Founded to address the inequities of accessible school-based sports programs between Boston students and their suburban counterparts, the Play Ball Foundation was started in 2005 by Mike Harney.

Play Ball began by raising funds to create school-based sports leagues for youth in under-resourced Boston Public Middle Schools. Since then, Play Ball has expanded beyond Boston to Lawrence and Holyoke. In its history, Play Ball has raised more than $2,000,000 and has engaged over 10,000 urban middle schoolers. 

Mike is a Managing Director at BTIG in Boston and is a graduate of Georgetown University where he played Division I lacrosse, and went on to play professionally. Mike founded the Play Ball Foundation in 2005 with the idea to provide Boston’s youth the chance to receive the same opportunity and benefit that athletics provided him as a child. 

"Play Ball began with the simple goal of getting more feet on the field year-in and year-out, and with that focus, we now have over 1,300 middle school students engaged in athletics.”

Chris Lynch

Chris is the Executive Director of the Play Ball Foundation.  He has worked to increase opportunities for under-served youth through sports for more than 20 years. For the past eight years, Chris was the COO of SquashBusters, a sports-based youth development program, where he helped oversee the expansion from Boston to Lawrence and Providence. Prior to that, Chris ran the Boston Youth Sports Initiative, a funding and network building effort to support the range of youth sports programs in Boston. Chris has a Masters of Education from Lesley University and a Bachelor of Arts from Bates College, where he played squash and lacrosse.

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