Meet Sophia

Sophia Z. Wastler is the Founder,and Program Manager to the Starz Program. She is also a vounteer mentor with SCORE where she enjoys helping entrepreuners with their businesses. The story of Starz starts when she was a middle school teacher. Working within a large school district, she taught one hundred fifty students daily and observed more than one thousand students each day engaging in activities in and out of the gym. Soon she noticed a strong correlation between students who did not engage in recreational activities and students who did not do well academically. She realized that students who had a foundation or aptitude for sports and fitness had higher self-esteem, better friendships, and performed better academically in school. She made a mental note of these observations. A few months later, she took her then four-year-old son, Vince, and his friend, who we will call Bobby, to the park. With t-ball equipment in hand, off they went! Vince grabbed the bat and hit a home run! His friend Bobby, who also was four, was next to hit. Bobby could not hold the bat properly nor did he know how to stand at the plate. She could see this child’s energy start to withdraw. There was definitely a lack of confidence that came over him. It was obvious what Bobby was thinking, “Why could Vince hit a homerun and I could not?” Sophia sprang into action and quickly stepped in to assist. After giving him instruction and practice in t-ball basic skills, he too was hitting the ball! The beam of happiness that came off this young child was strong! He was glowing with pride and had a sense of joy and excitement. His energy was much different than it had been just a few moments ago. That was when Sophia knew we needed to teach young children the fundamentals of sports at an early age. Doing so sets their self-esteem and confidence on the right path which ultimately leads to success in so many facets later in life. Children need early intervention in individual and small group instruction. In that moment, back in 2004 STARZ was born!