And just like that, 2023 comes to a close. There were wins and losses, both on the field and off, but overall we hope you learned a lot from the last year and that you’re looking forward to 2024 with a new perspective and hopes — both for your business and your life.

As always, we’ll round up news and wins from the past week. But first, our top youth sports stories of 2023.

Top Stories of 2023

1. [VIDEO] Reese Fahys was the 2023 Providence Journal’s Courage Award winner after coming back from a serious leg injury to reclaim her spot among Rhode Island’s best distance runners.

2. Middle school baseball team manager with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy gets a chance to play in his first baseball game.

3. Canes Baseball had 40 of their alumni get picked in the 2023 MLB draft — including Jonny Farmelo, first-round pick for the Seattle Mariners’ and Wyatt Langford, fourth overall pick who signed with the Texas Rangers. Here’s how they do it.

4. [VIDEO] Nkwain Kennedy, young basketball player from Cameroon, inspires millions of youth athletes with his self-made training equipment and videos.

5. Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark won the AAU James E. Sullivan Award, naming her the nation’s top collegiate or Olympic athlete. Clark has been tough since she’s little, and we love this story of how she stood up to an on-court bully at just 5 years old in a co-ed game.

6. Childhood friends and top two NFL draft picks C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young were reunited on the football field when they faced off in the Houston Texans vs Carolina Panthers game.

7. The boy’s high school soccer team in Lewiston, Maine — the city that was the site of a mass shooting this year — brought joy to their community when they won the state title.

8. Fresh off of two heart surgeries, Asjia O’Neal leads the Texas Longhorns women’s volleyball team to an NCAA Championship.

9. This TikToker reminds us that it takes a village when he shares how his high school baseball coach used to keep the gym unlocked in case he needed a safe place to sleep.

10. New York Knick Mitchell Robinson invited his high school coach to live with him after the coach lost his wife, as a way to thank him for always “looking out for him” and helping him get to where he is today.

11. The coaches of the Green Grinches basketball team helped facilitate Weston Lee’s — a 7-year-old in his first year of organized basketball — first basket. Weston has a rare genetic disorder called 19q deletion syndrome, which leads to hearing impairment, muscle weakness, and delays in language and communications.

Think we missed something big? Submit the story or win here and we’ll share it in our next installment of the Youth Sports Highlight Reel.

Have a happy and healthy holiday and New Year!

This Weekend’s Wins

1. The Avalanche Athletics “Mean Girls” team is the 2023 Winter Prep League Yeti Division Champs. “The Sharks” came in second.

2. Seattle Starz Lax 2027s won the Adrenaline Lacrosse Wine Country Classic.

3. Lots of wins for TAV Houston at the CenTex Challenge — including 14 Molten coming in first in their pool and 16 Molten bringing home the gold.

4. Illinois Lady Lightning “8th Columbia” won their division in the Winter Break Shootout.

5. Gym Rats — Black won the Championship at the Holiday Festival.

To read the full Youth Sports Highlight Reel this week and to receive stories like this and more in your inbox every Tuesday morning, subscribe here.