Local organization SkillSprout gives roots to sports dreams

By Staff Writers Fiona Yang & Aaqib Zishan

Under a hot, sunny day, a young boy steps up to a dirty plate, his blistered hands gripping a splintered baseball bat. Each at-bat results in a swing and a miss. Offense turns to defense. His glove is too big, with the leather worn and torn as he glances across the field — other kids wearing shiny helmets and warming up with brand new gear. 

Kids like him want to play and improve, but high financial costs keep many on the sidelines. To address inequalities in sports, Founder Senior Sohum Wadhwani founded SkillSprout, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding and empowering underprivileged sports teams with the necessary equipment and support. 

When Wadhwani began clearing out his old baseball equipment, he noticed the money he poured into a sport he no longer played. Perfectly usable gear collected dust in his garage as he had no way to get it to people who could benefit from it. After discussing with friends, he began researching ways to donate or recycle his equipment locally — but finding none, he went on to launch SkillSprout. What started as an effort to recycle sports equipment turned into a student-led nonprofit dedicated to making athletics more accessible for youth across the Bay Area. “I think sports are the number one thing that every child wants to do when they’re a kid, but it’s pretty expensive, so it can limit people [when it shouldn’t]. Anyone should be able to play sports if they want to,” Wadhwani said. 

One of the hardest things the organization faced was building trust from the community and proving itself as a viable non-profit. Their messages in WhatsApp groups were often ignored, so the group spent over a year going door-to-door to spread its mission and request donations. Consistent efforts bore fruit, leading SkillSprout to be featured on local Bay Area news outlets such as KTVU Fox, KRON 4, and the Tri-City Voice. Following the organization’s feature on Fox KTVU, “people started donating equipment every week [with] one or two donations every single day through the website.” With that, the organization created a website, allowing easy access for donors to contribute and for other non-profits or businesses to contact them for future partnerships. “The Oakland Unified School District is one of the places we do a lot of ongoing donations with … We gave equipment everywhere from the elementary PE class all the way to their high school baseball team,” Wadhwani said.

Since its founding, SkillSprout has reached its fundraising goal of $65,000 worth of donated equipment, partnering with districts and organizations such as the Oakland Unified School District, California School of the Deaf, SF Pickleball Club, First Tee SF, and East Palo Alto Tennis & Tutoring. From baseball helmets to tennis rackets to soccer balls, SkillSprout has established itself as a notable non-profit in the Bay Area. “I think the biggest goal is to eventually grow it statewide, hopefully nationwide … Our main goal is to keep expanding, keeping our message and mission out,” Wadhwani said.