LONG BEACH, Calif. — Setting out signs and putting together his sign-up table is an annual practice for Jose L. Silva, or "Coach Louie," as he's affectionately known.
Over the last 40 years, he's sat at this table at El Dorado Park — first as a parent, then as a head coach and now as the Long Beach Pop Warner president.
"I was just a parent on the sidelines, but I got too excited yelling at the kids to motivate them," he said. "The parents really liked that, and by the end of the season, they asked me to help the team."
Silva went on to put all four of his kids through the program as players and a cheerleader. He's stayed on to see his grandkids move through as well. Now, at 71-years-old, he says the nonprofit is as much a part of his life's mission as it was when he first started.
"That's one of the greatest things," he said. "I like to see my kids come to the program and not just learn football. They do well in school. They get good jobs. If I can do that and save lives every year, that's what I'm looking for."
But in a pandemic year when many of his kids could use the escape, there's the worry that some may not be able to play.
Many of the more than 300 kids typically enrolled in the program come from single-parent households. But, with job losses and financial strain, registration fees have been tough to ask for.
"They feel ashamed because they don't have the money, but I don't want their kids to be in the streets and lose their faith in sports and get in the wrong crowd," Silva said.
The slow sign-ups are also worrisome to long-time parents of the nonprofit, such as single mom Edith Carrera, who knows the strain it takes to put children into sports leagues like Pop Warner all too well.
"There's always struggles to make those big payments," she said. "I'm a single mom, I had three boys, and even not just last year, but years before, it's always hard."
For the last decade, she's continued to put her boys in Pop Warner because of the lessons learned on and off the field.
"I see a lot of kids and talked to them about how they wish they had the opportunity my kids had and still have," Carerra said. "It's a family here."
And it's kids like the Carreras that pushed Silva to reach out for help.
He launched a GoFundMe page in April, asking for public support for equipment and membership costs. The goal was to raise $10,000 for necessary fees and to help subsidize the fees for families in need.
"That's the reason I tell my parents, 'don't stay home, come, sign up, we'll work it out,'" Silva said. "Don't tell the kids they can't play. We're gonna help."
He strongly believes that nothing should prevent a child from having the opportunity to take the field — worrying that the impact of not playing would be too great, he said.
"My whole goal is to stop kids from going in gangs," he said. "Anything I can do to help this kid, I'm gonna do it. I will never tell a kid, 'No, you can't [play] because of that.'"