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In a city searching for solutions to homelessness.

Lisa Wrightsman has discovered something powerful.

Sometimes transformation begins with belonging.

As the leader of Street Soccer Sacramento, Lisa is helping people rebuild their lives through sport, teamwork, and community.

Lisa knows what it's like to need a second chance.

And today, a conversation that we're going to have about a redemption, resilience and the life transformation that can come from something as simple as a soccer ball.

And that is so true.

Lisa, great to see you.

Thanks for being here.

- Absolutely.

- So I have to say this because recently learned this from you.

I've known you for more than a decade.

We've done stories and shows together and and things completely outside of work.

But I have to say this I did not realize until recently exactly the magic that is street soccer.

And that is, it's so much more than just the name or or what you're doing.

It's about focusing on one thing besides yourself, which is really the key to a lot of the issues we're going to discuss today.

Focusing on a soccer ball.

It could have been anything right, but it's a soccer ball that brings people together to stop thinking about themselves.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Something that you know very well and have lived talk to tell me about your story and then we'll go to the power of street soccer.

- Yeah.

For me, I mean, I was always very I couldn't sit still a little bit like I just had a lot of energy.

So as a kid, play became that outlet for me.

The more I played, the better I got at things in soccer was the first organized sport I got a chance to play, and that was with other other girls my age.

And, you know, I excelled in it because I loved it and I played a lot.

And so then just by getting better at something in my life at the time, that was the only place I got to see a place, you know, learn confidence that if I, if I practice something, I could get better at it.

With soccer, you know, scoring goals is like, that's the thing you're trying to do.

You want to score goals.

And I got really good at doing that.

And so it just became a place where I got a lot of value for myself.

But I also was very.

I was tired, I was exhausted, I could sleep well because I had released all that energy in a positive way.

And the more that I was thinking about the game and the more that I had my teammates and friends, I wasn't distracted by what was going wrong in my life or in my family at the time.

And it just gave me something to grab on to that the more I did, the better I got.

So that's the other benefit of it.

It's not just the distraction.

It's like the more you distract yourself with this thing, you will feel better, but you also get better at something, you know?

And I think that's where soccer played a big role for me my whole life, because then I went to college and I got to play in at Sacramento State.

And again, like the more unhappy I was with personal things in my life, I just focused that energy on getting the ball into the goal.

And you do that enough and then you're not consumed by your your problems anymore, and you have a little bit more positivity to combat that stuff with.

And you know, - you're from Elk Grove and you went to Sack State and you were star player.

I mean, if there was someone that I didn't give it.

Yeah.

Get that could score a goal.

It's you.

I mean, you are totally connected to that soccer ball.

And the ball was connected to the net because of you.

But I that's a good thing.

Yeah, but but I also want to go to the the coping skills of life that kind of got out of control.

And if you would share with me your personal story of, of, of your journey with addiction and then how it led to what became street soccer.

- Yeah, yeah.

So like, you know, again, what I was getting out of playing in college was a lot of distraction and a lot of growth in the same way, because I kept getting becoming a better player when I was completed, when I completed my years of playing college, I didn't have that outlet anymore.

And soccer kind of became not a daily activity.

And that's when I started to replace that need for energy release, calming myself down, dealing with difficult things.

That was where alcohol and drugs seemed like it produced a similar effect, as you know, running around for 90 minutes with my teammates.

The difference is that you don't grow from doing drugs and alcohol.

It destroys you.

And it took about five years to destroy my life to where I'm sitting in a jail cell downtown Sacramento, a place where I'm from without a single person willing to bail me out.

And I didn't.

I wasn't mad at them, you know, they're like, you're a liability.

And I was like, you're right.

I lost complete direction.

I just forgot how to be a person living in a community with other people.

And it was terrifying because I how, you know, for so many years, I had a direction, I had a purpose, I knew how to deal with life.

And then I redirected a lot of that into something that I thought made me feel better, and it basically destroyed it.

- You know, I, I am grateful that you are willing to share that it is so important to share our stories, because I'm a firm believer that when we share our stories, we set ourselves free.

And the gift is that you set up free.

People are hearing this and they will connect with this.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's like the, you know, we turn to alcohol and drugs but starts off as just for fun and then it becomes relief and then it becomes any emotion.

Right.

And then it comes to the creator of all of the emotions and life turns.

Yeah.

It comes in the, in the addicted brain.

And, and I say that knowing what I'm talking about and I understand this.

And I also want to say that you took your life from that, that jail cell to a place of freedom.

I'm curious, at what point did you realize that soccer was not just saving you, but could help somebody else?

- It didn't happen right away.

I went to rehab and I got sober, and I didn't expect soccer to be a part of my life anymore.

I kind of like, you know, I'm going to focus on this sobriety and the things that I need to do to stay alive and be this kind of person.

And if soccer comes back around, like, then I wasn't I wasn't controlling it, you know, it wasn't selfish.

And so soccer did come back around in the form of street soccer at a, at like a transitional living.

But I think I really saw the power of the game when I went to a homeless World Cup and was and that was in Brazil, and that was I was a player.

I was an eligible homeless World Cup player, but I was surrounded with 60 different countries and got to know a lot of the different players and their stories were.

I couldn't believe the majority of these people were alive, let alone happy, hopeful, excited about the future.

And and it was for all of them.

It was the same thing.

It was reconnecting with soccer, having a team, just being able to express themselves that way.

And I had never I had spent my life in soccer, but had never seen the power of it in that way, because it also wasn't connected to winning.

Sure, it was a competition, but the teams and the players that lost games were just as fulfilled as the teams that won.

And that was new to me.

And that was when I kind of understood that this could really be something that anybody could participate in.

But for most of them, they needed permission.

They needed someone to invite them in.

They needed someone to tell them, like, you can do this.

I can show you how to do this.

Kind of similar to recovery.

But, you know, you physically get that release of, of the energy that we store as well.

And when I saw that happening with so many different people around the world, you're like, this isn't a US thing, this isn't an American.

This is like a this is a world thing.

Like, and people, the, the different things that made them want to quit life, you know, isolation, being unhappy, losing family, grief, addiction.

All those things were across the world.

Two and the soccer and the street soccer tournament was what was really highlighting the things that we need, which is hope.

Feeling a part of something, you know, feeling like pride in yourself and being able to overcome and look at your life in an honest way without shame.

And yeah, that stuck with me.

And that was like, oh, I can teach anybody how to get to this point, to feel these things.

- It's astounding to me that.

Actually it's not astounding to me, but it is.

It would be astounding to someone who does not understand addiction.

Yeah, that you have to travel in some cases as far as Brazil, from homelessness to Brazil, to see the magic that you can find in a sober life.

Yeah.

Even without a shelter above your head and the commonality that you can find with people who understand your journey, if anything must be shared, it's that.

That I'm you, that it's just forging that focus on something else besides that daily drug or drunk.

Yeah, we create and I just, I just find that fascinating that you were able to find that in Brazil.

And were you homeless at the time?

For real?

- I know I wasn't, like, living on the streets.

I, I was a part of a program, though, so I didn't like an address of my own.

And I was, you know, sort of.

They call that the silent homeless or just.

Yeah.

Like I was on government assistance.

I think I had, like, you know, $15 a month to decide how I wanted to do that and trying to find work, getting my license back.

It wasn't I wasn't in a like a comfortable place, but I wasn't having to think about where I was going to live or what I was going to eat daily anymore.

Like I had a little bit more stability.

And I think that was what worse, a program like street soccer can be really helpful for people is once you stop having to worry about like, what am I going to eat?

Where am I going to stay?

You start to think about what else do I what else you know, do I need to make this day feel meaningful or, you know, relationships and and I think recovery.

Recovery is super powerful, right?

But had I not made the decision to get sober and do some of the work, which was hard, hard personal work, I would have never ended up there in Brazil, and I would have never even been able to see it from the perspective that I did, because I would have been stuck in my old self, which was like, soccer is for winning.

If you're not helping me win, you don't have value.

And then when I went, by the time I got to Brazil, it was more of like recognizing, you know, all the different value that people can have, what we have to give to others and what we can receive and what we really need to feel fulfilled.

And it's not money and it's not titles and it's not awards.

Those last very they don't last a very long time.

But it's, you know, can I give value to another person?

That's one thing I learned in that tournament and through street soccer.

And I didn't believe I had value for a long time.

You know, I thought I was a good soccer player, but like once that was done, what value do I have?

And then being able to invite other people into that space became like a huge part of who I became.

And you can build off of that confidence and find value, but we all have it.

It's hard to see.

- So I think to me to hear you say that, that it was no longer about winning because the truth is, you got your greatest goal and you won the most.

Yeah.

From this type of soccer.

- Oh my God.

And I don't have to worry about it running out like my body's not going to fail me.

But as an athlete that's, you know, you're like, how long can I play at this level for?

And then what?

And it's like, there's no clock on this.

This is just service.

You know, I can as long as I can, even if I can't walk, there's a role I could play, you know, like and so when it became about the relationships, it was just like, you're just surrounded by opportunity.

And I feel like I get to live each day looking at all the opportunity available rather than what's running out.

And and we've lived in the what's running out.

And that's not fun.

Yeah.

- And and it runs out and it does more and then it runs out more.

And so you run out.

Yep.

You know, when people meet you today, they would have no idea of your of your story, which is why I'm so grateful that that you talk about your story because of the power that it brings to the table.

If someone had met you, you know.

However many years ago, they would.

They would also not dream of this Lisa.

Today.

No.

What would you say to someone who is watching, who is in trouble?

Or they know they're headed toward trouble, or they have a family member that is in that position.

How could street soccer be for them or for the person watching?

- I think that when we're in that dark place or we know somebody, the best thing to do is the thing you're afraid of, which is getting out of that dark place.

And that means trying something new in a positive way.

And so I think sometimes for people, I would say, just come to our street soccer park and, and see people having joy in a positive way.

And, and for some people, I'd say go, go to your first meeting, you know, ask for help.

I think it's ask for help.

And instead of being afraid of what's on the other side of what they're dealing with, you know, that's where we can get excited about life is the unknown is probably going to be better than what they're experiencing now.

But we have to change something.

So find something that can distract you.

And if chasing a ball around will do it, if talking to somebody else can do it.

But you got to get out of that space, at least for a few minutes before you can let something else in.

But it's usually trying to do the thing that we're terrified of.

I was so afraid of getting sober for so long, so happy I did it.

Wish I could have done it sooner.

I don't know what I was afraid of.

You know, like, the best things have happened since I made that decision.

I didn't.

I had to get arrested.

- Like, it takes what it takes.

- Yeah, but the thing you're afraid of is probably, like, the first step to what you, you know, want to be doing.

- You think it's interesting how even the despair that comes from addiction feels like a comfort zone.

But truthfully, the most it's the biggest, most uncomfortable area to be in.

Yeah.

So you step outside of it.

And I'm curious, have you seen people come off of the street, if you will, onto the field and seeing that transformation, describe that and seeing it in a person.

- Well, I will say that a lot of the work we do with folks that are in a despairing places, like at a women's shelter, and they're afraid their kids will come play, their kids will get on the field right away, and you'll start to see the parents kind of like, no, no, I'll just watch.

But then they start to get drawn in by the fun that the kids are having.

But you can see them like, I don't like, I want to play, but I'm afraid of looking like I don't know what I'm doing.

And then they'll eventually step in and it's like, I don't know, you just see them.

A light comes on and a switches and they're doing something different.

Maybe they literally just have to kick the ball in.

Oh, that wasn't so bad, you know.

And I'll go do it again.

And sometimes they score a goal but it can happen very quickly.

You go from just being an outsider to watching, thinking that you don't belong in that space.

All of a sudden you're in the game and it was just that fast.

And then by the end of the day, the practice, whatever, that's like smiles, laughing, you know, I think, yeah, I see it all the time.

- It's contagious.

- Its super contagious.

- As soon as you're on that, everybody's a champion.

- It was so afraid to do it.

But like, it's very.

Once you step on, you're in and you're doing something else that you maybe have thought about doing your entire life, and then you just did it, and then you feel good about it, you know?

And that's what I see a lot with the women we work with is they're kind of like facing their fears in different ways.

And a lot of it I don't want to look like, you know, I don't want to look silly or I don't want to do something I'm not perfect at.

And then they forget that right away.

And it just becomes, you're just we're going in a direction together.

- You know, there are so many people that you have affected through this program.

Talk to me about the the school outreach in the after school programs and the number of people that you have been able to put your hands and your story on.

With street soccer.

I'm with tens of thousands.

- but cross the country in Sacramento, we probably we work with about 1500 to 2000, like weekly, like on a weekly basis.

But overall, how many have you in Sacramento when you add up the year?

We've had 70,000 attendances.

Wow.

Something like that.

Yeah I'm real.

Yeah.

And I think like the more I'm talking to you, I think a lot of it is like trying to get people from, you know, who are normally on the outside watching in into the game once they're in their in.

And that's what we do at schools.

It's like whether we need to give the kids permission or make them feel comfortable enough to go from, you know, watching to playing.

But we're at 30 different schools.

Most of them are low income or title one.

And we, like people want to be happy.

They want to play whatever, you know, whatever we can do to get them to go give it a try.

They're more likely they're likely to come back and keep doing it.

- But what are you doing at these schools?

- We have well, we have like 30 paid coaches now that go to the schools.

And then they facilitate our 1 hour to 2 hour practices where it's it's like a practice play, you know, we'll teach them some skills in game based scenarios and then we'll just play.

But the coaches are there to make sure that the kids feel safe if they want to learn how to the correct way to pass a ball.

If they don't, we're not going to force it on them.

When they want to learn it, they'll learn it.

But it's really just how do we facilitate play, - loneliness is a tremendous problem in every area of life, in all walks of life.

And and I know people who are experiencing homelessness are incredibly lonely.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

As well as people who are stuck in the cycle of addiction.

But they're this closer way to freedom.

And you found that freedom and so many others have threw a soccer ball.

What what is the main message that you feel must be shared?

- I think that we have found a way with soccer to deal with one of the hardest challenges of all, which is trying to convince someone that their life can be worth living and to not give up.

I don't think we're the only option, but we're a very accessible option.

We can reach any age.

We can reach kids, we can reach adults, we can reach seniors, we can reach toddlers.

Soccer is very cost effective.

So when we're talking about the big problem that people in California and Sacramento are facing, in the amount of money that we don't have to deal with it, we're offering a different solution.

It's like we can do some of this through relationship building and through a game, and and it works.

And that is what we want people to know is there are other ways to connect with people that seem really hard to reach.

Well, I think we're experts at it.

We found like our tool is soccer, and the more that we can do with it, the more people will be able to not need other resources down the road.

And, and I think that people are always a decision away from giving up.

Like, if I can get you to just not give up today, that can be successful later on.

So we focus on the day.

We're very good at that.

And I think that if we can make a difference for youth, we should be at every single school possible.

If we can make a difference for adults, we want to be at all those places.

Until we don't have that problem anymore, maybe one day, you know, people have it all figured out and it's like, we don't have any hopeless people.

Great.

Like we'll do something else, but that's not seen.

- What Ive seen you also do is wrap your hands around someone.

I've seen you do this.

Wrap your hands around someone who truly feels they have no hope and believes that.

And while they believe that and you will say, I hear you, but I will hold on to hope for you and walk you there.

Yep.

You may not feel it, but just hold on and I will feel it for you and I will get you to it.

It's like it's so much more than just the game and kicking the ball.

It is.

I'm going to carry you to where you can kick it yourself.

Yeah, exactly.

You must feel good.

- I love what I do.

I love that we're we're drawing more people to be able to do it.

I mean, when we met years ago, it was just myself and Tiffany, you know, my wife doing it.

We have.

- And since then, you have married her.

- I have, and we have.

- What a joy.

- Yeah, we do it together.

We have, you know, convinced a lot of people that want to do what we do.

And we have 30 coaches going to schools.

We have full time staff across the country.

You know, people are picking up on this.

And I think with the World Cup now is there's a lot of people who will get a chance to see different ways you can feel a part of rooting for a team or just not be alone, be connected.

And that's really what we're trying to create with street soccer is a point of connection.

Play has thousands of benefits that, you know, take what you want from it, but it's certainly can be a really effective tool when we're thinking, when we look at how many people are are needing support, like we can be a really good asset in that way.

And it's a great game.

And it's, you know, it's it's simple, but it's very effective.

And, you know, we love it.

Like I get to play and change people's lives.

Like absolutely.

- All right.

Lisa Wrightsman, thank you so much for joining us.

It's such a great nonprofit in Sacramento and one of the most talked about nonprofit, that is for sure, especially in this soccer city that we see growing right up.

You are right here in the middle.

- Thanks, man.

Love it.

- Thank you.

Lisa, great to see you.

Thank you for being here.

All right.

Rob at home.

We'll see you next week right here on PBS KVIE.

Thanks for joining us.

You can watch when you want at Rob on the road.

Murphy Austin Adam Schoenfeld LLP, focusing on business law and commercial litigation, is proud to support Rob on the road region rising.

More information available at Murphy Austin.