THE EVOLUTION OF A BETTER U– A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER:
Over the last 15 years I have cultivated a passion for working with youth. The last 5 years I have come to the realization that I wanted to make the next generation strong, smarter, and more resilient.
I have faced many trials in my life and through my own work of trying to make myself a better person, I found I am obsessed with mental toughness. In 2024 I started implementing mental toughness topics with my football team. We talked often about being strong and resilient through adversity. I saw this team start to become more mentally tough. As we faced adversity through the season, these kids kept coming and coming and coming.
After the 2024 seasons, I came to the realization that mentoring youth is all I want to do. Football is the shortest season of all youth sports, therefore, our window to impact lives is a narrow one. So I started to find ways that I could mentor youth more than just during the football season. However, I did not just want to mentor them, but push them to be A BETTER version of themselves. How could I give them what I did not have as a youth, to be more prepared for the future?
One morning I sat up and thought, “What if we make an organization that is built in mentorship through competition?” I love competition, I think through competition we can put people in unique situations to experience adversity, stress, pressure and then we can mentor them. I want to coach them, push them, drive them to A BETTER version of themselves, one that is mentally tough.
Once I get a plan in my head that I have something I want, it’s go time. Within weeks we were filling paperwork to become a nonprofit. I came up with the name A BETTER U because we want you to be the better version of yourself. I chose the letter U instead of you because we are the U of YOU (the University of YOU). We will teach you about you in more ways than you can imagine.
When I have a passion for something, I talk about it! So that is what I did, car in reverse, call Joe and A BETTER U was now a conversation. The more people I told about A BETTER U the more people wanted to help! I was shocked by the outpour of support from people of that past and present. Now we are here, A BETTER U is here! Come be A BETTER U!
Best Regards,
Alex Sandeno