The Keepy Uppy® Sports Association
VICTURY Sports Announces Formation a Nonprofit, Youth League Built on the Patented, Award-Winning Official Keepy Uppy® Ball
INQUIRIES ON FORMING A LEAGUE IN YOUR COMMUNITY EMAIL: joe@keepyuppy.com
Guided by its motto, Semper Meliora ("always better"), the nonprofit introduces an affordable, three-sport model on the patented Keepy Uppy® Ball — teaching kids to improve rather than to win, and getting kids off screen and into play.
The Keepy Uppy® Sports Association, a new nonprofit, today announced its formation and a plan to meet the needs of schools and grow 5,000 licensed leagues by 2030. Its aim is simple: give every young child a real chance to succeed, at a price ordinary families can afford, without harvesting their data.
At the center is the Official Keepy Uppy® Ball, a utility-patented and trademarked ball engineered to move slowly through the air yet bounce and react like a real sports ball. That extra beat of hang time lets a young child track it, get into position, and make contact — turning the frustrating first try most sports demand into an early win.
The Association calls the result the Confidence Curve™. Real ball movement at a speed kids can process. Skills that stick. Confidence that grows. The Keepy Uppy® Ball is the newest product in the VICTURY Sports line of full-force indoor play, which began with the Toy of the Year–winning Ollyball®.
Improvement over wins. The method follows the motto — learning, not trophies. When a child sees effort turn into progress, the lesson carries into school and friendships. It answers a concern child psychologist Dr. David Elkind raised in The Power of Play: pushing kids into win-driven sports before they can master the basics erodes confidence and drives them out — many quit organized play by their early teens, feeling they're just not good enough.
Three sports, one rule. A single instruction — don't let it touch the floor — carries the same slow ball, over a branded net, across soccer, pickleball, tennis, and volleyball, giving kids low-pressure exposure to each and helping families spot a child's skills and affinity before committing to one sport.
Off screens, into play. As the reckoning over Big Tech and kids intensifies — Meta just agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion over claims its platforms harmed young people — parents want a real-world alternative. The WHO and AAP cap daily screen time at an hour for ages 2–5 and call for three hours of activity, and research links heavy screen use to less activity and more obesity and active play to sharper focus and self-control. Keepy Uppy® and Ollyball® are built for exactly that: safe, full-force indoor play for any room and any weather that turns screen time into active time — building coordination, confidence, and a love of the game.
Play that teaches. The same ball anchors VICTURY's STEAM-accredited lesson plans — built with Dr. Amanda Gummer's education team and peer-reviewed by licensed educators — now used in schools and homes for active "learning recess," with editions in MATH, PHYSICS, and ART. For KUSA, the Keepy Uppy® Ball bridges the gym floor and the classroom.
Built for a budget. Youth sports have become a barrier: families now spend over $1,000 a year on a single child's sport, up 46% since 2019. As a nonprofit, Keepy Uppy is turnkey and gear-included — the ball, a league jersey, and on-site nets and equipment — with no travel, no club fees, and no "pay-to-play" ladder.
A model built to scale. The Association grows through licensed leagues, letting community organizations, schools, and volunteers run a consistent program locally — targeting 5,000 licensed leagues nationwide by 2030.
An app that helps, not harvests. A coming Keepy Uppy app will handle scheduling and a simple skills assessment across the three sports — and every bit of that data stays with the family. Nothing is shared, sold, or used for marketing. It's a deliberate break from a youth-sports market where private-equity money and platforms increasingly treat kids and parents as data to monetize.
The approach is personal. Founder Joe Burke — a former college athlete and coach of four youth sports — invented Ollyball for his daughter, now a college athlete, after enrolling his kids in 12 different leagues and seeing firsthand what youth sports get wrong: rising costs, early winner-take-all pressure, and data-hungry business models.
"Youth sports have drifted from the point," said Joe Burke, founder of the Keepy Uppy® Sports Association and inventor of the Keepy Uppy® Ball. "It got expensive, contentious, and increasingly built on pay-to-play. We asked a different question: what if a child's first experience with a sport was laughter, joy, and getting just 2% better every practice and every game? The ball I made for our own daughter gives them that moment — it's the 'why' of the Keepy Uppy® Ball."
Families and organizations can learn more or apply to bring or license a league at KeepyUppy.com/KUSA.
About the Keepy Uppy® Sports Association
An Idaho-based nonprofit built on the patented, trademarked Keepy Uppy® Ball and a simple multi-sport model for young children. Guided by its motto, Semper Meliora ("always better"), it introduces kids to soccer, pickleball, tennis, and volleyball through affordable, gear-included seasons that teach improvement over winning — while keeping every family's data private. The Association aims to reach 5,000 licensed leagues by 2030. KeepyUppy.com
About Ollyball® and VICTURY Sports
The Official Keepy Uppy® Ball is part of VICTURY Sports' line of full-force indoor play and learning products. Its flagship, Ollyball®, is a Toy of the Year (TOTY) winner invented and patented by Joe Burke and sold nationwide at all U.S Target Stores. VICTURY also offers a STEAM-accredited educational line with peer-reviewed lesson plans for schools and homeschoolers. Ollyball.com
Media Contact
Holland Allen
Keepy Uppy® Sports Association
+1 888 842 8879
joe@keepyuppy.com
KeepyUppy.comYouth sports cost figures cited above are from the Aspen Institute's Project Play (National Youth Sports Parent Survey, 2024–2025).