Life & Work with Drew & Catherine Suggs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew & Catherine Suggs. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Drew and Catherine Suggs has had a passion for years to build an organization to help support an entire community. With their devotion to education and sports, they came together to build Sizzle Academy. We met over 10 years ago and during our early stages of dating, we discussed our passion for children, sports, and education

We had decided that being able to start a non-profit would be the greatest way to help student-athletes, families, and an entire community. Sizzle Academy is a 501(c)(3) and was an AMAZING Christmas gift in 2022. At the start of 2022, the couple worked extremely hard to get everything up and running with the non-profit paperwork. With the amount of time and effort to get this organization running, Sizzle Academy has now been established for a year and has grown tremendously!

Starting with 1 basketball team, to now having 7 basketball teams, 3 football teams, volleyball training and potentially starting a softball program within the next few months… WE ARE GROWING! We are so excited to expand and build a legacy for all our Student-Athletes. We provide FREE tutoring for all our programs.

Our mission is to provide free educational and athletic programming that empowers youth to be confident and successful on and off the field using tailored educational, workforce development, and life skills curricula in a safe environment.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
To be honest, finding student-athletes and kids to join our programs has been VERY successful. The difficult part for us has been finding volunteer coaches that would donate their time. We have a plan in place that will help us pay our coaches in the future, but we currently are in the process of finding ways to provide a coaching salary.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Sizzle Academy was created to provide FREE academic and athletic programming for the community. We take athletes and help them change into STUDENT ATHLETES. We help by developing players that play on our development, recreation, and club teams. Allowing mentors to help serve not only the youth but an entire community!

Our Mission is to provide free educational and athletic programming that empowers youth to be confident and successful on and off the field using tailored educational, workforce development, and life skills curricula in a safe environment. What sets us apart from everyone else is being able to provide a sports program, tutoring program, and financial literacy program, helping the community with support in all aspects of their everyday need.

Our goal is to provide a safe environment for families and our student-athletes. During the school year, Sizzle Academy provides their student-athletes with FREE tutoring. We also provide free community events throughout the year. In November Sizzle Academy hosts a warmth drive and provides items to the homeless community. This allows our participants to volunteer their time in the community and provide service hours.

We were also able to donate 500 hoodies to Willis Junior High for their Resource Room and the students that attend. In December we adopted 5 families and are planning on adopting more families each year. Our goal is to give back to the community and have our participants help with each event. We are hoping to provide these services every month and provide scholarships to families that are in need.

We also help by assisting our families that need food, rental assistance, and utility assistance. We have been able to help provide this assistance to several families in our program and would like to continue regularly. We would like to help full circle and provide guidance for the entire family.

If anyone is interested in donating they can do so on our website via PayPal, Venmo: Sizzle-Academy, Check-Sizzle Academy, or volunteer of service hours. We are always willing to have students from Junior Highs and High Schools complete their service hours by volunteering with Sizzle Academy.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
We love the diversity of Chandler! The weather and environment are AMAZING! We can provide healthy living for all of our participants because of the sunshine and perfect weather. Chandler has grown so much that we are lucky to adapt and grow with the city.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sizzleacademy.org
• Instagram: @SizzleAcademy
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sizzleacademy
• Other: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/shoppingcart?flowlogging_id=f73672147499e&mfid=1673381657850_f73672147499e#/checkout/openButton