Changing the Game for Kids Who Aren’t Ready for Traditional Sports

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Inclyousion Sports
info@inclyousionsports.com
www.inclyousionsports.com
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It started with tears on a soccer field.

Four years ago, Kristen Perkins and her husband Greg signed their oldest son up for a local soccer class in their Massachusetts town. He had just turned 3. Instead of running drills, he clung to Kristen, crying and shouting “you’re a bad mama” over and over while she tried to coax him to join in. Finally, she scooped him up and left.

Sitting in the car afterward, drained and searching for answers, Kristen typed into her phone: “inclusive sports classes near me.” Nothing came up. Only the same traditional leagues—or disability programs her son didn’t qualify for.

That moment planted the seed for Inclyousion Sports, a program designed for families who feel stuck in between: kids who don’t have a disability but aren’t ready to be dropped into a large, high-pressure league with one volunteer coach. The “YOU” in Inclyousion is intentional—no matter how a child shows up, the program is designed for them.

Why So Many Kids Aren’t Ready

Kristen says that moment on the soccer field revealed what so many parents quietly face. A lot of kids—especially ages 2 through 7—aren’t developmentally ready to separate from parents in large groups, follow rigid directions or feel confident in a traditional sports setting. They cry, cling, act out or shut down. Parents are left feeling like something is wrong with their child, when really the structure of the program just isn’t built for them.

“Parents are expected to put their 3-year-old in a group of kids they don’t know, with teenage coaches and somehow it’s supposed to work,” Kristen explains. “It’s not that the coaches aren’t kind—it’s that they’re not trained to intentionally include kids who need more time, more flexibility or a parent by their side.”

Inclyousion Sports was built as the opposite experience: small classes, highly trained coaches, parents welcome on the field when needed and a multi-sport curriculum so kids can explore without parents investing in equipment before they know what their child actually likes.

From One Town to a Movement

Kristen and Greg launched Inclyousion Sports in the fall of 2021 through a partnership with their local rec department. Families showed up from more than 20 towns. By winter, other communities were calling: “How do we bring you here?”

Since then, Inclyousion Sports has expanded to more than 10 locations across Massachusetts, built a staff of 30 trained coaches, and even opened its own brick-and-mortar site before ultimately deciding to focus on a mobile, scalable model. Just this past June, they announced the next step: Inclyousion Sports is now a franchise.

“We realized if it was just Greg and me, we’d always be the bottleneck,” Kristen says. “But if we franchise, we can empower passionate people in other communities to not only run a small business, but also make youth sports better for kids everywhere.”

More Than Sports

For Kristen, the mission has always gone beyond teaching kids how to dribble or swing a bat. She believes these early experiences—kids of all abilities playing side by side—are what shape who they become.

“If your child played basketball with a kid from Inclyousion, and then sees him at school, they’re not going to laugh when he flaps his arms or makes noises,” she says. “You’re going to say, ‘That’s my buddy from basketball.’ That’s how empathy is built. That’s how bullying changes.”

Parents see the difference. Some kids start in Inclyousion Sports unsure of themselves and end up thriving in town leagues. Others find pure joy in a single game and build friendships that spill onto neighborhood driveways and school hallways. In both cases, the lessons last longer than the season: kindness, confidence, and the courage to belong.

“This is about raising kind humans,” Kristen says simply. “Sports are the vehicle, but the real win is what happens off the field.”

What’s Next

Now in its fifth year, Inclyousion Sports is focused on expanding its reach while staying true to its roots: creating a safe, flexible, joyful introduction to sports for kids ages 2 to 10.

“We’re not asking kids to fit into the program,” Kristen says. “We’re changing the program to fit the kids.”