executive Director of PCA-Los Angeles, the local Chapter of Positive Coaching Alliance. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience and serving as a Double-Goal Coach, Javier helps youth develop into better athletes and better people.”
When kids are following a coach across town and through different leagues, you know he’s doing something right. The reason is that Coach Mata is a kind, encouraging and motivating coach who gets the approach just right for the young age group that he coaches. He knows every child’s name, knows their family and creates a family environment within the team adding extra practices so that the kids have time to bond with one another.
Kids leave practice and games with a positive feeling; never discouraged or worried about the outcome on the scoreboard. Mata says, “I’m giving the kids an opportunity that I know a lot of other kids wish they had. Travel basketball is taking over in our area, but in the city league you have to be fair. I don’t limit them to a particular position because there’s a time to be competitive when you reach high school. I just want to teach them the basics.” The kids like it this way because the fun of playing without fear takes over and they walk away with a positive experience.
Mata is extremely committed to his team and after a particularly tough loss, he huddled his discouraged team and calmly talked to the them about overcoming challenges and staying positive. He offered to add extra practices so that they could compete better at the rematch with this team. What this meant for Mata was that he would have to rise at 3:00 a.m. to drive 140 miles one way to his job and leave early, driving the 140 miles back home to fit in these extra practices two nights a week for three weeks. His put in the extra work to motivate his team and inspired them with his huge sacrifice to ensure they could experience success.