We had the good fortune of connecting with Maribelia Avalos Shisslak and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maribelia, what do you attribute your success to?
Discipline with the virtues I hold dear to my heart: QUALITY OVER QUANTITY; Good ethics, honesty, courage, hard work, and community!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
One thing I have always said is, ‘If we are not helping ten people appropriately, why would we try to help one hundred? Keep it small until you know the recipe for success to expand correctly. I believe all children and young adults should have access to exceptional coaching and life leadership skills. We are not only the most high-quality with affordable youth soccer club in Denver, but also, for families that can’t afford to pay we pay for many in house scholarships. We are not leaving any child behind because of financial hardship. In both CASA FC and MASFIT, we take pride on our service to our community and how personal it is. We get to know every student athlete/client personally. We are a big proud family community. In this line of work, it is all about the service. So, when you do not have the resources, funding, or the staff, well, it’s better to keep it at a size that you can handle and do a phenomenal work. I love my day to day, because of the amazing changes we make every day in our community.
I believe MASFIT is extremely important for our community, because either for adults or kids’ fitness health will always be important. But again, quality training and more personalize and not just get big to be big. Better yet; focus on who really wants it. My first question to anyone that wants me to train them is; what is your reason to be here? Are you willing to do the work and be discipline about it? I will not work with someone that is forced to be here; Neither of us will enjoy it!
With the nonprofit, CASA FC, if a player wants to be in our program, is willing to put in the work, is willing to learn, but most of all has the passion and love for the game he or she is welcome. Our slogan for CASA FC is: Be more than just a number… be a CASA FC player.
Therefore, my goal has always been to run a business or a nonprofit organization with the most dignity. Keeping the community active and healthy has been my dream and goal since I could remember. I love Colorado and all that it has to offer and I am happy to be part of this community.
Has it been easy? Well let’s just say CASA FC, has been one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life; so, in other words no it hasn’t been easy; But it has been the most rewarding. There is something about working with young kids, watching them grow and develop into a leader by helping them achieve their goals as an athlete and a student in school and strive for more and better, for example, attending college for a higher education. That has always given me great pleasure, because it fills my heart.
You learn from challenges. Till this day we constantly have challenges. For example, keeping prices low, and still making sure that we have good quality has been extremely hard. But here we are with some of the top teams in the state of Colorado and rank very high in the nation.

With MASFIT it is almost the same. The great part about MASFIT is how it doesn’t matter how old, how young, how hurt or what your level is we can help you achieve your goals and became the best version of you. We almost lost the business during COVID-19 but I never gave up on my dream and now we are back on our feet and ready to take on more.
I have learned that persistence does pay off. Don’t give up even when you think you are going to fail, go for it, keep on pushing until you have nothing left to give. Only then will you know that you did everything possible on your part. If you make it, you will see it was worth it.
I want people to know, we are a community. We are in it together. We can help each other become the best version of ourselves. There are no limits to your abilities, YOU control what you can do. Come join us, be part of our community and let’s be stronger together. Just like our slogan for MASFIT is: Think Strong, Be Strong, Live Strong” It all starts with the way you think!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Since Colorado has so much to offer, we would do many different things for fun. But since I’m very active person, I would probably invite them to hike, road bike, play golf or if winter snowboarding, also maybe just simply get out in nature. We would eat at Belmar or Union station both places have great choices for restaurants. Also, maybe a little drive to Boulder and enjoy the view and some delicious food, wrapping up with salsa or bachata dancing, I would take them to La Rumba.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
For CASA FC, I want to give a shoutout to all of our amazing volunteers, coaches, managers, trainers, administration, directors, donors, board and so on. It wouldn’t be possible to be where we are without any of you. Of course, we also want to thank our community, our very talented players and our parents for trusting us.
For MASFIT, thank you to every client and all organizations that have trust me and let me work with them. They push me as much as I push them.

Website: casafc.us and masfit.us

Instagram: https://instagram.com/casa_fc?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= https://instagram.com/casa_fc?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maribelia-avalos-shisslak-5a32a785 https://www.linkedin.com/in/maribelia-avalos-shisslak-5a32a785

Facebook: https://instagram.com/masfit.us?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= https://instagram.com/masfit.us?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Other: Facebook, CASAFC Facebook, MASFIT

Image Credits
David Bocardo

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