About us
Built by people who believe the game changes lives
A volunteer board of coaches, broadcasters, operators and technologists who got tired of watching kids get priced out of the game we love.
Our story
How this started
It started with a simple observation in our own community: kids wanted to play, but the cost of registration, the lack of equipment at public parks and a critical shortage of referees were quietly locking them out.
We saw the same pattern in every underserved community we visited, and we saw the same solution. A kid who gets a ball, a field and a referee plays. A kid who doesn't, doesn't.
So we built an organisation designed to fix exactly that. We started in Orange County, California, with soccer, the most accessible sport on earth, and a plan to take what works to communities around the world.
From our backyard,
built for the world.
Fields Without Borders is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation · 501(c)(3) public charity · EIN 42-3395657
Our values
What we stand for
Access over exclusivity
The game belongs to the kid who wants to play, not the family that can afford it.
Radical transparency
We publish our financials, our program ratios and our fundraising costs. Donors deserve to see.
Local first, then global
We start in Orange County and expand only once we have earned the right to do it well.
Fix the infrastructure
Equipment, scholarships and referees are the pipes that make youth sports work. We rebuild them.
The board
Volunteers. Operators. Lifelong players.
All-volunteer. Nobody draws a salary. Every dollar goes to programs or the cost of running them.
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Zach Hendrix
Founder and Executive Director
Zach is a technology executive with a lifelong passion for soccer. He grew up playing the game, still plays today, and now watches his two daughters play in Costa Mesa, California, where he lives with his family.
Fields Without Borders started with a simple idea: donate nets to local fields that didn't have them. It grew once Zach's family saw firsthand how America's "pay to play" youth sports system works, with annual fees that keep rising and shut out kids whose families can't keep up. He founded the organization so a family's budget never decides whether a kid gets to play.
Zach brings a builder's mindset to the work, focused on practical fixes and on showing donors exactly where every dollar goes.
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Adam Rank
Director
Adam Rank is a prominent sports media personality, fantasy football analyst, and writer best known for his work with the NFL Network and ESPN.
Adam was born in the greater Chicagoland area, but was raised in California. He graduated from Corona High School and Cal State Fullerton.
Adam is married with two children.
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Sean Kappauf
Director
Sean Kappauf is the founder and Executive Director of One ATTA Time, an international nonprofit providing sustainable access to clean water through local leadership, education, and long-term community partnerships. With more than 15 years of nonprofit and ministry leadership experience, Sean is passionate about building strong organizations and developing practical solutions that create lasting impact. Under his leadership, One ATTA Time has served hundreds of thousands of people across multiple countries. Sean lives in South Orange County with his wife, Kelsey, and their two children.
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Angus Fox
Director
Angus is a vendor accountability advocate and public speaker in the business & automotive marketing space focused around artificial intelligence, search engine optimization, and process. Angus has helped business achieve their objectives in the non-profit space, property management, B2B, B2C, and has pioneered standard processes around vendor accountability and transparency.
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Michael Ortiz
Director
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Jessica Sweeny
Director
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Erin Johnston
Director
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Want to be part of the next chapter?
Give, volunteer, or just share our story. Every bit moves us closer to a kid on the field.