At least part of John “Coach J.T.” Thomas’s mission was obvious to the LINC kids gathering in the Topping Elementary School gym after school.

The big box filled with bright blue and red thick-padded gloves clued them in before Thomas anounced, “I’m here to teach you boxing . . .”

But Thomas’s words kept coming like the surge of a stalking fighter.

“I’m here to teach you conditioning. I’m here to motivate you to make you the strongest individuals you can be . . . to teach self-worth.”

Throughout all of LINC’s Caring Communities programs, children are getting access to an expansive menu of sports that otherwise might be out of reach for many families, said LINC Athletics Director Jason Ervin.

And along with it, the children are getting those life lessons and personal growth opportunities sports bring.

“We want to give our kids more than what we had as youth,” Ervin said.

LINC students play pickleball at Foreign Language Academy in the Kansas City Public Schools.

LINC is bringing sports on-site to after-school programs with dedicated coaches and trainers, providing families and their children free athletic experiences in flag football, basketball, golf, tennis, soccer, swimming, pickleball and the mindful movement of yoga.

“It builds teamwork,” Ervin said. “It builds relationships. And it gives kids a sense of belonging to something. We want them to know they are important. We’re putting people in place that are going to teach them those skills of life.”

At Foreign Language Academy, students coming into the gym saw the row of golf bags, the covers on the sleek clubs and the elaborate set of nets golf instructor Ed Tillman was setting up across the floor.

Not surprisingly, despite their enthusiasm, the youths’ first swings hit more air than ball.

Coach Tilden Trotter gives a pre-game pep talk to LINC students with Melcher Elementary School.

But so begins Tillman’s life lesson on perseverance and spirit.

“I’ve been playing golf 29 years,” he said. “When I started I was just like you — swinging and missing, swinging and missing, swinging and missing.”

But he committed himself to lessons, dedicated to getting better.

“Never let anybody tell you that you can’t do something,” he said. “Anything that you do, that you love to do, give it your all.” It works the same as keeping your report card strong with A’s, he said.

“It all ties into what we’re doing now,” he said. “Stay focused on what you love to do and you will get good at it.”

Out on the Saturday football fields at 43rd and Cleveland Avenue, Coach Tilden Trotter demonstrated how team sports help children see the beauty of working together.

“Encourage each other!” he said in his pre-game huddle. “Encourage each other! No put-downs. If someone makes a mistake? Clap it off. The person who makes the mistake needs that.”

And then the Melcher Elementary students, with blue “LINC” jerseys tucked under their belts of long green flags put fists together, cheer and run to the field.

Golf instructor Ed Tillman works with students at Foreign Language Academy.

Inspiration works both ways, Trotter said after the game.

“These kids motivate me to keep coming out here on these Saturdays,” said Trotter, who has been coaching for more than three decades. “I want to keep on encouraging them to stay happy, and be happy. Because, you know what? The best is yet to come.”

LINC is collaborating with many community partners to put its athletic programming together, Ervin said.

They include Mattie Rhodes, which is providing soccer coaches. LINC’s boxing instructors grew up in the community and are eager to give back. Basketball coaches joining the program were themselves mentored by community champions like the late Calvin Wainright.

LINC’s flag football teams with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City provide coaches with rich community understanding.

LINC has added pickleball to its menu thanks to volunteers who are dedicating to teaching the game to kids. And LINC is working with The View in Grandview to set up swimming lessons, and collaborating with Lob and Learn to add tennis lessons.

John “Coach J.T.” Thomas works out a LINC student at Topping Elementary School in the North Kansas City School District.

Every step of the way there is another coach like basketball coach Kenneth “Pooh” Oliver, there for the kids.

“I love the game. I love the kids,” Oliver said. “I was one of them once upon a time. This game kept me out of a lot of trouble. It opened up a lot of doors for me.”

At Topping, after all the running of laps, the pushups, the stretching, and the vigorous smacking of gloved fists against hand pads, Coach J.T. sends the students home with that session’s message of the day.

“It’s OK to make mistakes,” he said, reading from the page each student would take with them. “Mistakes mean you’re trying. We learn from mistakes.”

“Once you understand to focus and understand who you are,” he said, “there is nothing you can’t accomplish. Nothing you can’t do.”

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