Shifting the mentality of youth athletics and physical education to become positive, empowering, accessible through matching the highest quality coaching and sport curriculum for the communities we serve.
To create a safe, fun environment where kids learn the basics of movement, and to provide fundamentals that translate into various sports and disciplines so that students can apply them to any sport of their choice.
"Hey Coach!" is our favorite phrase. Those two words are why we do what we do. It's what drive us each day. Being a coach means you are going to make an impact. Being a great coach means the impact you make is going to last a lifetime. It's not easy being a great coach. It takes time, effort and patience. When those you coach feel less like players and more like family the time, effort and patience required become a habit you are happy to repeat. We are proud to boast. We ARE great coaches! We have created a family feel with our community and we are not going anywhere.
Before founding Junction Place Sports, Josh, better yet, "Coach Josh", had ingrained himself as a fixture in the New Orleans Youth Sports scene. As the Sports Deparmtent Director for the New Orleans Jewish Community Centers and the C.O.O. of Big Easy Sportsplex, Josh used his decade of experience and passion to create a company that wouldn't have any walls to box in his love for coaching, creating and inspiring!
Coach Brad is the youth baseball expert! How he is able to manage, engage, entertain, explain and enjoy working with large groups of young ballplayers is a gift worthy of a medal, or an award or something. What's crazy is his idea of an award is to get more opportunities to lead youth baseball programs and personal lessons in the future! "Got keep at it" is one of his favorite quotes, and one which he lives by!
Coach Toni is our softball and dance moves expert! She spent her life in athletics. At John Curtis, she excelled in softball, volleyball and cheerleading. Coach Toni has since taken her passion for playing and is now giving back with her passion to educate! In addition to being the Program Director and Head Coach for JPS, Coach Toni is a recent, and proud, graduate of the University of New Orleans!
Coach Abbey brings a dynamic set of sports and life skill to the Junction Place Sports community! As a competitive athlete, Coach Abbey excelled in Softball and she uses her experiences to fine tune techniques and give back to youth sports. Coach Abbey is now on her way to earning her Bachelors in Kinesiology at Louisiana State University! She currently serves as Head Coach of Jplex All Sports Camps, Lead Party Coach, Head Coach of U4 Soccer @ Carrollton Boosters, and Head Coach of sports classes at Jplex!
Coach Jabir, our Evening Building Manager, has been a staple of keeping Junction Place Sportsplex up and running! No matter what is thrown at him, he is always ready for the challenge. Coach Jabir is your go to guy for team scheduling and facility rentals.
BUILDING BLOCKS- OUR RECIPE FOR SUCCESS!
Our approach to early childhood and elementary age sports education is simple: provide a foundation based on the basic elements of the subject matter and don't put a cap on the results! Leading young people doesn't require personal accolades or success of the instructor in the given subject matter. Young people have a zest for knowledge and experience, what "you did" probably occurred before they were born so it's really insignificant to their perspective. What does matter in the mind of a young person is can you relate? Can you inspire? Can you communicate on a level that THEY can understand? At Junction Place Sports, our staff is provided a curriculum, better yet a language, that ensures just that! While communication with parents/guardians is of the utmost importance to our organizational principals, our aim is to have YOUR child be able to explain to you what they learned and love about Basketball Basics and Simply Soccer! We provide clear and pointed adult based information- the "who/what/where/when's". What we don't do is force a narrative of what your child did or how they felt about it in a "copy and paste" email/text format that has become common place today. That's not the job of an instructor of young people. We aim to have your child fill in the blanks to whatever questions you may have! Our instruction is repetitive, like, really repetitive, as in, we say the same phrases over and over and over and over again- something we are sure you can understand. We don't back away from that approach. It works. Here is what you can expect when you provide your child the experience of Junction Place Sports' Basketball Basic or Simply Soccer Programs: Knowledge: Our coaches must receive 200 hours of practical training with JPS Founder/CEO "Coach" Josh Tolbert before being able to leading Junction Place Sports programs. Passion: Our coaches all come with a passion for sports (check out "Our Team" story) and for cultivating a similar love of sport with the children we serve. Patience An intricate part of leading children through any discipline is patience. They will make mistakes. Directions will need to be repeated. Basic concepts will need to be reinforced. These ideals are a point of emphasis in our "Coaches Playbook" that guides all Junction Place Sports coaches. Knowing everything there is to know about a particular discipline is great! Forgetting or not recognizing the wonderful patience and persistence required to master any skill and failing to implement that while leading others is simply unacceptable.
Questions? Comments? We always appreciate feedback so that we can continue to constantly improve our programs and facilities.
E-mail: info@junctionplacesportsplex.com
Junction Place Sportsplex
5620 Crawford St.
Harahan, LA 70123
(504) 356-1812