03/25/2026
As we continue our countdown to the FIFA World Cup, we’re excited to announce the launch of Atletas Poetas, a national youth poetry celebration in partnership with NBCUniversal Local ⚽✍️
From March 16 - April 13, America SCORES Poet-Athletes across the Bay Area, LA, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami will perform original poems exploring themes of soccer, unity, community, and joy. Two national winners will be announced by Telemundo April 30 and celebrated at the Soccer Legacy Gala on May 8 in San Jose.
In this segment, Telemundo 48 speaks with 2010 winner and SCORES alumni Xitaly Martinez about how this experience helped shape her path today.
Want to see the winners in action? Join us at the Soccer Legacy Gala! For details and tickets, visit https://www.americascoresbayarea.org/gala.
Automated translation of segment: Discipline on the field and also in every verse. Through America Scores, students from seven cities are showing that soccer and poetry can go hand in hand. “Right now, they are in the process of selecting children from each school, choosing five students to represent them,” says Alberto Hernandez, SCORES San Jose Program Manager. It’s the Poet-Athlete competition, where for a month children from third to fifth grade write and present poems original poems about their lives, community, and dreams. On April 18, the winners from the participating cities will be announced. One boy and one girl will advance to the national competition, and the national winners will be announced on April 29. Finally, their poems will be presented on May 8 at the Soccer Legacy Gala in San José.
“Important themes—I think we’ll see a lot about family and school,” says Alberto. And it’s an experience that can shape students’ lives. ”Poetry comes from emotions, and when you really start to think, the words flow from you like water,” says Xitaly Martinez. Xitaly won this competition in 2010 when she was 10 years old. Her poem was dedicated to her greatest inspiration, her mother. “Oh, Mom, do you remember the poem I wrote with SCORES?” Xitaly says during a phone call with her mother. “My mom has been such a strong person, and I just wanted to do something extra to show her that she is my favorite person.”
Today, Xitaly is a journalism student and uses the skills she learned in America SCORES—writing daily in her articles in the student newspaper and working as a team, just like in her days as a soccer player with her teammates. “The program has helped me become more confident, helped me speak in front of an audience, and especially work on a team,” says Xitaly. And to the students competing this year, she wishes them the best of luck, because sometimes a goal also begins with a verse.
