You and your family have entered the world of youth sports. Your kid loves the game, and you love watching them play it. And somewhere along the way, you started lying awake, wondering if they're really okay.
Take a breath. You're in the right place.
Human.Hooper.Hero is a foundation that protects what matters most in youth sports: your kid. We give young athletes a voice, and hand their families real tools, research, and support to navigate this journey. Because too many kids are walking away from the game, and from themselves, carrying things no one ever taught them how to hold. When we learn to listen, we learn how to love them through it.
I started the same way you might be right now. A parent in the stands, trying to figure it out.
But I didn't stay in the stands. I picked up a camera, walked away from a twenty five year career, and went all in. Photographing these kids took me places most parents never go, the huddles, the benches, the locker rooms at halftime. Not as a coach. Not as an expert. Just a person behind a lens who this community, in time, learned they could trust.
And what I saw through that lens sent me down a path of countless hours of research, long conversations with therapists and people with degrees I'd never even heard of. All of it confirmed what my gut already knew: that these kids were carrying so much more than the game, and almost no one was asking them about it.
I'm not telling you what I've read. I'm telling you what I've witnessed, from the places you'll never be allowed to stand. And I'm here to help you understand what they can't always put into words.
The Voices of the Athletes
Our spotlight and interview series, so parents don't just hear from their own kid, but from the collective of young athletes telling us who they really are.
Tools for Families
Real navigational resources, education, and the things no one hands you at the parent meeting, so you can walk this road from knowledge instead of fear.
Coffee & Conversation
A community of parents from across the youth sports world, coming together for support, validation, and guidance, so no one navigates this alone.
Hoop for Hope & Beyond
Events, advocacy, and a growing mission to put mental health and personal development resources directly into the hands of families.
The kids teach.
The parents learn.
The whole family rises.
We exist to answer one question, before the season ever begins:
Is my kid going to be okay?
Yes. Not because the road gets easier, but because no kid who knows they're loved beyond the game walks it alone. And neither do you.
Hi there. I'm Heather, and I'm so glad you're here!
For years, I've sat on the baseline of basketball courts with my camera, looking up at these kids, and looking up to them. And if I'm being honest, when I started, I think I believed they needed saving. I thought maybe if I took their pictures, became their voice, advocated loud enough, I could shine a light bright enough to make them feel seen, make them feel confident, make it all better. What I would soon realize is that they never needed a hero to come save them. They needed someone to show them the one that already existed within them. So that's what I do now.
When I first walked into this world, I was a mom of a kid who loved to play basketball, and I wanted to make sure he had every opportunity. Little did I know, we were about to embark on a journey that would forever change our lives.
I sat in that first parent meeting holding a single sheet of paper, wondering where the rest of it was. What were we getting into? It was just a schedule and some rules. I thought that was it. I had no idea how much it didn't say, and I didn't even know what questions to ask. So I've paid attention for years now, and taken notes every step of the way. Being immersed in this culture has taught me what no one ever handed me, but that I knew one day I would need to hand you.
This world of youth sports will ask your child to stand on their own. To walk into rooms without you. And to carry pressure most grown adults could never. If they don't have a sense of their worth before they get there, the game will try to tell them what it is. They deserve to walk in already knowing, instead of searching for it in a place that was never built to give it back.
And somewhere in all of it, I realized something:
Sometimes, in order to believe in yourself, you have to see yourself through the eyes of someone who believed in you first.
Human.Hooper.Hero exists because of them. Because of every kid who trusted me with their truth, their voice, and their game, who let me listen to it, capture it, and take good care of it. Every family walking this road who trusted me to get answers and confided in me their fears. And every quiet moment that reminded me we were never meant to do this alone.
I've got you.
Let's do this together.
Love always,
Heather Cleaves
Founder, Human.Hooper.Hero
The Heather Experience
est. 2020
Dedicated to my son.
Thank you for letting me walk this journey with you. To every gym, every court, every workout, every tournament, every late night drive thru, exposure camp, cheap hotel rooms, and random towns. The car rides, the late night kitchen talks where we thought we had it all figured out. You're the one who taught me how to love you, and how to love your community. I hope I continue to do you proud.
