What is kapwa?

Hi! I’m Carolyn. Folx call me Coach Sideco. I offer human-centered, holistic, wellness-based professional training programs and coaching to people and groups in athletic departments.

This journey of CoachingKapwa conveys my love for educational sports and for the people who align to it.

Kapwa is a Filipino language word that expresses the collectivist worldview of the sentiment

"I am you and you are me"

My sports story includes a long arc of being an athlete, coach, administrator, parent, and mentor. I was 9 years old, trying to make friends at a new school, when I was invited to play on the school's volleyball team. In high school, I wrote a column for the newspaper's sports page titled "Off The Bench" and was the school's first 4-year softball catcher/captain. I coached youth and high school sports. I claim that I am the shortest person to officiate a California state basketball championship game (2006) and I believe I was a part of the first all-women basketball officiating crew to work a CA state championship game.

My relationship with sports helps me connect to myself, my community, and to the broader world. With over 20 years’ experience as an accredited kinesiologist, physical educator, certified athletic administrator, I use sports culture to deepen self development. I think of ethnic studies with sports in mind. I contemplate social and racial justice with sports in mind. I examine all sports relationships through a decolonizing lens of an immigrant settler. I use decolonizing practices to unknot my relationship to all levels of sports, distilling the essence and values that sports convey for fun and community contribution. I've learned about life through the metaphors I experienced in sports.

If you’re ready, let’s journey together. YOU ARE THE GIFT.