Bay Area

Colin Schmidt, Executive Director
Colin founded America SCORES Bay Area in 2001, and has served as Executive Director since its inception. Colin has more than 17 years of experience in non-profit administration and athletic coaching, having served as Athletic Director of Special Olympics Northern California, Director of Coaching for Table Mountain Soccer Association, and Director of Developmental Coaching for the Colorado State Youth Soccer Association. He is a nationally licensed soccer coach with a “Premier National Diploma” from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Colin is the founder of Coaching Cards Press and author of several instructional coaching books. Colin has an impressive track record of growing programs in new territories. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Claremont McKenna College and a Masters in Business Administration from UC Berkeley and Columbia.

Emily Queliza, Associate Director
Known to all the America SCORES children as Coach Em & Em, Emily manages San Francisco programs, community outreach, and general program development. She started with America SCORES in Spring 2004 as the writing coach for the El Dorado Girls Team in Visitacion Valley. Since then she has enjoyed her new career and passion working in youth development in the Bay Area. Emily was born in New York City and raised in San Francisco. Before coming to America SCORES, Emily worked for 10 years in traditional and online advertising. She successfully managed broadcast and online activity and her roster of clients included General Motors, Nestle, and 20th Century Fox. A graduate of the University of San Francisco with a degree in International Business & Marketing, Emily enjoys traveling, cooking, singing karaoke, and teaching dance & musical theatre to children.

Eva Gabel Sippola, Director of Development & Health Initiatives
Eva became involved with America SCORES as an event volunteer in 2003. She has more than a decade of experience in youth development, having worked with young people in San Francisco, New York, Washington DC and Edinburgh, Scotland.  Eva has managed development and communications programs for various non-profit organizations, including Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers; she has also conducted community-based research at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Eva earned a Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University and a Masters in Public Health in Community Health Education from San Francisco State University. She also brings a love of sports to her work, having spent her childhood playing soccer and lacrosse, and rowing down the Potomac River as a member of the crew team in college. Eva currently practices yoga and runs marathons.

Dan Schwer, Communications Director
Dan began working with America SCORES in Spring of 2010 as an Education Intern.  During this time period, he helped to establish a groundwork for Hip Hop for Health, an experimental hip-hop-based poetry and violence-prevention curriculum.  In the summer of 2010, he signed on to the Americorps VISTA program to continue working with America SCORES in a development and communications role.  He earned a B.A. in Anthropology, focusing on global education at Sonoma State University and has worked for numerous after-school and summer programs for children K-8.  Outside of America SCORES, he devotes his energy towards songwriting and design.

Angela Bailey, Legacy Awards Director
A Bay Area native, Angela began her tenure with America SCORES Bay Area in 2005 as a volunteer.  Since then she has worked for America SCORES as a Coach, a Soccer Director, a Program Director and is now the Legacy Awards Director.  She lives in Marin with her daughter Navah and is obtaining her MBA at Sonoma State University.  While completing her undergraduate degree in Economics at Humboldt State University, she lived in China, Mexico and Alaska. After soccer, her favorite pastime is traveling and meeting people from different backgrounds.

San Francisco Program Staff

Yuri Morales, Program Director
Yuri has an impressive soccer background as a player, coach, and administrator. He was a standout soccer player at the University of Massachusetts, where he earned a degree in Sport Management. Yuri has played professional soccer around the world from Denmark to Brazil and is currently a member of the U.S. Beach Soccer National Team. Before joining the America SCORES staff, Yuri worked with the San Jose Earthquakes Major League Soccer team front office in sales and community development. Yuri is passionate about creating collaborative events and building community partnerships. When he is not coaching or managing soccer programs, you can find Yuri doing bicycle kicks on the beach. Coach Yuri holds a USSF ‘C’ Coaching License.

Marty Mannion, Education Director
As an AmeriCorps volunteer in a San Francisco afterschool program Marty was struck by the lack of organized sports programming for low-income 1st and 2nd grade students. He organized his own soccer team and approached America SCORES Bay Area with his vision for a new Junior SCORES program. Since then Marty has helped expand the Junior SCORES program from 4 schools in 2009 to over 15 schools now and he has developed several new 1st and 2nd grade enrichment curricula. Marty first moved to California from his hometown of Philadelphia to open a college preparatory charter school in Watsonville. As a founding Teaching Fellow at Ceiba College Prep, Marty taught 6th and 7th grade math and guitar classes. Marty holds a BA in Economics, Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also played goalkeeper for the Penn Club Soccer Team.

Genaro Jr. Arana, Program Manager
Genaro is originally from Mexico, Guadalajara but was raised in Modesto, CA.  He is an avid soccer player and a huge supporter of Real Madrid CF.  He graduated from Modesto Junior College with an Associate’s degree in Transfer Studies.  Genaro is currently attending San Francisco State University and is working on obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Criminology.  He has been working with youth programs for the past seven years and hopes that his career will help him be a youth counselor in the future.

Abby Loomis, Education Program Manager
Abby is a native Texan who couldn’t be happier to be deepening her connection to the Bay Area through America SCORES. She first left Austin to study English and Spanish at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she explored her love of writing and performance while dedicating her free moments to tutoring, playing music and playing with her ultimate frisbee team, the Boxing Nuns. After college, she made enough sandwiches in her hometown of Austin to be able to move to Cordoba, Argentina.  There she lived for two years teaching English, dancing and discovering the wonders of mate and red meat. Her subsequent move to gorgeous San Francisco led to an Americorps position at Mission Education Center, the city’s only elementary school dedicated specifically to newly-arrived South and Central American immigrants. With her awesome students, Abby worked on theater and art projects, as well as a service-learning project through America SCORES. At America SCORES, she is excited to help students feel empowered and excited through creative expression, physical activity and teamwork.

Shannon Burns, Program and Volunteer Manager
When Shannon first discovered the America SCORES program, it seemed too good to be true.  As an undergrad student at UC Berkeley, Shannon studied English literature and education and played on several intramural soccer teams in her free time.  Cultivating similar passions for soccer, creative writing and community service with local youth has been a dream unforeseen and continually fulfilling.  Starting as a volunteer writing coach at Think College Now Elementary in East Oakland, Burns has been a soccer and writing coach at various schools in Oakland and West Contra Costa for the past four years.  Her commitment to the America SCORES mission has progressed as she is now working in various capacities as a volunteer coordinator and program manager and loving every minute of it.

West Contra Costa Program Staff

Roberto Gil, West Contra Costa Program Director
Originally from El Salvador, Roberto is the America SCORES resident soccer specialist who shares his worldly knowledge, expertise and passion of the game.  He started working with America SCORES as a soccer coach in 2003 and since then has been instrumental in helping build a strong America SCORES program and soccer community in the Bay Area. Roberto has a D-License from the US Youth Soccer Federation, an Associate in Arts degree from City College, and a bachelors degree in Physical Education with a minor in Athletic Coaching from San Francisco State University. When Roberto is not playing soccer, you can find him playing chess or dancing salsa.